BLACK SPIRIT

Live from the Krautrock/Hardrock/Psych Garage?

Here's something a little different. Formed in 1970 and based in Hamburg till around 1978, this unusual group of Italian lads moved to Germany and made an album that sounds nothing like RPI. This is hard garage rock with hints of vintage psych rock keyboards and sometimes even an early spirit of punk rock sneaking in, at least in the attitude department. Sometimes it reminds me of a smoothie blend of the first Rush album with the first BOC album with some heavy/trippy late '60s San Fran collective. Other times it could pass as a Midwest grungy stoner rock garage band. Some people mention a lack of sophistication, but I think that has more to do with the low-fi production than the playing ability. While these guys are not going to be invited to play sessions with late '70s Steely Dan, they're not exactly slouches either. This is not a review that requires much analysis or long-windedness. This album is not complicated. They grab an idea, lock into an extended, often repetitive groove, and they just head on down the highway until you're either enthralled or until you're begging for mercy. Personally, I think it's a fun ride, but not one I'd need to take too often. There's a whole lotta stuff I'd rather be playing at this point in time. But when I was 17 working the overnight cleaning shift, this would have been a great work-companion cassette in the boombox.

Despite the fact that they are Italian, Black Spirit figure among the exceptions in term of musical signature. Their own sound is at million miles away from the usual luxurious, neo-baroco and lyrical Italian progressive rock scene. In reality it's not so surprising because the album has been signed on a german label. The band is stylisticaly connected with trippy-kraut excentricies, mainly with the bluesy-heavy side of the genre (Birth Control, Electric Sandwich...). Their music is a nice and intuitive mixture of dynamic krauty improvs with harsh garagey guitar rhythms, discreet epic vintage keyboards, sometimes punctuated by pop-ish nervous vocals. Crazy Times starts as a basic rockin piece and progressively goes into a furious psychedelic blues rock jamming session, including perpetual guitar solos and solid repetitive rhythms. The two following tracks Punk Rock'n Roll and Nicolino are ultra fuzzy garagey hard rockin pieces. Old times closes the album with a playful blues rock improvisation based on screaming fuzz guitar sequences. The last minutes feature a great dose of emotional-moody organ chords. Not so good but spontaneous with lot of fun.