There’s a vague reference to 16th century painter, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, on Zoomorphic‘s cover, in that it uses his technique of creating an image out of the illusory use of unrelated objects. Arcimboldo painted faces made out of fruit and vegetables, Zoomorphic depicts a spoonbill (an ibis related wading bird) photoshopped together out of disparate household, electronic and mechanical equipment, along with, most obviously, the wooden spoon. As an analogy to the music on the album, it’s a great place to start.
Spoonbill creates electronic-based music with hefty doses of quirky samples – many of which are unrelated to the final product, but create the enjoyable sonic illusion of fitting together smuggly. Blues harmonica, cartoon boings, flamenco guitar, jazz trumpet, harp trills, cash register bells, all over a foundation of electronic funk and gritty synth bass. It doesn’t always work – ‘Wonkball’ is a one joke example of what happens when you fall on the wrong side of the line that Spoonbill, a.k.a. Jim Moynihan, is treading. However, elsewhere, he generally gets it right, particularly when he relies on sturdier rhythms. His cut and paste approach often reminds me of Meem, without such a focus on acoustic funk samples, but with a similar approach to upbeat party moodmaking. Tracks like ‘Feather Leather’ and ‘Mangle Boogie Bangle’ make excellent use of sharply cut sampled elements and pulsing bass to build an irresistible groove. Later tracks on the album, ‘Les Lilas’ and ‘How It Goes’, decelerate to a half time lope to round the album out as more than just a collection of party tunes.
There is always great danger with this kind of work to settle into kitsch novelty, but Spoonbill mostly avoids the pitfalls. While the music is undoubtedly fun, there are robust foundations to his arrangements and an ear for detail which rewards repeated listening.
Adrian Elmer
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