Provengono da Vancouver i cinque canadesi che si sono esibiti mercoledì sera sul palco della Salumeria della Musica. Amber Webber, voce, Stephen McBean, chitarra e voce, Matt Camirand, basso, Jeremy Schmidt, organo e tastiere e Josh Wells, batteria, hanno presentato il loro terzo lavoro appena pubblicato Wilderness Heart. Fautori di un un suono che affonda le proprie radici nel hard-rock anni Settanta profondamente intriso di psichedelia, hanno convinto con uno show efficace il pubblico accorso numeroso.
Innanzi tutto i Black Mountain sono un gruppo nell’accezione più profonda del termine e lo si percepisce dalla loro esibizione coesa. Seppur tutti ottimamente dotati nei propri ruoli, è l’amalgama sonora a restare impressa, senza che ci sia spazio per narcisistiche ribalte virtuosistiche. Di hard-rock pertanto resta l’essenziale, la potenza di impatto, le cavalcate tra chitara e organo e una ritmica vigorosa, i toni a volte epici e suggestivi, ma senza tutti quei logori clichè che vennero poi abusati nell’evoluzione di quel genere che sfociò nell’heavy-metal.
Addirittura la cantante Amber Webber validissima sul piano vocale, vive la sua parte di front-woman in una maniera così statuaria, come mai mi era capitato di vedere in ambiti di questo tipo; non è certo l’immagine che conta per loro, non posano e non ammiccano al pubblico ma badano solo al sodo, la musica. Così sono i Hair Song, Stormy High, Tyrants, Rollercoaster, Old Fangs, Let Spirits Ride a portarci nel futuro da loro disegnato con tratti netti e precisi. Ma ad essere sinceri la caratteristica distintiva della loro musica è la particolare vena lisergica, che ha un baricentro molto basso ed introspettivo. Niente a che vedere con trip a base di funghetti magici, bensì viene da pensare a viaggi mistici derivanti da pratiche ascetiche di qualche popolazione nativa, magari di quelle presenti nella Columbia Britannica, regione in cui vivono. Evocano un pantheon arcaico dove gli elementi della natura godono ancora del rispetto da parte dell’uomo e la musica per il solito vecchio vizio dei paragoni, mi ricorda a tratti alcune suggestioni tedesche alla Amon Duul II (senza alcuni barocchismi però) o addirittura i Can, quando intraprendono loop circolari che sfociano in crescendo ipnotici. C’è spazio anche per momenti quasi folk, quando Stephen McBean imbraccia l’acustica al posto dell’elettrica o comunque quando dimostrano che, pure senza forzare, sanno colpire l’immaginario.
Tra i nuovi gruppi in circolazione la maggior parte riprende questo o quel genere, senza creare nuovi linguaggi musicali. Seppur proponendo anch’essi un suono derivativo i Black Mountain, riescono brillantemente in uno sforzo creativo giocando sulle alchimie e proponendo pezzi che sanno essere comunque originali. Ogni gruppo chiude il concerto con i bis, solitamente suonando i pezzi più trascinanti a bruciare le ultime energie proprie e del pubblico, nel classico crescendo catartico. I B.M. chiudono con Drugonaut un tranquillo semi strumentale da circa dieci minuti, come dire noi siamo questo, se volete seguiteci, questa è la nostra via. Controcorrente e coraggiosi. Si accendono le luci e ti accorgi che il concerto è veramente finito. Forse.
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Nick Cave has been accused of plagiarism by a Scottish musician.
Frankie Duffy, who plays in the band Kalel, alleges that Cave copied his song ‘Grey Man’ for Grinderman’s ‘Palaces Of Montezuma’.
Watch videos of both tracks by scrolling down now.
Speaking to Thecourier.co.uk, Duffy explained that he first recorded ‘Grey Man’ in 2005 when in previous band Rising Signs. The song has remained online since then, and Duffy said he thinks Cave could have stumbled across it when looking for inspiration.
“When you hear that track you can totally spot the similarities. I sat down with my guitar and played along with it and it’s exactly the same A, E and B chords, which to be fair anybody could use to write a song at any time. But it’s the chord progression and when the vocal hook comes in with some “ooohs”, it’s exactly the same, you can just hear it’s the same thing.
“It’s been up on our MySpace even after Rising Signs split, and I don’t know, I can’t help thinking that Nick Cave was sitting in his house one night and decided to surf some unsigned bands and saw our site, saw we were split up and thought, ‘I’ll have that track, nobody will ever know.'”
However, Cave seemed to dismiss the comparisons during Grinderman’s show at London’s Hammersmith Apollo on Friday (October 1).
Speaking before playing ‘Palaces Of Montezuma’, Cave told the crowd he’d been sued by a “17-year-old from Dundee” before jokingly denying the claims and declaring “I wrote it for my wife,” while pointing at bearded drummer Jim Sclavunos.
Duffy added that he would consider taking legal action against Cave over the similarities.
