On The Ambassador Gabriel Kahane assumes the role of detective, uncovering the often dark underbelly of the ‘city of angels’; peeling back the glossy veneer to reveal its stony foundations. Each track on the album is inspired by individual addresses in Los Angeles and appropriates characters as diverse as Mildred Pierce and Roy Batty for source material. Musically the album also casts a wide net, with no one genre settled on for more than fleeting moments. It’s a tour of the city like no other.
Of course many of the characters we are familiar with. In ‘Veda (1 Pierce Dr.)’ Kahane imagines himself as the notoriously duplicitous femme fatale Mildred Pierce of James M. Cain’s eponymous novel. His reimagining owes more to the film adaptation in which Joan Crawford’s Mildred initially protects her murderous daughter only to eventually hand her in to the authorities, “child, I’d rush to turn myself in and/claim that it was my sin to spare you.” Kahane charts complicated relationship with delicacy and empathy reflecting the deep maternal instincts that drive her to indulge her daughter’s repugnant behaviour: “you look down on your mother who loves you/you take without grace – though it smarts -I don’t mind.”
He commandeers another iconic Hollywood character, Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty from Blade Runner, to explore the streets and rooftops of LA as a replicant on ‘Bradbury (304 Broadway)’. The sweeping strings and piano elicits a similar feeling of sadness as the ‘time to die’ scene in the movie. It’s indicative of the huge cinematic sweep of the album that glides effortlessly from place, time and character whilst retaining its narrative consistency.
![The Last Ship [Original Broadway Cast Recording]](http://siliconemusic.com/slm/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/MI0003817398.jpg)
