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What a great surprise ! What a fucking
great surprise ! After the media slagged off progressive rock in
favour of punk and new wave years later the prog revival mainly was
something launched by ‘older’ musicians. Either it concerned older
bands being reformed or new bands which were formed around ‘older’
musicians who were not that famous the first time around. Take
Flower Kings and Spock’s Beard as prime examples of the latter.
That’s why I’m so terribly chuffed to hear this debut album by the
unknown upcoming talents of Liquid Scarlet. Once again it concerns a
Swedish band formed by a bunch of very young people, youngsters who
most certainly were not around during the genre’s heydays. That’s
what makes it so very interesting, that young people want to create
new music, music which does not fit the commercial criteria at all.
Without explicitely calling it progressive rock Liquid Scarlet has
created a true masterpiece in what they call ‘new music’.
‘We try to make music which
experiences all emotions and every feeling, just like a movie or a
good book’, the band says. With King Crimson, Yes, Genesis but also
Björk, Radiohead and Frank Zappa as main influences this band has
been experimenting with music for about seven years now. On stage
they all wear white clothes to also make a statement in that
department. With all five members being in their twenties you could
easily see this band as one of the standard-bearers of the new wave
of progressive rock. Take early Anekdoten and blend with a mix of
Landberk and Änglagärd and you get the purest Swedish prog-cocktail
you can imagine. Cover it with excuisite layers of mellotron and you
pretty much know what to expect.
Thick washes of mellotron and tons of
rhythmic breaks are the main dynamics in the opening section of
‘Greyroom’ with Markus Fagervall’s soft whispering voice as
counterpoint. The next section even contains the power of a young
Black Sabbath entertwined with early Anekdoten combined with “Red”
era King Crimson. It’s that fingerlicking good ! The inclusion of
the not so obvious clarinet also adds a certain folky charm to the
whole whilst also incorporating the Swedish prog legacy as
introduced by the likes of Samla Mannas Manna several years ago. In
‘Citta Nuova’ Fagervall delivers a chorus which will most certainly
become a classic in years to come as it’s so damned catchy without
losing the prog idiom out of sight for even just one second. Great
synthlead from the lady on keys Frida Lundström. Destructive and
authentic King Crimson atmosphere combined with the lush textures of
a subtle Änglagärd are to be found in ‘Molok’ which once again
contains some superb basslines, great distorted guitar leads and
wonderful percussive input. As often happens in the music of Liquid
Scarlet louder passages are mixed with more ambient textures so as
to underline the various atmospheres contained in one single
composition. In ‘Comes near lingers far’ I detect a certain amount
of Paatos magic whilst vocal harmonies inject some extra magic
backed once again by soothing mellotron. Sometimes Markus’ vocals
contain a little bit of that of A-Ha’s Morten Harket such as in the
beginning of ‘The red stairs’ which soon places fiery bass on top of
seas of mellotron. In the soft passages the inclusion of marimba
adds some mysticism backed by jazzy drums. The album closes with the
devastating ‘One last masquerade’ which closes with the main melody
being repeated on church organ in order to end this debut album with
a surprise.
Liquid Scarlet most certainly has released one of the better albums
of this year and no doubt they have made a statement that
progressive rock is back with a vengeance and with a young view as
to how it should sound in the 21st century. Although they
do ‘borrow’ certain wellknown ideas from time to time they
nevertheless deliver it in an original way combining several
atmospheres all at once. If prog can’t reach a wider audience
because most of the artists involved are too old, then these
youngsters most certainly can be the start of a completely new
revival. In the end it looks like it’s all coming back ! I wish them
all the luck in the world and can’t wait to see them live ! |