“It could be a really huge, amazing coincidence, but it’s really obvious they sound the same and on the Grinderman album [‘Grinderman 2’] you can hear the band talking and you can hear the words “grey man” being said, so maybe it’s not as much of a coincidence after all,” he said.
“I’m not sure where I want to take it but it will be interesting to see what they’ve got to say. Everybody I’ve played it to agrees it sounds like the same song and you never know, I might have to sue him in court.”
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The Who are set to release a deluxe ‘Live At Leeds’ package containing a revamped version of the original 1970 live album.
‘Live At Leeds: 40th Anniversary Super-Deluxe Collectors’ Edition’ will be out on November 15. It will also include a restored live album from the band’s performance in Hull on February 15, 1970 – the night after the Leeds gig was recorded.
The original tapes for the Hull show were missing bassist John Entwistle’s contribution due to a recording mix-up, but for this edition the parts have been added from the Leeds show.
“Hull was a better gig than Leeds,” frontman Roger Daltrey said. “I remember it like it was yesterday, although in retrospect ‘Live At Hull’ doesn’t really trip off the tongue!”
The two live albums will each come packaged in a two-CD set for each show as part of the collection. Also included will be a heavyweight vinyl reproduction of the original ‘Live At Leeds’ album, a hardback book, a seven-inch single of ‘Summertime Blues’/’Heaven & Hell’ and a Pete Townshend poster.
See Thewho.com for more information.
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THANKS!!!!!!!
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…..GGGGGRRRRRRRR……………….INDERMAN!
…..TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT…..
AUGH!!!!
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FORZA GENERALE E ATTENTO AL LUPO… UH!
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altro super live…lo dice anche robert mitchum (ma sara’ lui…redivivo?)
Let’s hear it for those who take risks with their live show. On recordings as Manitoba or Caribou, Dan Snaith exhibits the demeanor of an electro-psychedelic perfectionist, layering sounds and textures into a dense swirl. That’s the kind of drag-and-drop approach that doesn’t always translate well to the stage, but it’s never thrown off Snaith, who has turned his band into a ferocious live animal. With a PhD in mathematics, Snaith is aware of the Boadrum Theorem– live awesomeness increases exponentially by the number of drummers onstage– and bolsters that rhythmic attack with projections, costumes, and a willingness to expand upon a song’s recorded blueprint.
For 2009’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in New York, Snaith was able to indulge those practices to their fullest with the 15-piece Caribou Vibration Ensemble, a two-off (including a Toronto warm-up show) project now commoditized into a limited-edition double-vinyl live release. You want drummers? They’ve got four of them, plus a horn section led by Sun Ra sideman Marshall Allen, Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden on the knobs, and a gaggle of other friends to broadcast the noises in Snaith’s head. The crowded stage allows him to gets closer than ever to replicating the overstuffed studio sound of Caribou, while also enabling a few flashes of deep musical exploration.
The songs picked for this set were already pretty busy on record, where Snaith seems determined to find the maximum amount of sound he can pack into a song without collapsing into chaos. Here, he finds that tipping point and then unleashes Allen’s alto saxophone into the carnage on the other side. “Skunks”, from the Manitoba days, already had a healthy dose of free-jazz skronk, so it doesn’t change much under this strategy. But “Barnowl”, from 2005’s The Milk of Human Kindness, gets a full makeover, almost doubling its recording length. On the album version, the song’s motorik beat chugs along relatively unperturbed; here, it’s tormented and decimated until it flies apart into a thrilling wall of freeform noise, then reconstructed more menacingly than before.
Not everything here is so densely exhausting. “Melody Day” is a haunting exception, reversing the more-is-more premise and stripping down the original to harmonies, a moving, unnoisy sax solo, and ghostly electronics. Other songs don’t receive dramatic reworkings from their album version, but still get a fresh gloss from the large ensemble taking the place of backing tapes. Manitoba/Caribou records benefit from being played at loud volume, but here the live mix does the work for you, unleashing the overwhelming drum corps stampede of “Every Time She Turns Round It’s Her Birthday” and “Hendrix with Ko” while Allen’s horn section wails like a circus tent full of frightened elephants.
Of course, hearing that noisy ruckus on wax is likely a poor substitute for seeing the set live; the multiplicative majesty of multiple drum sets is an effect that needs to be felt as much as heard. Through home speakers, the set feels a bit claustrophobic in a way that probably didn’t hurt experiencing it live in the Catskills, where all those vibrating reeds and drum heads would wash over and through the crowd. Such is the curse of any live recording, which makes it all the more important for the event being documented to be something special, to provide more than just crowd noise and stage banter. That’s not a problem here, where the brief, fascinating existence of Snaith’s impractical ensemble was definitely worth preserving.
— Rob Mitchum, October 6, 2010
Pitchfork.com
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p.s. Generale chiedi del plagio a Ellis… curioso di vedere cosa/come ti risponde…
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