Serena-Maneesh
Serena-Maneesh

My Bloody Serena. Indeed, we could directly call it Valentina, because they have "Shoegaze" tattooed on their forehead.

So, a discussion that already sounds old from the start, a rock genre moldy and stale for ages? Perhaps, but the Norwegian Serena Maneesh sometimes lift their gaze from their shoes and are capable of some adrenaline-fueled punches not bad at all. Still old-fashioned, to be clear: a hardcore burst that echoes back twenty years, a noise eccentricity reminiscent of the most eccentric Sonic Youth or even Guru Guru, an extended jam that catapults us to early seventies Germany.

Now, let’s lay it out: the debut album by Serena Maneesh is a new album made of old stuff, effectively reshuffling sounds and concepts heard over and over for 15 years; a good dose of shoegazing, as mentioned above, a touch of Fugazi (could it be any other way?), some psychotic post-core surges, a splash of old-fashioned new wave as it is trendy now, and some healthy kraut-cosmic industrial. So, it would seem a good album, a typical "3-star debaserian" work.

But then what do these crazies come up with?
In conclusion, they slap us with a twelve-minute instrumental that seems straight from Pluto, a roaring madness propelled by obsessive guitar strumming that flays the back; first they beat you, then they launch you on an atomic rocket, they lull you with lullaby arpeggios only to hurl you into an abyss of tribal rhythms and meditative voices, Pere Ubu scuffling with Can, in a relentless crescendo that tightens around your throat until, overwhelmed by the contrasting sensations that assault you everywhere, buried in a hurricane of distortions derailing a reiterated riff with the heaviness of a boulder, it all disintegrates, goes mad, and collapses on itself crashing into a heap of atonal garbage, then fades into a tear-jerking piano coda.

Applause, confetti, streamers, and champagne bottles for one of the most moving, wild, and simply beautiful pieces of 2006.

Released in a few copies at the end of 2005, it has recently been reissued due to an unexpected appreciation.

I almost forgot: it’s recorded, among others, by Steve Albini (!!!)