Salty Brine: How Strange It Is cabaret review – A search for meaning
The performer brings Neutral Milk Hotel’s cult classic to life in a heartfelt, searching meditation
Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is a lo-fi indie rock album that had a negligible impact on the late 20th century’s alternative music scene but has since gained a significant cult recognition. Salty Brine is a charismatic performer who leads a solid band through a recreation of the recording, weaving in romantic reflections on spirituality, Anne Frank’s diary, human reproduction and his own youthful relationship that celebrates the beauty of this 1998 album and aspires to a secular sublime.
Between full band renditions of the songs. Salty’s bricolage juxtaposes a poetic reading of Frank, concentrating on her tentative desire and development as a writer, with his early sexual experiences. While the elements combine towards an expansive declaration of the uniqueness of each life and the performance itself, How Strange It Is focuses on the detail of specific passages from the book and Salty’s diary to offer three strands of narrative that are tangentially related.
References to Hanukkah, amazing sex with a Buddhist and the glorious abandon of first love slip between and inside the numbers, reaching out towards a romantic vision of a universe that finds meaning despite Salty’s refusal of god. Much depends on Neutral Milk Hotel’s compositions: like their surreal lyrics, the meaning of the performance remains vague and elusive. If all the parts don’t entirely coalesce, the meandering storytelling and drive of the music ensure that this is a heartwarming and engaging show with a sentimental compassion to find beauty through artistic expression.
Salty Brine: How Strange It Is, Summerhall, until 30 August, 9.30pm.