New toys and new tricks (Kick Up The Fire And Let The Flames Break Loose - Cooper Temple Clause)

Member Name: wicked_witch

Product:	Kick Up The Fire And Let The Flames Break Loose - Cooper Temple Clause
Date:	12/01/04 (350 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: New Toys, Music Box, Talking to a Brick Wall

Disadvantages: Blind Pilots

Must admit, I never originally saw the genius of the ‘Clause. I bought their debut “See This Through and Leave” and listened several times, thinking, “Hmm, well that’s pretty good”. It then got whacked in the middle of my CD collection and ignored to for ages, until a now ex-boyfriend started raving about it and I wondered if I was missing something.

Turns out I was. The Coopers debut album was a blistering, raw inferno of experimentation, post-teenage hormones and infuriated screaming fits. It took its time to grow on me, but now it’s among my favourite albums, one of my ‘desert island discs’. It’s not easy to listen to, but it is wonderful if you have the patience. I’m now in the process of updating my original op on the first album, which, as well as being crap, doesn’t represent how I feel about it now.

The ‘Clause

For those of you not familiar with the Cooper Temple Clause, don’t be fooled by the “the” name. This isn’t another one of those copycat bands…they couldn’t be less Strokes/Kills/Thrills if they tried. Spacey and proggy, they just love three-chord repetitive guitar introductions laden with electronic effects and have an love for techno as well as art-punk. As a result, the Cooper Temple Clause is a strange fusion of creative guitar-based music in slightly dancey packaging. But while the definition might be experimental electro-techno-art-punk, the guitars are the heart of it. Not only are they guitars, but they are f**king heavy guitars. Bang! Magazine recently called them “The only heavy rock band you can admit to liking without feeling a slight sense of shame”.

Thee Coopers err on the unusual side. They are not a bunch of Converse-wearing pretty boys rehashing music your dad was listening to thirty years ago. While the Converse and being pretty might still be the case, the Coopers are al
l about innovation...the result has passing resemblances to many bands (Muse, Sonic Youth, JAMC, Radiohead and recent Primal Scream, Oasis-type vocals, the Rapture etc.”), but in itself is as original as a young band can be these days (god I sound so old).

Kick up the Fire and Let the Flames Break Loose

The insolent rage so profuse in the first album is definitely more controlled, although not less evident. Ben Gautrey’s vocals still contain the growly sneer he was criticised for, however he has toned down a little…on the first album his vocals sounded like part of an Oasis tribute band. In this album, many would say that the Cooper Temple Clause’s musical balls have dropped and they’ve grown up.

In this one nevertheless, the Coopers have grown up a bit and learned to keep some of the rage in, instead of beating the crap out of a guitar for five minutes, they work the anger into slightly more tuneful melodies than the last album, sometimes they ever go as far as a whole melody (shock horror) instead of the fragmented bits of melodies of the first album.

Part of me misses songs that sound like STTAL’s “Been Training Dogs”, an explosive four minute rant, but the Coopers are definitely a band who needed to grow. despite being slightly quieter, this is probably even less accessible than their last, as it lacks the hooks of songs like “Lets Kill Music” from the first album. They are never going to be a mainstream band, although loose cannons like Promises may occasionally stealth-bomb the charts. The art in this gorgeous album is the bizarre amalgamation of all its genres, and its no wonder the Coopers sound so schizophrenic at times.

“The Same Mistakes”

If STTAL’s “Did you miss me?” was a kick-up-the-ass introduction to the first album, then “The Same Mistakes” is thee Coopers grabbing their fans by the shoulders a
nd saying “look, we’ve changed a bit”. Indeed, the very first line is “And so it has to change”. Ben’s vocals are rather gorgeous and soaring on this track, he has dropped the Gallagher/Jones snarl, but it detracts nothing from his voice and the quiet desperation which is never missing from his it. Its definitely a ‘change’ song- “But you cant keep making the same mistakes”, “Can’t jump ship just yet, there’s no-one at the wheel, someone has to steer, get a hold of yourself, keep your head, there’s no time to waste, you’ll see it soon enough, but all is not forgotten, and now’s no time for tears”. The song starts with a whisper of strings. These quickly descend into a slippery, metallic synth sound and an eerie drum machine track. A quietly melancholic guitar backs Ben’s charming voice, and the unusually muted desolation of the bass suits the slightly sinister track perfectly, as does the rolling drum machine which gives way to Jon, the actual drummer after typically impressive Cooper-like anticlimax, a solo repeated bass note backed by a high-pitched guitar line with Ben’s sweet voice near-whispering over it. It’s a powerful introduction. instead of using liberal screaming and the abuse of innocent guitars as on the first album, it uses an unexpected grace and maturity to engage the ear. Unexpected if you’ve heard the first album anyway.

