They just sort of carried on.
Listen to Journey Through A Body, their last studio release before Part Two: The Endless Not, and you'll hardly notice the seams. Organic Weetabix. It's like they've simply taken an extended 25 year breath between the end of Oltra la Morte, Birth and Death and the beginning of Voice Of Silence, a breath that's seen a legion of copyists fastforward and die, that's seen the grime of TG's 'industrial world' disappear to the pacific rim to be replaced by digital carpet sweeping and odd job titles (soon there will be a Minister of Anti-Social Insecurity).
And so, here come TG, all guns blazing, straight into the first track which is resolutely ironic in that Genesis never shuts up; his voice broken up into Balance Shards (think A.Y.O.R or Aural Rage's Make Room For The Mushrooms), dipping in and out of the mix like the best TG live you never heard. West Indian Pepper Sauce. Later, on Almost a Kiss and Rabbit Snare and even the title track, Genesis will return to the softer creepiness of the early PTV stuff but you almost hear the release of steampunk as Gen's manipulated voice rises through the fog - he's glad to be back and we ought to be glad to have him.
To a certain extent, the album hinges on what you think about Gen's vocals. Marmite.
Yeah, we know he can't sing but there's something about his voice I love; it's like a broken human being dragged through a hedge onto some newly laid tarmacadam. It's plaintive, delirious, disturbed and slightly dorky - a killing combination when surrounded by the whorls of sound that TG drive up. Tortelloni. His voice is all over this album - you hear it even when it's not there.
TG still sound like themselves, after all this time. No one has successfully re-created their sound and, while they're not exactly pushing new ground here this return to a better version of their old sound (the improv. indulgences of the Journey album thankfully gone) is exactly what's needed in an era where noise no longer annoys; someone to be a little thoughtful and, well, considered about it. This is the sound of 4 adults, working over musical demons, resisiting the urge to recalibrate, sticking with their own understanding of what's out there and what needs to be in. Wolf Eyes, Black Dice etc better take a long hard look...
A Yousendit Rebirthing Gene(sis) Pool
6 comments:
Utterly agree...I also think Genesis' vocals help root the TG sound in the everyday , the bland , the mass-produced , the shopping centre.Not really transcendental but horribly realistic and humdrum...like early Tuesday afternoons in a drizzled market town car park.
Anyway...ATP!!!!!
Always liked Gen's voice ... particularly the more vunerable stuff, like 'Weeping'.
An individual intrument, nobody else sounds quite like him.
Looking forward to getting this - I really dug the TG-NOW thing from 2004 - that Greasy Spoon certainly does retain the old TG - dragged screaming into the digital age - nice stuff ...
Kemper, ATP indeed... very excited... finally getting to see Neubauten after years of wanting to and never quite convincing someone else to come...
Farmer, I loved the TG now stuff as well - it seems to have been largely ignored though - this new album is really growing on me... definitely one of their best...
And as for 'weeping' I spent literally days trying to recreate that sound (vocally and musically) at home with a contact miked acoustic guitar, a metal sculpture and an assortment of metal files)... Sounded crap
liking the album too, with the wonderfully corrosive 'lyre liar' being my favourite. All that playful word/meaning inside/out stuff that gen's become fond of over the years coming to a resolved and satisfied result
Always liked Gen's voice ... particularly the more vunerable stuff, like 'Weeping'.
Pasta Tarifleri resimli yaş pasta hazırlama
Post a Comment