VALINA
Ship to escape / circus song
7”, Substance
“We learned more from a three minute record or tape, than we ever
learned in school” – do these lyrics ring a bell with you? These are the
opening lines to “ship to escape, the a-side of this superb single, sung
over distorted guitar-picking and something sounding like a glockenspiel.
Then bass and drums set in and a beautiful melody and harmony evolve and the
song builds up to a fully fledged but danceable rocker. I can’t think of
anyone who wouldn’t like that. Even my wife likes it, and she is not
usually full of laurels for Valina,
because their music is a little to deconstructed and not as melodic as she
likes it (then again, the only music she really likes is Nick Cave, and who
would blame her for that…?), which is something I like a lot about Valina,
but she is also able to recognise the band by hearing the first few moments
of a song. Does that mean that Valina have become less complex, more
hit-oriented or even straightened out? I don’t think so and I guess, if
the b-side of this single doesn’t, the upcoming album (on Trost
and Conspiracy)
will prove that more than enough.
“circus song”, the so called b-side, features only two guitars and
nothing more. Starting from a quite familiar guitar line, the two guitars
interweave, build up and destroy harmonies, mingle with one another, fall
apart again and so on. This opposition of ever changing guitar lines results
in a very interesting, very constructed piece of music that will clear any
dancefloor in seconds. There are only a few lines sung at the beginning and
at the end, then the distorted guitar on the right sets in, followed by the
second guitar on the left. Yeah, you should try this with headphones. But
these few lines feature important sentiments, such as: “Your postmodern
attitude doesn’t say what became real today, for me, you idiot.” and
“I tell myself, it’s only music, blows my mind but it’s like that.”
(I hope I heard them off the record correctly.) As usual, there is always
that little more put into the songs that Valina do and it is a good thing to
just sit down and try to fish them all out.
And what a perfect start to begin a single-series with. I hope this one
sells well, so a lot of singles will follow. Sometimes I have the feeling
that I am the only person that still buys vinyl singles. I like them. A lot.
I guess I own about 800 of those little fuckers. But these babies offer so
much, it is easy to fall in love with them. From old singles that remind me
of my childhood (in the Eighties, god forgive them) up to new ones, which
always add that little something more, that’ll give you a closer
connection to a band. Or let you make a discovery, I mean a single isn’t
that important, so it is easy to just grab one as you go, and maybe you’ll
get something really great. I never understood how people could listen to
complete singles in a record store, side a, side b and then side a again.
Well, people are strange anyway. To make this one short: get this single.
Even if you haven’t bought a single since you were fifteen years old.
