ALBUM REVIEW: Jackie-O Motherfucker - "Flags of the Sacred Harp"

First published: 2005-11-12

Signed to the All Tomorrow's Parties label, Jackie-O Motherfucker are one of the strangest bands I've heard in a while. Pity is, they get very boring very quickly. This is from Spill Magazine.

You’d never expect the repertoire of a band called Jackie-O Motherfucker to consist of re-interpreted gospel hymns. Nonetheless, that’s what they play, although the darkly unsettling soundscapes here wouldn’t go down too well with most congregations. Album centrepiece "Spirits" is a slow-burning collage of atonal sax, detuned guitars and subtle tape loops. Beautifully sinister as it is though, at a quarter of an hour it’s more than long enough. The trios of quirky noise-folk jams that sit either side of it do a good job in keeping things varied – but church never was that exciting, was it?