The Cakekitchen
Everything's Going To Work Out Just Fine
Freek

Ready for a journey through stories of gloom and tales from the dark side? Come on in to the Cakekitchen:

In my dream there was blood, Coming up out of the floorboards
And the river was covered in glass.
All the boxes were on fire, And the windows filled with wire.
Seemed so real. I was sure it was true

The lines above are taken from the fictious (I hope) world of Graeme Jefferies and his Cakekitchen, on the 6th (?) album of his one-man-band. The multi-instrumentalist (strings and keys) Graeme Jefferies has been doing home-recordings in New Zealand's underground since the early 80s, long before lo-fi became a term in popular music "Off-Broadway". At first together with his brother Peter, as This Kind Of Punishment. Then the brothers Jefferies parted company, to work separately on solo projects. Peter got some critical acclamation for his 1991 album The Last Great Challenge In A Dull World. Graeme has been working highly productive, all around the pop underground of the world. His records has been released on creative indie labels such as Flying Nun in his home country, Ajax, Merge and Homestead in the USA, and, finally, Raffmond and Freek in Europe. On last years album, The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea, which was recorded in New Zealand, France, England, and USA - he worked with a French drummer/engineer (Jean-Yves Douet). Everything's Going... was written and recorded in Germany and England, with additional drumming by one Markus Acher. As you can see, he's a man of the world.

His music is quite low-tech, which gives his compositions a raw expression. Together with his desperate singing, and the dim and nightmarish lyrics this gives his music a rough authenticity. The lyrics seems to be pure and honest from the dephts of a soul. Almost exposing mental nakedness, close to being too private. Despite the dark stories he tells us, I still sense a certain optimism in his story-telling. And small doses of humor, of the darkest kind. You'll also find examples of lyrics to be double-edgy, with as much inbetween the lines as in them. Such as in the epic, everlasting You Never Run Out Of Luck. Being almost 12 minutes long, we get presented a rather strange and fascinating story of life, and how tough it sometimes can be. But, still, you'll somehow manage to get through in the end.

To be honest I think Mr.Jefferies should've been more critical when structuring and arranging the songs on this album, but I guess he simply just won't. I prefer last years release, on which you can find my favourite meal from the Cakekitchen; Old Grey Coast. Anyway, the final song of Everything's Going... is Graeme at his best; The Great Fire - showing that he still can be in charge of the most beautiful sadness.

Copyright © 1997 Håvard Oppøyen