“Promises, Promises”

The track most reminiscent of the first album on “Kick up the Fire…” this one is a motherf**ker of a rock song. It starts with a drum roll that descends into the second coolest guitar riff ever, a cheese rock riff that the Darkness would be proud of. It sounds a little like Metallica dressed up for the new century. Not that Metallica were ever cool, but this song is, and only CTC could take a riff like this and avoid sounding like...well
, the Darkness. The guitar riff shows what you can do with a few chords if you play them the right way, and it’s backed by an aggressive, metal drum track from Jon and a powerful, foreboding bassline. However its certainly not a dumbed down form of thee Coopers designed for the Top 40, Bens new voice adds a softened edge, and the lyrics are amusingly bitchy and angry as you’d expect from thee Coops. “Well just go, go back to your bright lights, you’d made promises you couldn’t keep”, “Just keep your mouth shut you got nowhere to go”, “Forget about me and just desecrate everything”. Void of the dance-rock fusion of most of the Coopers stuff, I find it a tad boring in comparison to most of there stuff but its a necessary middle finger to people who say the Cooper Temple Clause don’t realise they are just a trussed (and tressed) up rock band. It’s a clever first single to release from the album too, as despite its heavy overtones its got enough classy hooks to attract your more leftfield pop kid, and convince quite a few doubters along the way. Fantastic to bounce about to.

“New Toys”

“We came, we played, we drifted away, we came, we played but it got away oh no, What’s happening to us? Well I’ll just shut my eyes til we get back home, Til we touch back down and keep playing dumb, and I’m carving my own little master piece, go ahead cut deep but don’t tell the boys, I tried but now I just cant feel a thing, Just gagged and bound and clipped at the wings oh no, what’s happening to us?

Possibly my favourite from the new album, its seven-eighths in mourning for a relationship, an eighth bitchy sarcasm, as was evident in “Did you Miss me?” However, the bitchiness adds the track a brilliant edge, along with its dubby, textured electronic overtones, which stops it sounding like your average turgid and overplayed ̶
0;ending relationship” song. Again, Ben’s voice lifts this song right up, although it manages to be both rough as gravel and smooth as silk at the appropriate moments. He almost sounds on the verge of tears at some point. The lyrics too are enchanting. I particularly love “We came we played, we drifted away, we came we played, but it got away, oh no, what’s happening to us?” which is sung in the most beautifully plaintive voice from Ben, until the whole song sounds like an ode to a childhood sweetheart dressed up in techno clothing. Also, I believe “I’m carving my own little master piece, go ahead cut deep, but don’t tell the boys” and particularly “Just gagged and bound and clipped at the wings” are some of the finest lyrics on the album. It manages to sound filthy and creepy, but it’s being metaphorical makes Ben’s voice sound all the more innocent, if ever so delicately suggestive. The “gagged and bound” bit is redolent of the first album’s “The Lake” in which Ben expresses a feeling of being trapped, it seems a common feature in Cooper songs while hints at their small town background. The song is backed by a whispering, lullaby-esque electronic melody, which is offset by an extremely cool drum machine line and mournful bass which stops the song sounding too cloying. The scant lyrics are beefed up by repetition, and a few minute long electronic interlude topped by the same lullaby melody until the song fades to a sweet nothing. All in all, this alternately tender and savage work of art qualifies for a favourite Coopers song so far.

“Talking to a Brick Wall”

I’m not quite how I should be, been finding tricks too hard, I’m thinking something must be broken, Cos it wasn’t like this before, Now everyone is ugly and everyone is stoned, small things about you excite me but then I’d hate to spoil the tone, All
my little something just ran out of luck, Secret dates with strangers, dirty words and fighting talk, I’m so scared it’s killed me, time and time again, I cant live with compromise so maybe we could talk as friends? If at first you don’t succeed, try again for me, today is going to be fine, tomorrow will be fine too, I asked for things to better me, even thought they silenced my soul, I can taste it just for a second and then it disappears, the flowers look like glitter but then so do you my dear, its in the way that you look, its in the books that wont read, it comes and goes like a friend, its with me right to the end, its in the memories I’ve lost, its concentrating too much, its breaking down of relations, and it’s the beat of the clock, its not being able to explain, or get your feelings across, its in the pain that wont leave you, its coming straight back for us, its in a new lease of life, and a search that ends well, its in finding that change its being happy again.

