FLAT AND SASSY

Rip It Up, Issue 248, 1 April 1998, Page 8

F LAT AND SASSY

Jody LloyD Shadows on A FLat LaNd

looking at the cover of Shadows From looking at the cover of Shadows On A Flat Land, you might surmise that J it's a compilation of various artists from Canterbury. Upon listening to the blend of hip hop, trip hop, Celtic and funk flavours and styles, with contributions from members of Cinematic, Mink, and Nilstate

your impressions may be strengthened. But you'll have been misled. The album is actually the work of Jody Lloyd, half of the 'Real Zeal Man' duo Dark Tower. He's credited as producer of the album, but he also conceived the ideas and wrote most of the music, and under pseudonyms, supplied all the scratching, some vocals, and a few lyrics. So it's odd that he wasn't at all tempted to release it as Jody Lloyd Presents... or give himself a suitably trippy name to bring the whole project together.

The good-humoured Lloyd, who spends a lot of time laughing to himself, never considered that. "That's kind of arrogance. ]f there's been input from anybody else, it's like taking credit for other people's work. My intention was to make a good album capturing all my favourite people's performances, with me producing."

But there was another part of the concept — , everybody on the album is from the 'flat land.' "Okay, my favourites from Canterbury," he corrects himself, "and

mostly with the surname 'Lloyd.'" He's joking — sort of. His sister Demamia, known for her work with Mink and her own project Cloudboy, appears on the tracks 'Look/Leam' and 'Take Me Away', while 'The Wreckers Light' is a song written by and featuring his father, folk musician David. Lloyd says it was the most difficult track to produce. "It would have been easier if ]'d written the song and my dad was a guest on it. He had a lot of big ideas, like backing vocals by a choir, but it didn't work out that way. ]t was strange father/son thing." Not that Lloyd junior had any problem with the idea of working on a Celtic folk song, as snobbery doesn't seem to be in his

vocabulary. r ' 7 "] just like to make stuff. 1 don't listen to a lot of modem music, and when ] want to listen to something new, ] go and make it." It's hard to pin down what Lloyd does like — "funky stuff" is all he'll admit to — or even how he thinks of his own material. Shadows On A Flat Land may be described as 'trip hop' on the back cover and press release, but Lloyd doesn't necessarily agree with that as a description, pointing out the inside sleeve artwork, where early 60s line drawings show 'young adults' at an 'informal social gathering', listening and dancing to records. "] think it's kind of a listening album, and kind of a dancing album too. 1 hope that it can sell from the goodness of the songs, whereas Dark Tower had to sell from the attractiveness of two guys," he snickers. Universal Music are hoping the same thing for the first ever local artist on their roster, who they cut a distribution deal with after seeing Dark Tower support the * /■ Bloodhound Gang at the Powerstation last year. "It's like a promotion and distribution deal for three years, but either of us can pull out at any time. At the moment, ]'ve got no reason to pull out, as long as Universal don't get me to come around and clean their houses. Or make me

mow their lawns." ]f that's what the staff at Universal '?? ? < Music are planning on, they may have their opportunity in a couple of months, as Lloyd is thinking of relocating to Auckland. That doesn't mean his next album — which he's already finished writing — will necessarily relate to Auckland, or even be recorded here. "1 may do it here, but I'd rather do it down in Christchurch, so 1 can get my friends on it again," he says. But whatever Lloyd does and wherever he does it, just don't expect Shadows On A Flat Land Vol 2. "No, not again. But ]'ll be back with another one of those block rockin' beats."

TROY FERGUSON