Album Details

• Artist: Che Zifandel
• EP:
Art Of An Unknown Celebrity
• Label:
• Year of Release: 2012
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: charlesmartel on 2012-09-07

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If you were trying to pin down Zifandel's music, you would find it a hard job. Reggae guitars mingle with rock riffs. A soulful voice belts out songs which you would be hard put to describe as soul. A one time rapper now weilds a guitar as complement to a rich voice. Lyrically, there is an essence in her music of personal experience, personal dreams and fears, and some just plain good songwriting.

The opening track "BITCH (Half a Brain)", is one of those songs which, while it may have been intended as a liberating and empowering feminist anthem appeals on so many levels. The idea of a woman using that term about herself as a weapon to highlight the stupidity of her lover is a clever twist. An animated video was made for this and got over 30,000 hits within a few days of its release. Now that is one way to get some attention! "Animalistic Side" takes that theme a little further concentrating on female sensuality and lust.

And the attention would be deserved. The five tracks on the EP convey a mix of styles and emotions, all executed with some aplomb and benefitting from some decent production which is often unusual in an artist starting out with recorded work. A song like "Ride On" could well have been ruined had the production quality been not up to scratch but it succeeds here, and allows full freedom to Zifandel's voice, alternately sultry, soaring and gritty, within the space of a few seconds.

Follow that with a more up-tempo rocker in "Black Widow" and you realise that versatility is the name of Che Zifandel's game. Wrapping it all up is a cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' 1956 hit "I Put a Spell on You". With what sounds like a fuzz-bass, Zifandel's version has a humid, sultry feel about it which takes the innate lazy feel to the song and wraps it in a passionate cloak.

Art of an Unknown Celebrity is an EP which clearly marks Che Zifandel out as a talented singer songwriter with some interesting things to say and a clever way of delivering them. Drawing on a variety of influences and singing from the heart, Zifandel ensures there is something here for everyone to find interesting and exciting.

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