Opens up with a ‘house of horrors’ anti-melody followed by a beat that sounds like “Teardrop” by Massive Attack and is topped by the creepiest sounding vocals and ‘tune’ I’ve ever heard (with the exception of the MSP’s “Mausoleum” and “Meat is Murder by the Smiths”). Its sung in a slightly off-kilter and droning minor key, backed by peculiar, almost ghostly electronics that wouldn’t be out of place in a Hammer Horror film. The verses are also backed by Tom singing in an extremely eerie, bassy deep voice. It is a weird little song this, but the choruses are more Cooper, loud and singable with backing vocals and a souped-up drum beat. At first listen it sounds bizarre but really it comes across as one of the strongest on the album because of the freaky sound and great lyrics. From my point of view they sound like a mixture of a relationship song, neither positive nor negative, it con
tains (as well as the title), “I’m thinking something must be broken, cos it wasn’t like this before”, “I cant live with compromise so maybe we could talk as friends?” and “It’s a breaking down of relations”, but also contains “small things about you excite me” (albeit backed by the delightfully sarky “But then I’d hate to spoil the tone”), “Today is going to be fine, tomorrow will be fine too”, and the lovely “The flowers look like glitter but so do you my dear”, which is either a lovely sentiment, or a wonderfully caustic comment on how fake things are. I’m a big fan of “Secret dates with strangers, dirty words and fighting talk” as well, its just too cool. This is a strange little artsy-fartsy track, its lyrics are fantastic and its one of the albums finest.

“Into my arms”

I saw the title for this and thought, oh my god tell me the Coopers aren’t doing a love song. I read the lyrics- which include “One night is never enough with you, please come back into my arms, so we can hold and share what we had before, everything is the same only your not around, the silent chill and the smell you made”, and I thought, Oh god it is a love song. I listened to the opening bars of the sultry, near non-existent tune and I thought s**t I’m going to kill them. They’re the Cooper temple clause for god’s sake! They are forbidden to write crappy soppy love songs. And soppy love song it is, or at least the first half. Sorry, but if you’ve ever seen thee Coopers onstage, six of them bouncing around in army shirts in need of a haircut abusing their instruments, doing absurd things with guitars and bass guitars (using violin bows to play them, creating deliberately weird feedback, plenty of flange from Didz and occasionally hitting each other with instruments, microphones or whatever comes to
hand), and looking like your mum’s nightmare of your boyfriend, they just aren’t the soppy love song type (despite being very pretty). This starts out like an average love song, although it almost sounds a capella, because of the slight backing, the Coopers went for minimalism for the first time (concerning hair or music) in their lives. There is a quiet, chordy piano tune and a very quiet, wailing guitar that might sound at home in the love song of a boy band. The vocals are sung tenderly by two of the boys. The lyrics are a bit dull for the Coopers. just as I’m despairing at this song being in such a fine album, the track descends into what you expect from Coops, thundering beats topped by scratchy, dubby noises, the noise of someone screaming (at the horror of writing the first bit of the song?), a short agonised squeal of guitar and then thundering tuned percussion laden over the thudding drum track and electronic noises that sound like a car getting started up followed by more electronic noises that sound slightly like agonised chipmunks squealing in an echoing tunnel. Now THERE’S the Coopers I know and love. I’m convinced they did this track to give their fans a heart attack.

