People making music usually look to modern instruments and technology to produce their sounds.
After all, you wouldn’t find a drum and bass artist recording a track by tapping his fingers really fast on a piece of wood, sampling the noise and then edit the end product into an audio program.
Musicians spend vast amounts of money on guitar pedals, pieces of software and other instruments. We haven’t really covered many people who aim to create genuinely fresh sounds. A Cuckoo uses beaten-up instruments and objects of fascination as tools of inspiration to create his old-fashioned sound.
The second track on A Cuckoo’s MySpace is a cover of Nirvana’s best-known song Smells Like Teen Spirit. Gone is the grungy and shouty anger of trigger-happy Kurt Cobain. Instead, a slow and woozy vocal breathes new life into the chorus whilst a plinky-plonky sound echoes in the background. It reminds us of the sound that old jewellery boxes used to make for no apparent reason.
Scrolling through A Cuckoo’s MySpace page, it’s clear that the past shapes his future. Top friends are full of photos from the Victorian era. It’s a sight that some people might find a bit creepy, but we find quite interesting in a weird kind of way. One friend – Joseph Conti – has amazing hair. And this is before stuff like Brylcreem was around to slap over your scalp.
These songs will never dent the charts, but it is refreshing to see a modern artist working almost backwards in time. Most artists constantly try to explore new avenues, but A Cuckoo has his head placed firmly in the past and is attempting to copy sounds from eras that have long disappeared.
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