Humanwine
Fighting Naked

The Boston group, Humanwine, founded in 2002 by lyricists and composers Holly Brewer and M@ McNiss, has been labeled with rather laughable names, such as Punk Rock Mary Poppins and Vaudevillian Anarcho-Punk. Indeed, it's quite a unique stylistic choice in presenting their music, which can be defined as a genre of cabaret-flavored punk folk rock somewhat in the Brecht-Weill style. The new album "Fighting Naked", just released this April 2007, is a curious and elegant mix of theater and rock that entertains and satisfies, captivating with expressive and retro melodies, smoothly transitioning from the most ethereal and melancholic folk to a substantial and far from repetitive hardcore punk.

Holly's voice, clear and superb, stands out in respectable vocal acrobatics already from the first three splendid and very lively hard tracks, Untitled States of Hysteria, Big Brother, and Fighting Naked; sensual and sly, it contrasts the aggressive heaviness of devastating riffs and lightning-fast drums. In the middle part, with Wake Up and Dim Allentown Cove, the album transforms into a kind of comic and mysteriously terrifying opera at the same time, fanfares and marches, male and female vocals in petulant call and response, whispers and raucous background voices, highly rhythmic skits with vaudeville revue-like choruses, until dissolving into a tense ambient finale with sinister background noise and a metallic and underground atmosphere. Pique and Epoch are two folkish ballads: the first hypnotic, with a cold and detached accompaniment of guitars and rhythm, tailor-made for Holly Brewer's expressive and surprisingly eclectic voice. The second is a melancholic and somber reflection with references to the Holocaust, with a rhythm that is at times shy, at times relentless and desperate. A sudden change in course with Worthless Ode, a gloomy and obsessive dark punk, and with the bizarre waltz of Script Language; again, the theatricality that distinguishes them is manifested in all its expressiveness.

Rivolta Silenziosa is a delightful little song in the style of the '20s, taking us back to the fashionable cabarets of those years with modern sounds of today. Such lightheartedness is interrupted by the poignant When In Rome, introduced by a background of military steps reminiscent of those fascist times; it is a sweet folk ballad softly performed by Holly, accompanied by acoustic guitar. The last track, 7R4N5M15510N, seems like the recording of an old radio interception of female and child voices, followed by a song of a popular mold with the sunny accompaniment of a banjo.

If these Humanwine wanted to get noticed, well, they succeeded. "Fighting Naked" is a sparkling and sophisticated album, which flows delightfully and is extremely varied and excellent in all aspects, both compositional, stylistic, vocal, and instrumental. There’s excellent and extensive use of multiple instruments, including violin, cello, trumpet, harmonium, tuba, and banjo. I have no idea if anyone else has thought of combining genres like punk and hardcore with cabaret or folk; in Italy, we had CCCP, for example, who in their way showed us something quite similar and in any case, these are works that, in 2007, are still appreciated and observed with a certain interest and curiosity.