When I returned to Brazil after a month spent in ever more distant Italy, I was unpleasantly surprised to find everything in my house moldy. I hadn't thought at all that leaving it closed during the rainy season I would find such a surprise. I later understood that this episode was nothing more than a small symptom of a balance. On one hand, here, everything is extremely fertile; from plants that grow visibly, to single mothers who casually have children, while on the other hand there is death, decay, and deterioration. Conditions present in the lives of many people and in things in general.
I remembered her. She carried with her few things, some photos, and quite recent ones. The lightness of her belongings and her tendency not to accumulate things fascinated me quite a bit. I then realized how the environment shapes our culture and how different our environments were. I thought of my grandmother's old rural house that keeps everything perfectly despite the passing of years, or my parents' house where I can still find my elementary school notebooks.
So now, I would like to accumulate as few objects as possible, feel lighter and less conditioned by things, like my CDs; safe in Italy, far from the infamous Brazilian molds. One of them is this "See" from 1992, the last studio album by The Work.
I bought it when it came out or shortly after, probably urged by some review. I remember that a friend of mine also had it. I thought at the time that they were well known, but I was wrong, they are seldom talked about. I also remember that I compared them to King Crimson, but back then I had few references. I don't think I even knew Henry Cow yet, whom I mention not for stylistic comparisons but because of Tim Hodgkinson, a member of The Work along with the lesser-known Bill Gilonis, Mick Hobbs, and Rick Wilson. The musical style has little to do with RIO, much less with progressive. It's undoubtedly rock. I don't like to call it post-punk, although it seems decadent and urban. Its charm lies in the rhythms, with a guitar that is anything but virtuosic, it seems like something suspended between Waves: the No, the New, and the Dark. The track "Tell" sounds to me full of references: they seem to be Talking Heads steering the early King Crimson.
They give the impression of being one of those bands that can hardly be placed in a specific spot. Those who discover them via the rock in opposition route encounter a style with atmospheres unusual for the common references of the genre, while those who know them expecting a post-punk or industrial work might be surprised by some solutions that with today's ears I can't define as complex but rather unusual.
Far from the ears of many, in their small history, The Work has given us works of undeniable value (this one and "Rubber Cage", especially). I listen to them with great pleasure even today, and I assure you that there are few pieces of music I still carry with me after twenty years. As if to say: many albums grow mold over time, some are born with spores, and others pass through trends and seasons unscathed.
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