Based on the evidence of this album, Cale’s preceding release, the ‘Five Tracks’ earlier in the year, was merely the peeling away of old skin to reveal the first itchy flakes of regeneration. And whilst similar in terms of sounds, ‘HoboSapiens’ is a much meatier body of work; more consistent, more direct and less dependent upon the multifarious layering of samples and sketchpad ideas. Cale would be the first to admit that he was testing out new materials and working out from the four points of his latest inspirations: Beck, The Beta Band, Lemon Jelly and Studio Pro Tools.
And so we have Cale’s first release for EMI – no less detailed and intricate than it’s predecessor but far more accessible.
Under the playful but compelling guidance of producer Nick Franglen of Lemon Jelly, Cale has produced a record whose lively probing intellect is matched only by it’s lively and intoxicating tunes. Not bad for a man of 21 never mind 61. Whilst others of his generation and those directly below either throw caution to the wind and exact a course of gross self-indulgence (Peter Gabriel) or simply fall apart at the seams (McCartney) Cale remains as vital and as penetrating as any of those he has thus far been associated with: the Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Nico and Patti Smith.
Whilst bleak, atmospheric and shimmering with divine and unearthly gossamer (‘Magritte’, ‘Archemides’, ‘Over Her Head’) the broader pulse of the album is more upbeat. Tracks like ‘Reading My Mind’ with its frisky descending piano tinkling – is a giddy little slice of whimsy – and ‘Things’ is positively joyous.
You may be tad wary of its ‘wordiness’ or perplexed by it’s Salvidor Dali approach to narratives (‘Lamas and temples’, anyone?) but its more than likely you’ll be seduced by its brutally hypnotic rhythms, its wisdom and its charm.