Kafka Added Aug 8, 2011
Kafka - Aug 8, 2011- TheJamZone Burnley, the home of indie rocker Kafka, has been called one of England's most blighted towns. A weak economy, lack of public benefits, and rampant social problems make it one of the UK's only areas to actually have a decreasing population. And most of the year it rains. But, just like the singer-songwriter's simultaneously bittersweet and uplifting music, his somewhat maligned hometown still holds a sunny side.

"Burnley has a great sense of humour, which is really needed when there's nothing else," he says. "I also think my songs themselves, despite all the difficult themes I touch on, have a sly sense of humour, too." And much like the surreally amusing art of his literary namesake, it's this Kafka's ever-upbeat outlook that gives his tunes their irresistible essence. An essence that's come to full fruition with Mysterious Skin (Purple Wave Records), his long-awaited debut.

An exercise in shimmering, widescreen monochrome, Mysterious Skin is packed with literate power pop nuggets that smack of the hook-heavy, melody-rich sounds of the Only Ones, the Buzzcocks, the Pixies, and Guided by Voices, and also recall's the harder side of early Britpop. Kafka's passionately confessional tunes channel his working-class, troubled childhood roots to create a singular brand of hard-won redemption - one that carries an aura of inclusive, universal resonance, yet also highly personal.

Among the disc's alternately adrenaline-rushing and soul-soothing offerings are "Cold and Confused," a melodic anthem whose sunny chorus belies its poignant, heart-searching lyric "Goodnight (RFAD)," a tough, angular new wave gem loosely inspired by the enigmatic film Requiem for a Dream and "Maybe Later," a desperate rocker complemented by a suitably claustrophobic video. A shockingly mature, out-of-nowhere opus, Mysterious Skin is an instant classic that reveals Kafka as one of the modern indie scene's most promising new artists.

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