by Maurizio Lucenti
issued on Mucchio Selvaggio #117
(October 1987)
A dive into the past. The meeting between a guitarist graduate in Art
History exile from the rain parade finished the emergency, and a charming maiden who hasn't
renewed the membership card to the dream syndicate ended the days of wine and roses. The
mutual understanding between these two fellows is immediate, and during the rainy days their
artistic feelings prove harmonious about the passion for the gentle and ethereal psychedelia.
A dive into the past, I said, and in effect this is the question: the duet draws his store
of sonorities going back at least of twenty years, Grateful Dead, Syd Barrett, Doors and the
whole psychedelia of that period. A dive into the past represented metaphorically by the old
black and white pictures of the Authors on the cover. A fruitful trip, no doubt: we're hanging,
floating upon an indefinite point in time and in space, held up by the impalpable magic of
this astonishing electric flow, produced by David Roback's restless guitar and softened by
Kendra Smith's sweet and winning voice. Stars turn into usual playmates, while mind is lost
in lisergic suggestions and vocal caresses.
Nine pieces, all justly expressive of the worth of the band: from the rhythmical gait of Rocket
Machine
to the violent sourness of Magik Power
, from the dreaming mysticism of
Relevation
to the eclectic veins blues of A Falling Star
and She's A Diamond
,
from the stellar echoes of Supernova
(in which Kendra sings: "She knows the sun
/She
knows the moon
/She knows the rain
/She knows the wind
" and really I
feel like thinking she knows the forces of nature in their inwardness, such is her talent for
bewitching us) to the eastern and winding texture of Siamese Trap
. And in conclusion
the title-track, a pure gem made of acoustic embroideries in the style of the enchanting
Northern Line
(included on their debut EP),
which materializes the ghost of The Doors, and the final Soul Giver
whose brightness
we already knew it.
Happy nightmare. Maybe one day we shall awake and laugh at this joke that is our life. In the
meanwhile, Opal be with you.