“Blind Pilots”

The major error of judgement on the album. It starts ominously with one of the boys singing the first verse…its not Ben, and whoever it is, it sound suspiciously like an American seventies cheese-rock singer, you know, low and sexy and all that. However, with Bens slightly wispier, more interesting backing, it isn’t too bad, also, Ben sings the choruses, returning to his snarly Gallagher noises, which are welcome by this point. Like “Promises” it’s a rock-based song with little in the way of electronics, the verses are quite smooth and mild, with a bog-standard 4/4 drum rhythm, and a three-chord bass. Halfway through the verses it is joined by a chugging rhythm guitar that for some
reason reminds of the beginning of a Jimmy Eat World song. Its a bit of a dodgy one this. Some of the lyrics are cute...essentially it compares life to being like a blind pilot- “The landing lights are on but we’re just outta sight”, “but hang around and I’ll try to land this thing”, the song-saving tongue-in-cheek “someone pass the manual”, “We’re just blind pilots in strange planes, back seat drivers in dead cars”. But then since when were the Coopers about ’cute’ music? That’s what the Strokes are foe. There are a few duff lines in it “I hope you’ll never change, I hope you’ll never go, I hope you’ll always keep our little secret though” (it looks like someone got the rhyming dictionary out for that one. One of the pitfalls of having the drummer write your lyrics), but they are offset by the quirky ones and the sense of humour and the line that as a snotty indie kid I shouldn’t like but really do “I pray to God my soul to keep, cos I could never stand the heat”. Its extremely different to anything Cooper Temple Clause-like you’ll have heard from the first album, almost unrecognisable but then thats probably the point. You have to take this lightheartedly to appreciate it. It might be about love, something that my favourite bands don’t often cover cos its so oversung, but at least it’s from an interesting angle (someone must have been taking psycobilin mushrooms when thinking this one up) and it is in good humour, not taking itself too seriously.

“A.I.M”-

A much-coveted (FREE!!!) one-track single release only available through the NME the first taster of the new album that fans got. Opens with the coolest guitar-scratchy noises known to mankind, quickly followed by a hip-hoppy drum track, and a girlish vocal from Ben. Backed by the official coolest scratchy noises in the world™. I
t snarls and shudders along until the chorus, which disperses with the cool scratchy noises and turns into a rather loud rock song with nice guitar effects and Ben again sounding like a certain Manchurian indie man. Half-way through we hit another Metallica point with a thundering three chord rhythm that really gets the headbangin going, only its backed by spacey signature Cooper noises just so you know who it is! This one on first listen sounds like another (sodding) love song, but actually it’s more about some relationships being like a disease (charming way of putting it, Ben!). Full of clichés like “I need her around”, “Baby’s coming home”, “oh my sweet love”, “baby come on home”, which normally would make me sick, but they are sang with the gorgeous sarcasm I love in Ben’s voice, and also offset by other lyrics like “She’s all I need, she’s wired into me, and don’t you think I know its unhealthy”, “Sooner or later, you heal or you die” “My beautiful disease, the bullet to my knees”. The last two I’m very fond of in particular. “Sooner or later…” suggests our young protagonist knows he’s suffering from a yucky case of the old love-sickness which is merely lust and will fade, or it will drive him mad (it also contains a veiled suggestion that long-term relationships are like dying), and the second is prototypical Coopers- it’s a complete juxtaposition (“My beautiful disease”) and just rolls off the tongue and sounds very cool. Its also typical Coopers by being sweet then sour, the almost cutesy sentiment, which is then kicked firmly in the balls-or shot in the kneecaps. The perfect track to follow up “Blind Pilots”, its vicious and harsh and sounds more like it belongs on STTAL than “Kick up the fire…”.

“Music box"

This is my music box, and
this is my home, come in take a look if you like, just you on your own, but don’t make your mind up, because its not done yet, yeah, this is my music box, in a state of regret, because you drag me down, yeah you drag me down, but I’ve had a plague of late, a niggle of doubt, yeah I’ve had questions of conscience, of what this is about, can anyone hear me these days, did I lose my tongue, did I lose the battle sweet stuff? Before I’d begun, coz I am a private man, or am I a whore? We’ll settle the bill first then, well we’ll settle the score, yeah this is my music box, and this is my home, my pride and my joy, come in take a seat look around, say hi to the boys, yeah this is my music box, and this is my home, yeah this is my sanctuary, now leave me alone, coz you drag me down.

