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For fans of the scene around Tim Kinsella, Sam Zurick and their numerous bands and uncountable records it must have been pretty astonishing listening to their latest instalment for the first time. After a handful of merely post rock albums under the Joan Of Arc moniker Make Believe marked the musicians’ return to the stylistics of their highly influential first band Cap ‘N Jazz. On their freshly reissued debut ep (originally released 2004) you are able to follow their newfound enthusiasm, uncorrupted playfulness and creative concentration. Still working on the principle wherein any fetching guitar riff, killer bass line, or cogent drum part must dissolve into chaos the Chicago based band deconstructs the common pop/rock song format. While as on any of their precursors the songs basically comprise jingling, off-key guitar chords, knotty song structures and out of tune singing this ep seems to be much stronger than their other releases. Apart from their over-emphasized artiness Make Believe manage to evolve their trademark muddle into a handful of convincing pop songs.
„witchcraft“, „tempting as a shamen“ or „abracadra – thumbs“ for example are as catchingly melodious and played to the point as rhythmically and sonically multi-layered and complex. Imagine that Kinsella and Zurick have collaboration with your favourite 90ies indierock band and you aren’t far away from an almost correct picture of Make Believe. It’s a shame that the band didn’t follow their debut ep’s traces. Anyhow after the unsatisfying “going to the bone church” album this record propitiates the critical listener.
[phillip]
www.joanfrc.com/makebelieve.html
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