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Album Review

Damon & Naomi
More Sad Hits 20:20:20 Records

Article written by Ged M - Dec 31, 2008

Damon & Naomi's More Sad Hits

In 1992, apart from one spot of musical dabbling as Pierre Etoile, Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang were contemplating pursuing other art interests and book publishing after the acrimonious dissolution of Galaxie 500 but were persuaded by Kramer to return to the studio. It was a good decision; the now reissued ‘More Sad Hits’ (originally on Kramer’s Shimmy Disc record label) marked their debut as Damon & Naomi, setting the scene for their gently romantic, introspective dreampop. In the UK it would have sat alongside the shoegazers, although there’s also a clear Velvet Underground influence carrying over from their Galaxie 500 days, but this was more poetic and intellectual and what stands out is the intensity of the communication between the partners and their producer/ co-player Kramer. There’s a wistful, ethereal sense of melancholy on ‘Laika’, ‘E.T.A.’ and the wonderful ‘This Car Climbed Mt Washington’. There’s also a lightness of touch that you sometimes don’t associate with the clever, serious Damon and Naomi, in the cover of Soft Machine’s ‘Memories’, complete with mod-pop Hammond organ, and ‘This Changing World’, a version of a song sung in English translation by Claudine Longet but originally a 1968 Eurovision Song Contest also-ran for Line et Willy. From the cover (a Man Ray photograph) inwards, it’s a striking work, on a par with the Galaxie 500 releases that preceded it and laying down a template that has been much replicated by others and seldom matched. It’s one of those re-releases that actually earns the title ‘classic’ and is essential listening.

Links:
http://www.damonandnaomi.com/
http://www.20-20-20.com/frame/frame.html
http://www.myspace.com/damonandnaomi