Part Timer: Part Timer
Moteer

Clickits member John McCaffrey perpetuates Moteer's crystalline calm on the dozen vignettes comprising his Part Timer excursion. The album sounds simultaneously modern in its electronic dimension and as ancient in its decayed sound design as the rusty clock device shown on the album's cover. McCaffrey drenches the songs' folk elements with electronic treatments, imbuing his placid lullabies with psychedelic flavour and delicately shaping the material so that seemingly slight pieces like “Rain On My Window (Part Two)” end up captivating. Attention to instrumental detail distinguishes many songs: in “Daytona,” ripples of vinyl static resemble a lulling ocean, while the guitar and mandolin plucks in the waltz closer “End of the Line” almost drown, the crackle is so dense. McCaffrey wisely enhances the album's sonic character with well-timed vocal touches. In “We Made a Big Mistake,” the fragile singing of Nicola Hodgkinson (Empress) floats ever so gently over a crinkly bed of piano tinkles and acoustic guitars while Danielle McCaffrey's multi-layered whispers boost “Thinking, Unthinking” and add angelic sweetener to the dreamy “It Only Means.” Part Timer's endearing bucolia makes for a natural complement to other Moteer releases by Clickits and The Remote Viewer.

November 2006