pretazzo

The Mason of The Piper was by no means lacking in creativity...Then, in the 70s, it settled into a flat, flat style...

Many consider Tubular Bells a "simple" record... I, however, find it challenging at various moments (the central part of the first movement; the first few minutes of the second). It is music of great complexity, able to intertwine tarantella with classical music... An original structure that moves between romantic symphony, baroque fugue, Riley-esque minimalism, melodic fantasy, pop-art collage, all in service of a highly formalist work that nonetheless manages to evoke emotions, to stir contrasting feelings: wonder, melancholy, anxiety, joy... Beautiful!

Another precious discovery by Lewis, the official psychadelicist of Debaser! I listened to Beacon from Mars by Kaleidoscope, a beautiful kaleidoscope (indeed...) of styles and sounds, especially with a folk influence... The two long jams, Taxim (raga-rock by definition) and Beacon (not a sleepy track, which in the end reminds me of Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden). It's like being 20 years ahead of its time...

Am I the only jerk who "crushes" this review?! Ugh, I always have to play the bad guy... Jokes aside, it seems a bit too brief, considering it's an album of considerable richness and complexity... Nonetheless, it conveys the mood of the album well... What can be said about this debut by Faust? One of the greatest musical works of the 20th century... The Faust had very profound things to say about the human condition and to communicate them, they used every musical means at their disposal: acid rock, prog, electronica, folk, cabaret, classical, dadaism, collage, concrete music, noises, dialogues, silences, recited poems... In the universe of the Faust, there was room for any sound source... I mean, where else can you find a band capable of singing an osteria refrain on a Carnival trump and while a barrage of electronic radiation zips from one channel to another in the headphones? Or a drunken madman, halfway between Pavarotti and a muezzin, shouting in the dark, in perfect solitude? Or a couple chatting after making love, while in the distance you hear the noise of a vaporetto? Or a barrel organ popping up out of nowhere in the middle of a storm?

"...shitting in a jar and signing it is not such a different process...". I'm sorry NGW, but in my opinion there is a big difference between that kind of "conceptual" art (based on pure provocation) and the music of the Residents (which has great harmonic and structural complexity, as well as being based on vast musical knowledge in both popular and classical fields).

It was one of the albums of my adolescence. I listened to it again yesterday and it thrilled me once more. Great intensity, excellent songwriting, remarkable cohesion among the musicians, a Jimmy Chamberlin shining bright with his nervous, fragmented, syncopated yet powerful drumming... You can hear echoes from the 60s (Stooges) and 70s (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, but also some glam, see the bursts of saturated guitars in Rhinoceros and Snail...), but it’s clear that the cultural background of the Zukke remains the alternative scene of the 80s (new-wave, noise-rock, hardcore, etc.). If in the more intense tracks (which dominate the first side) you can sense the influence of hard yet sophisticated bands like Bitch Magnet, in songs like Crush and Suffer, their original take on the slo-core of various Galaxie, RHP, Codeine, Slint emerges: minimalist attitude, stripped-down and impressionistic arrangements, timbral extravagances, cataleptic rhythms, muted singing... In short, a great debut! A very debatable review…

Yes, I saw them... "I am not afraid" is wonderful...

...you can tell that there’s a great deal of work behind the sound manipulation (you can hear loops, cut and paste, filtered sounds, pioneering electronics...). A masterpiece of surrealist rock. An album of immense influence not only for its overall conception but also for the details: Thompson's detuned and reverberated guitar (master of Herman and Leary); the mad and piercing percussion; the booming bass; all the songs are stunning, from the first to the last, and there’s room for the most varied instruments: spacey organ, crushed harmonica, booming piano... in short, an acid rainbow! :-D

I listened to it carefully again yesterday after quite some time... In the meantime, a lot of water has passed under the bridge: I had the chance to listen to and absorb various Twin Infinitives, Harsh 70's Reality, the first of the Faust, etc... In short, all the so-called "difficult" records that have somehow been inspired by Parable... I expected to find a more accessible Parable compared to the first times I listened to it (a while ago, completely new to noisy avant-rock)... And instead: in the spirit of "you never stop being amazed," it struck me as an even today mind-blowing, avant-garde, extremely rich and complex record...

Oh, why would Salvatores be moving and touching?? :-DDD