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Rating: Aha! I've caught you all out. Search as you might, I had to convince myself that I hadn't found any reviews of Sad Lovers and Giants from Watford, near London, and tell me if the very name of the band didn't whet your appetite. Sad Lovers and Giants, indeed. But tell me, where were you when 'Feeding The Flame' and 'In The Breeze' triumphantly hit the shops, and they were played and replayed, and re-listened to, and bought, only to be desperately searched for when Midnight Music closed its doors and that's it, whoever has them has them and the others are out of luck?
Anyway, back in 1983 a friend of mine and I got about twenty copies of these records bought here and there and we all immersed ourselves in the puzzle of an undeniably new wave group, that endured the evident influences of the minimal ballads of Velvet Underground and the total spleen of Joy Division's 'Closer', then turned it all into wonderful gothic romanticism (but calm and absorbed, without any aesthetic indulgence or mannerism) ending up in none other than the territory of Pink Floyd's 'One Of These Days', Genesis's 'Trespass', Moody Blues's 'Gypsy', Barclay James Harvest if they had been played by the Police.
Madness, friends said, but come on! A fusion of prog and new wave? Well, you know the Cardiacs, right? Pretty much as if Zappa decided to record a tribute to the Stranglers. Okay, the rock world doesn't lack these bizarre combinations, there's even those who've enjoyed them all their lives (XTC, Todd Rundgren, Zappa himself), but I swear I had never heard such a successful crossover and never would I encounter a similar one again. In the years to come, anyone who put 'In The Breeze' and 'Feeding The Flame' on in front of me always remained pleasantly astonished and greatly fascinated, and Sad Lovers and Giants are still the only band with a post-punk background to be constantly appreciated by those smug progsters (I am one of them and I can say that).
Part of their secret lies in the massive and intelligent use of delay by the guitarist (with an overall very bright and effected sound but never distorted), the enveloping keyboards and the beautiful dreamy voice of the singer, while bass and drums often recall the more introspective Division. The real strength, however, is the wonderful songs, almost all of which take shape from absolutely brilliant and circular, wonderful and resonant arpeggios, then launch into full chord breaks, great strokes of guitar and keyboards, epic and romantic atmospheres, and throughout all this, there is a clear sense of having found the balance between very different influences, the marriage of 1977 with 1973, Factory Records and Charisma.
Listening to the two CDs 'Epic Garden Music' and 'Feeding The Flame' guarantees possession of all the priceless pearls of the early SLG period, with all singles and other tracks of the time housed in various mixed compilations. Some titles? 'Landslide', of course, 'Cow Boys', 'Far From The Sea', 'Burning Beaches', the ballad 'Your Skin And Mine', but above all the undisputed masterpiece 'Imagination' in its definitive 6'24'' version (the 5'40'' one was a demo), perhaps one of the ten tracks to take to that proverbial desert island. Am I exaggerating? Gentlemen, start your engines. Search and, take heed, high volume and silence because the diabolic delayed arpeggio is unique and fabulous, and to think it's such a simple thing that it can be replicated on the beach with an Eko Ranger 6. Simple (technically) are the other incredible arpeggios, and the chords are three or four when it goes well, and those keyboards even I could play since I play keyboards rarely, which is why for thirty years I've been reconsidering the necessary complexity of musical masterpieces. It's not true! It's not true at all, but not because we can't compose and play 'Firth Of Fifth' and it bothers us, and it's convenient for us to say that Louie Louie is a masterpiece (by the way, it is, but that's beside the point). It's true because there have always been musicians touched by the hand of some god, if I knew which, and with three notes they pull out immortal pieces that capture your soul. 'Imagination', and then the other songs of Sad Lovers and Giants, captured my soul thirty years ago, and now I'm trying to entangle you too.
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