"L" Review
Kevin Godley and Lol Creme
(Polydor)

SCENE louisville ky (US) date unknown
by teresa morris, SCENE music editor

In Britain, "L" is the symbol for a learning driver. Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, however, are no novices. They've been working together for 18 years, since their art school days.

In 1968, they hooked up with ex-Mindbenders Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart to form 10cc. Godley-Creme compositions helped send the group along its course of clever pop parody and musico-drama.

The two left 10cc in 1976 to work on their own projects. One of those, the Gizmotron (a bowing device for guitar that enables the simulation of stringed instruments such as cello and viola) hit the mass market early this year. It was demonstrated on their last album, "Consequences."

The Gizmotron is used on "L" too, but subtly. The Gizmo takes its place amid other unusual instruments such as the xylophone and clavinets, and more standard rock tools of guitar, drums, piano, bass and saxophones.

The arrangements are shaped by Godley-Creme's sense of drama and their refreshingly twisted sense of humor, which they inject into both the music and the lyrics. The result is a well-produced collection of free form, free-wheeling, free association - and amusing - rock.

"L" is a cross between 10cc - you'll recognize the pair's ominous sounding harmonies immediately - and Frank Zappa. Devotees of both might want to check out "L".

Godley-Creme's music is visually oriented and experimental in approach. The lyrics, though witty, are less important than the overall picture that emerges from the combination of words and music.

"The Sporting Life", for example, presents suicide as a spectator sport, complete with fans yelling "jump, jump, jump" as they wait for a guy on a window ledge to make his move.

"Sandwiches of You" plays around with the come-on lines people hand each other, the serious language about "a complex and lasting relationship" providing contrast to what the protagonist really wants: "I could eat sandwiches of you/ You could eat sandwiches of me."

The title of the instrumental "Foreign Accents" is a double entendre. It refers both to the unusual structure of the piece - tonal percussion and drums serve as a base for the quirkish drop-in of other instruments - and the overall effect of the piece. The instruments sound as if they're carrying on a lively conversation in some foreign tongue.

Godley and Creme take pokes at the music industry with "Hit Factory" and the hilarious "Business is Business". In the former, percussion is used to create mechanized assembly-line sounds; the piece moves without break into "Business is Business". The slowed down piano at the opening of that song gives the music a lumbering, belching sound, and, as it continues, familiar guitar, sax and piano hooks are added. The punch line of the song is "Only the numb survive," and the chorus goes, "M.O.R. is good/ M.O.R. is safe/ M.O.R. is here." The song ends with a chant of "Relax, relax, relax....."

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