The latest album by Battiato; ten songs, ten... stratagems. An album written together with his longtime collaborator, the poet Manlio Sgalambro. The album flows quickly, and by the end of it, there is a desire to listen to it again.
Battiato returns to the music scene, always saying what he thinks, in music and words; the songs get inside your head directly, without any intermediary. It's an album that talks about the world, how it is evolving, how it is getting worse... it's the album of someone observing the changes, feeling almost powerless to improve things, but who resorts to stratagems to survive...
The first song is titled "Between Sex and Chastity", a very intense track, with ingenious music, and a rhythm that matches what it wants to convey.
"..the years pass by hidden by the fact that there is always much to do and the present time slips away with conditional excuses....a desire from yesterday knocks again in my thoughts, and the eternal clash between sex and chastity..."
The second track is titled "Eagles Don’t Fly in Flocks", with oriental rhythms; listening to it gives me a sense of freedom, it sends me a clear message: don't let anyone manipulate you; eagles don’t fly in flocks, just be yourself...
"...Days and months race by, the road is dark and uncertain and I fear becoming clouded; don't lend ear to lies, don’t let the malicious suffocate you, don't feed on envy and jealousy...in silence I suffer the damages of time...eagles don’t fly in flocks..the regret of the lost way lives on, in the uncertain path of time..."
The third song is titled "Hermeneutics", and it is a song against the oil war wanted by President Bush; the music is very alternative and conveys all the "chaos" unleashed by this stupid war; at first listen it gives a real sense of confusion; I believe it is the most ingenious song on the album...
"...the empire ejaculates prematurely, the circle of fighters returns, the servant states bow to that monkey of a president...INVADING, KILLING, CHASING, SLAUGHTERING THE BAD GUYS..DEMOCRACIES ARE INVENTED.."
The fourth track is titled "Bastiani Fortress", and talks about the passage of time; it talks about the defense against the malaise of the universe that attacks us with ominous news..
"...will Bastiani Fortress resist the sweet allure?...lying hucksters besiege it with Tamerlane-worthy violence, I will resist by approaching pleasure, listening to the breath, retaining warmth on another form of wave I will tune my thoughts..."
The title of the fifth song is "Smell of Gunpowder" ...it also highlights the passage of time and the changes that have occurred; changes due to gunpowder, weapons, wars that are contaminating what was once pure... beauty.
"...the smell of gunpowder spread throughout the neighborhoods while a band accompanies the relics of the saint, religious impulses of the west. accident..."
"I'm that"
is the title of the sixth song, entirely in English, the track starts slow and then abandons itself in an electro-rock rhythm. In this song Battiato talks about himself, saying he is what he is, that is, a musician."..i'm neither muslim nor Hindu, nor christian nor buddhist, i'm not the hammer nether for the sickle and even less for the tricoloure flame...because i'm a musician.."
The seventh song is called "Comfort to Life", it has beautiful music, with synthesized violins, the lyrics are a bit difficult, but it is a beautiful song, which talks precisely about how life is..
"..the evening teaches to wait for the day, which arrives as always to close the passages of the night.."
The eighth track is titled "23 Chromosome Pairs" ..it is a mainly musical song, which acts as a preview to the ninth track.. called "Appearance and Reality", which talks precisely about the relationship between man and the world, in times where the times are turbulent, and many times, one feels alien and distant from it.
"..turbulent times and so I remain confined in my room immobilized by so much distance from the world, I feel alien.."
"What is there... what will come, what we have been and however it goes, everything will dissolve..."This is the beginning of the tenth and last track of the album, it couldn’t end better than this... the title is "The Gate of the Supreme Fright", a song that talks about death, or the fear of death and in the end concludes with a dream, a sort of desire, a way of saying: even if I will inevitably have to cross the gate of the supreme fright, I hope it is better than what there is in the world.
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By Grasshopper
"Franco Battiato gives us a dozen brand new stratagems, in order to 'cross the sea to deceive the sky'."
"Hermeneutics brings out apocalyptic yet realistic speeches on the political situation from a tragic magma of sounds... A true visionary masterpiece."