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Hearing the
music of new I.R.S. band Animal Logic, one is struck by the
inherent power and seamless skill of the playing. There are
three good reasons why: singer and songwriter Deborah Holland,
drummer Stewart Copeland, and bassist Stanley Clarke. Together
they make up as formidable a trio as pop music can offer.
With the
release of their debut album, ANIMAL LOGIC, the band will no
doubt attract immediate attention, thanks to the remarkable
pedigrees of Messrs. Copeland and Clarke. Yet the heart of Animal
Logic are Deborah Holland's songs and voice. She is a singer
of extravagant clarity who writes "about normal things,
approached from a slightly different angle,' as she puts it.
However, the genesis of Animal Logic is anything but normal.
Copeland
and Clarke have been friends for years, ever since the former's
pre-Police days as Joan Armatrading's tour manager and the latter's
tenure in Return To Forever. Clarke, who as a solo artist revolutionized
jazz bass playing with his remarkably fluid and melodic style,
has always found opportunities to apply his talents in the rock
and pop genre. He's played with artists such as Jeff Beck and
the New Barbarians in addition to jazz compadres like Chick
Corea, Quincy Jones, and Dexter Gordon. However, he had long
desired to explore a band setting. "What drew me to doing
a group was my enjoyment of Stewart's unusual style of drumming."
Adds Copeland, "Stanley and I had talked for some time
about putting a hand together, but not an experimental jazz
thing. We wanted a mainstream band, and to do that we needed
a singer/songwriter."
The hunt
was on to find the right individual but neither Copeland nor
Clarke could say precisely who or what they wanted. "We
knew what we didn't want," says Copeland, "so it was
a matter of 'I'll know it when I hear it."' After sifting
through hundreds of tapes, a demoralizing sense of audio fatigue
set in. Then, as an afterthought, an associate of Copeland's
sent a rough two-song demo by an unknown piano teacher named
Deborah Holland.
"When
I heard that voice and those songs," recalls Copeland,
"I ripped off all my clothes and went running down Sunset
Boulevard shouting 'Eureka!!'" From the moment of Copeland's
naked joy, things happened fast. Within two weeks, Stewart,
Stanley, and Deborah split for Brazil to give the new threesome
a test drive on the concert stage. It was first time she had
performed before more than 200 people (try 8000!). The trio
clicked, and there was no turning back. Upon their return, they
entered the studio to begin recording their debut lp.
"Making
experimental albums is easy," says Copeland, whose 1985
solo album, THE RHYTHMATIST, was one of the year's most talked
about. "Good pop music, on the other hand, is challenging
and difficult to make." Who better to meet that challenge
than Copeland and Clarke (co-producers of the album), melding
their remarkable talents along with Deborah's artistry. "With
all of the varied backgrounds of the individuaIs in Animal Logic,"
says Clarke, "I think our music has a fresh sense of creativity
within the rock genre."
Copeland
further explains, "Rather than going the usual route of
strange musicians trying to be more mainstream, we found Deborah,
who speaks honestly from a mainstream voice. We took her material,
and applied our wierdetude to it"
You just
can't find good wierdetude these days, other than rare exceptions
like ANIMAL LOGIC. The album abounds with color and nuance,
as on the premiere single, "There's A Spy (In The House
Of Love)," with its broad-faced theme and tricky rhythms.
Much of Deborah's music has a country cast to it, heard most
distinctly in "I'm Through With Love," an exuberant
country-calypsoish tune; "Winds Of Santa Ana," one
of several songs featuring a deftly played banjo; and "As
Soon As The Sun Goes Down."
"I Still
Feel For You" and "Someone To Come Home To" are
both potent rockers, while "Elijah" and "Firing
Up The Sunset Gun" prove two of the album's most emphatic
pieces. "Elijah" features a zonked-out piano solo
by Copeland and a thrilling L. Shankar violin solo. The last
song, "I'm Sorry Baby (I Want You In My Life)," the
album's most unusual piece, is a lightly melancholy jazz ballad
featuring an understated trumpet solo by Freddy Hubbard. The
song - and the record - ends with Deborah's voice, high and
clear, fading out on the final note.
All three
principals of Animal Logic are anxious to tour and prove "we're
a band, not a project." At the same time, Copeland has
some other irons in the fire. He's become an in-demand film
music composer in recent years, with pictures like "Rumblefish,"
"Wall Street," and "Talk Radio" under his
belt. This October, he is set to debut "Holy Blood And
Crescent Moon," his first full fledged opera, with the
65-piece Cleveland Opera Orchestra and 70-voice chorus. "I
don't sing in it, but I do get to lead the charge in a couple
of battle scenes," says the Wagner-crazed composer.
Clarke has
been busy as well, scoring TV and theatrical films, and continuing
his groundbreaking advances in the art of the bass.
However,
the central focus now for Copeland, Clarke, and Holland is Animal
Logic and its inevitably bright future. Says newcomer Holland
of her famed bandmates, "I couldn't have asked for a more
perfect situation. I never felt that working with them was different
from working with any other musicians, except that they happen
to be the best in the world at what they do."
There's a
palpable excitement when musicians of this caliber come together
to make music, and on ANIMAL LOGIC, there's no mistaking this
band's enthusiasm. In a world where too often art imitates artifice,
the music ofAnimal Logic is real and, considering the players,
doesn't that make perfect sense?
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