Supersister
Spiral Starcase

THE REVIEW

The Supersister are a Dutch band formed in the early 70s. After a blazing start to their career characterized by the most avant-garde progressive style, tinged with evident jazz influences, internal disagreements, as often happens, led to their premature end, unfairly confining them to the archaeology of the genre. Before their definitive dissolution (which concluded in 2000 with a reunion), the vocalist, Sacha van Geest, decided to revive his project titled "Spiral Starcase" from 1974 together with the original members of the group.

This work represents the swan song for the Supersister, which, unlike the early works, offers a sound comparable, in some respects, to that of "The Mothers of Invention" and "RIO" in general. The album's main theme is that of schizophrenia; in fact, the opening "Retroschizive (Introduction Schizo)" introduces, with sinister calm, a spiral of stylistic extravagance. The following "Jelly Bean Hop" (the context is evident from the title) is driven by a relentless mandolin, leading, with false cheerfulness (as is typical for someone with an unstable personality), to the dark side. "Dangling Dingdongs" is a dissonant instrumental track that functions as a severe warning perpetuated by the subsequent "Sylvers Song"; the martial "Cookies, Teacups, Buttercups" closes the moment of anguish, accompanied once again by a wobbling mandolin and supported by a stern bagpipe. The spiral changes mood again with the lively "Gi, Ga, Go (Gollumble Jafers)", a track initially polyvocal in full musical style, then rhythmically Caribbean, and finally completely inconclusive. After the moment of jubilation comes melancholy. "It had to be" and the claustrophobic "Nosy Parkers" bring memories of times that were and will never be again. The concluding "We Steel So Frange (Epilogue)" decrees that the time has come to disappear from the scene, representing the ideal "straitjacket" for a spiral completely mad and unaware of being so.