Karate
In Place of Real Insight

THE REVIEW

"Imagine yourselves young. With pockets full of water. You haven't yet learned to hesitate." Now, after so many years, you're in the "place of true discernment": life passes before your eyes, and you watch it flow by. You live it, in good times and bad, accepting the years as they pass. Your pockets are full of memories: you take them out carefully and allow them to paint a smile on your face.

If you're only familiar with Karate post-1998 (after their fourth album "The Bed is in the ocean"), forget everything you've seen and heard. Here, we turn back a few pages and rediscover the old stories penned by the Boston group.

One of these is called "In place of real insight," and it tells the story of four young men (Geof Farina guitar/vocals, Jeff Goddard bass, Gavin McCarty drums, and Eamonn Vitt guitar/vocals) unleashing their desire to play and shout to the world that they exist. Their desire to narrate, to express themselves: to convey and translate their wisdom into music. They do this by intensely exploiting every instrument assigned to them.

While the formation may seem to fall into that of a normal lineup, the composition of each piece reflects the desire not to become stagnant and to carefully construct each part. They seem to seek power in concentration, and peace in meditation. All in a musical key, and without long and boring episodes (the album lasts just thirty minutes and a few seconds).

On the album cover, released in 1997 under Southern Records (their loyal label from the beginning), there is just a photo depicting a window seen from inside a dwelling. It seems to convey a sense of loneliness. Loneliness that in its negative sense can also be frightening, but which in itself hides the desire to stop for a moment to reason and reflect. And there they are, the memories, beautiful or ugly: they are our life. Do not abandon yourself to what things seem to be, or to what someone might think. A tear can fall for intense pain or immense joy. This is "In place of real insight." Nothing objective, but a sincere and pure personal sentiment.