Search - Peter Scherer, Arto Lindsay :: Pretty Ugly

Amazingly otherworldly

Ron | El Cerrito, CA | 08/30/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is Lindsay and Scherer's best collaboration, though their work together as Ambitious Lovers is excellent. I think of Lindsay as the current torchbearer of the kind of funky creativity that the Talking Heads used to have, back when they were working with Brian Eno. And this largely instrumental album has the same compelling power as Eno/Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts--a dreamlike, edgy concatenation of sonic textures and beats. Lindsay's trademark scratchy detuned guitar perfectly counterpoints Scherer's synth wizardry. But while this is more avant-garde than the Ambitious Lovers albums (or even Lindsay's marvelous recent solo albums), it's still highly listenable. I've owned this disc for at least six or seven years, and I still put it on whenever I need creative inspiration. One of my ten desert island discs, hands down."