Rating: NN
If you’ve always felt that the animated characters in Gorillaz are a little too menacing, then try London’s One Eskimo on for size. The cuddly foursome employs a similar cartoonish strategy, only instead of Jamie Hewlett’s jagged-toothed misfits, you get adorable guitar-playing penguins, bongo-bashing giraffes and a little hooded “Eskimo” who we’ll assume is supposed to be singer Kristian Leontiou. It’s enough to make you want to bite into a raw seal heart.
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The music – a mostly acoustic-based blend of pop and atmospherics – strives to be as unthreatening as possible, with Leontiou’s one-range voice lilting in the mix on songs like UFO. Their semi-hit Kandi is another typical British gambit to revive past soul masters, borrowing from Candi Station, but at least they acknowledge it. Jack Johnson, however, gets no credit as the clear influence behind the banal Simple Day. Lyrically, it makes Johnson look like Jack Kerouac.
Top track: Hometime
One Eskimo’s show at the El Mocambo Saturday (November 13) has been cancelled.