Wonderful, certainly my second favourite on the album, after “New Toys”. This one sounds a little more like it would belong on STTAL, except for the fact that it retains something of the new album in it, perhaps in its melody. The song opens with fragments on several weird little synthesiser melodies, a whisper of a beat and a space-ship type sound. It gives way to a beautiful, quiet guitar, which is alternately morose and sweet, and Ben’s voice at its softest and most tender. After the first verse the whispery beat ups itself to a louder drum rhythm and the tune begins to build up much like the many ones you would find on the first album (notably on “Panzer Attack” and “Did you Miss Me”), but then works its way into a quiet nothing again, which in turn gives way to a death-metal like guitar riff (which sounds sort of like Armageddon is approaching) backed with satanic sounding electronic noises, a, thundering and booming bass. This is great, as it shows a slightly new side to the Coopers…they are no strangers to writing angry songs but many would say they often depended solely on the amount of volume
they could muster from their amplifiers, in other words, how much they made their fans ears bleed. While they certainly had the great lyrics to back up the inferno of noise, often the inferno of noise was so much that you couldn’t hear the great lyrics. This one starts out quietly, builds up to semi loud, goes quiet again and then the storm breaks, which in turn fades to quiet again. The composition of the entire track is genius. And for once the fine lyrics can mostly be heard. Evidently this one is about ‘making it’ in a band. Inviting your fans into your ‘sanctuary’ which you think is what you want in the first place (“Come in take a look if you like, but don’t make your mind up, coz its not done yet”), but maybe it turns out you didn’t want it quite as much (“in a state of regret”, “you drag me down”, “A niggle of doubt”). It also expresses great self-doubt with “I am a private man, or am I a whore?” Ultimately it decides “Leave me alone coz you drag me down”. Stunning lyrics, and quite disconcerting for a fan to listen to…lets hope they get their aggressions out in songs like this instead letting it hurt them.

“In your Prime”- Incidentally also the name of a Strokes song. Less incidentally, sounds nothing like the Strokes.

Another slightly creepy sounding minor key start to this one here. This is possibly the oddest track on the album, being only about two minutes long (which is very short for the indulgent Coopers) and played with creepy and unusual (even for the Coopers) electronica in the background, some strings, also played in the minor key, and a primal drum beat from what sounds like bongos. It doesn’t really add much to the album, but it’s a nice, worthwhile little diversion to ponder over, with rather suggestive lyrics- “Like to dream, Cos when I dream, I’m with you, And you let
me do things to you, That I would not normally do, You always play and you want me, You never leave my side, You’ll always be in your prime girl, Just how I remember you, Lick my wounds.”

“Written Apology”- no need to apologise

A wonderful finish to the album, starts off with a sleepy acoustic guitar, a minor key piano tune, and a rather clunky (albeit suitably so) bassline. There’s an extremely quiet and lazy swing beat thing going on with the drums during the first part. The song picks up its pace at the second verse with eerie backing vocals and more clapping noises, plus the addition of a compulsory swooping synth line. The lyrics are obviously a personal ode to someone they know- “We love the way that you move, I know we’ve been gone and we’re never around, but we’re coming home and we’ve missed getting down, you’ll always remain the beautiful boys, so don’t ever change and just go get the girls”, “we gave you excuses we gave you a song”. Eventually the loose and wandering feel of the track reaches a steady pace, which then builds up to a typical Coopers choruses, intricately layered guitars and a thundering bass looming over looping, intertwined electronic noises, and again, a nice touch is added with some violins. The big chorus then fades away to a creepy ‘synth’ bit. The final half of the song, which comes after the lyrics, is another musical diversion from the Coopers, it turns into a thudding techno beat and lots of mechanic noises that are evocative of the first album’s ‘555-4823’. The beats are pretty massive and remind me of SFA's techno moments.

All in all, I’d say this is stronger than the Coopers debut. As I’ve mentioned there are no stand out heavy rock tracks which will do well in the charts with the exception of “Promises Promises” which has already been released, and thi
s album is more arty and angular than the last one, and perhaps less accessible, even for fans of the Cooper Temple Clause. It is certainly an active listen rather than background music, and the irregularity that is present in many of the songs is going to put fans of such tracks as “Lets Kill Music” off, but the album has more to say, and more important things to say than the last one. No one can listen to this and call the Coopers just a bunch of pretty faces, because it’s very intelligent stuff, less heavy handed and more experimental than the last album, which will disappoint some and delight others. The Coopers have shown a great breadth of influence with this album, and the possibilities for the next one are simply hair-raising*.

*That hair-raising bit is a very unfunny in-joke. If you’ve ever seen the Cooper Temple Clause, they have hair that looks like Rod Stewart’s might after sticking his tongue into an electrical device.

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