Firewater
International Orange!

THE REVIEW

Anyone who recalls Mr. Tod A., who in the late eighties and early nineties embodied the figure of the delirious frontman of the seminal New York noisers Cop Shoot Cop, might indeed find it difficult to envision him behind the microphone of the (his) Firewater, a project that has been active for more than fifteen years and reached its seventh seal by the end of 2012.

However, the theoretical "struggle" is not caused, as often happens, by the scantness of the offering or by significant drops in inspiration, but rather by the clear structural distance separating the two (three, a thousand...) artistic and human journeys of our globetrotting vocalist: having settled for some years now in Constantinople, Tod is evidently someone who loves to put himself in play, constantly reshuffling the cards available, methodically organizing his own little revolution, arriving at this juncture at a brash, enjoyable, multifaceted potpourri; a vivid musical melting pot that smoothly transitions from Turkish Maqsoum to Punjabi Bhangra, citing Jamaican Ska and Greek Rebetiko with the care to thicken it all with a healthy Old school Punk attitude shaken with Mambo flourishes, Worldmusic, and bursts of Latin Ethnical-Rock (whatever that means).

It is clear that those who used to love having their ears mauled by the powerful commotion of cancerous basses and earthly counter-batteries of the disbanded Big Apple line-up might feel disoriented by the creamy grandeur of the pop brass grafted onto polished guitars and rolling basses immersed among full and round percussions and, not least, the harshly melodic guttural tone of our trustworthy nomad.

An album of a thousand-and-one flavors: the risk is of an overdose.