Can listen here.
Edition | 2018
Label | Clean Feed/Shhpuma
Albatre is, since the Nagual album, one of the pleasant surprises on my shelf. Well, saying "on my shelf" is not a good sign because we want it to be a pleasant surprise in my cd player. That's why I rectify! Albatre is a pleasant surprise in my cd player.
When I saw them live at SMUP, on July 3, 2015, It was a nice surprise for my ears.
This album The Fall of the Damned is, once again, the kind of music that my ears and brain like. Long and composed dialogue, perfect groove and bass and battery lines that are all about rock.What made me look at the Albatre album the first time? The cover! For me one of the Clean Feed/Shhpumabest cover (is a total taste issue. And yes the tastes can be discussed!).
This time what made me want to listen this album? The fact that I already knew Albatre and I wanted to hear what was going to happen again in my living room when I press the play button. I knew beforehand that two Portuguese and one German would invade space with two of the instruments I like most: bass and drums and one that I'm learning to like - saxophone.
And, of course, a lot of things have happened since the first few seconds. First the foot began, involuntarily, beating to the sound of the track that entitles the record. In Goya I already had docked the Hugo Costa saxophone and in Dance of the Dead Paradise the electronics made everything incredibly danceable. I felt an indescribable urge to see them live.
The repetition of rhythmic patterns is hypnotizing and it was, at this precise moment, that I paid more attention to the titles. But before I get to that point, the album stills playing, and in the room I'm not the only one listening with all the attention. In Ship of Fools the slight schizophrenia of the saxophone, the compulsive drums and the electronic scream fill my measures. It's ten intense minutes followed by ten more hypnotic minutes with Peasent Dance.
And when I get to the last theme - Horned Animal - I found the metal lurking. And why not? It certainly makes sense to close the album like that. As I had mentioned the art is in this album from the music to the tracks titles.
1. The Fall of the Damned - Paul Rubens paiting. It is the album cover.
2. Goya - Francisco de Goya was a painter who in his work represented the moral, the strange and the bizarre of human life. During the latter part of his life, Goya covered the walls of his Quinta del Sordo with the famous "black paintings".
3. Dance of the Dead Paradise - The Dance of Death is a religious painting by Hans Holbien the Younger.
4. Asmodea - One of Goya's black paintings.
5. Ship of Fools - Painting by Hieronymus Bosch.
6. Peasant Dance - Painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
7. Horned Animal (Remix by Torture Corpse) - Without certainty I think is about the goat that can assume diverse representations and meanings. In this context the goat can be interpreted as a demon.
From cover to tracks - art, religion and the macabre go side by side with the sounds of jazz, rock and metal. A love relationship at first listening.
Credits
Hugo Costa alto sax. & effects
Gonçalo Almeida bass, keyboards & electronics
Philipp Ernsting drums & electronics
All tracks by ALBATRE
Recorded and mixed by Albatre at Soundport, Rotterdam | Master by Bernardo Fesch at Gizmeister Studios, Lisbon Produced by Albatre | Executive production Travassos for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos | Paintings by Rubens