Funky little articles

Written by Jeff Keibel on Fri, 15 Oct 1999 05:17:48 -0400.

My last posting on Cuba was in fact written by a Kieran Grant from The Toronto Sun newspaper on October 12th.

Here are a couple classic gems from Grant in The Toronto Sun:

Demonic 'Funk'

By KIERAN GRANT May 16, 1995

>From its title, you would assume Funky Little Demons is Wolfgang Press's official funk foray. But according to Wolfgang Press singer and lyricist Mick Allen, who fronts the veteran British band tonight at the Opera House, the new disc is not so simple.

"`Funky' wasn't meant to be construed in that manner," says Allen from the business end of a bad phone connection to San Diego.

"Funky Little Demons is more about, sort of like, strangeness, as in the embarrassment of sins," Allen explains. "It was never really meant to be a musical reference."

That said, the album does have its share of grooves.

"Obviously there's dance in there; we've always had that. But we're not a funk group by any means." And, after 12 years of operation under the Wolfgang Press banner, Allen knows he doesn't want to be tied to any one sound.

"That's what I like about it. We've got so many different ways of working. There's different moods and feels throughout the tracks. "I think that's always come naturally to us. Even in the beginning that seemed to be there for me, and for Andrew (Gray, guitarist) who was a like-minded spirit.

"It's a dreadful thing to be limited to one thing. You can never grow." Still, as part of England's influential 4AD label alongside such diverse talents as Dead Can Dance and Nick Cave's long-since-defunct band Birthday Party, Wolfgang Press have had to fight hard against musical stereotyping.

"I make no bones about it," says Allen with a chuckle. "4AD is definitely bigger than we are, by reputation at least. In some ways I think that's a bit of a sad, sorry state.

"We realize that there are pros and cons. But when people talk about the 4AD sound, that's complete nonsense. "True, there were always the `ethereal' groups like Dead Can Dance and The Cocteau Twins.

"But then you also had us, Colourbox, and some pretty varied sounds."

Consider them varied little demons.

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