VOKAL
IDIOT – s/t
(CD, gracetone)
In Thessaloniki, Greece there may be another burning
node for free
improvised freak folk avantgarde or whatever you may call it,
just as productive, weird and imaginative as those animal collectives and
offspring in the USofA. Unfortunately, as usual, US-bands and projects have
a lot better press and promotion in Europe than local bands. I know,
Thessaloniki, Greece is not actually local in regards to Vienna, but in
geographic terms it is closer than Athens, Georgia, nevertheless it is much
easier to learn about any kind of new band from the latter city than the
first one. Unless you happen to log onto this here web presence, because for
some reason or another bands from Greece have been slipping into our radar
quite regularly.
Given, Vokal Idiot aren’t as wild and distorted as Animal Collective,
as those underground bands from Greece we have come across usually have a
faible for intricate structures and postrock grooves, but they share a
common vision about music making, which is getting likeminded people into a
room together with recording equipment and then let’s see what happens
from there. The answers is, almost anything. The result is a loose but
steadfastly forward moving collection of tracks that circle around a bunch
of ideas each, that are repeated, explored, experimented with and discarded
just as easily. A diverse collection of instruments crops up and then there
are sounds where it is hard to say where they actually come from. Within all
the mixing and re-editing that obviously has happened the spark of
spontaneity and collaboration has been transcended from the first living
room rehearsals to the pressing plant.
Within the twelve untitled tracks on the album, Vokal
Idiot draw from a lot of sources, sometimes reciting Fred Frith, sometimes
locking into a groove that sounds like homemade Can and then they present
something that could be the soundtrack to an underground movie. The
harmonium adds many interesting counterpoints to some drudgingly picky parts
and I also find the harmony singing in some places very interesting, that
also point back to hippie folk records from the early Seventies. Without the
drugs or their influence, though, the music on here always sounds very
controlled and directed, inspite of the free form and improvisational
sparks. Which, in my opinion, is usually a very good sign of the quality and
the shared experience of improvising musicians together.
The recordings to these sessions already took place in 2006 during a five month period and then set on some shelf until gracetone picked them up. That label only releases a few records and then it is usually at least a year between each release, but they are well worth the wait. Some more notes: you may know some of the people involved in Vokal Idiot, such as Spiros Emmanoulidis, who plays with Good Luck Mr. Gorsky (which we reviewed for a split release with Eventless Plot on granny). Tasos Stamou is known for playing avantgarde music with toys.
Second point, the comparison to the so called freak folk bands or whatever this microtrend is being called today, is musically somewhat unfair- After all Greece fortunately is very different from the US, so influences and approaches and sounds ought to be different. But from viewpoint of musical quality, this release and some others is easily on par with or better than some of the records being shipped over the Atlantic ocean to Europe to be sold on import prices, and this is my main complaint in that comparison.
And finally, as usual for gracetone, the packaging and
design of the record is wonderfully beautiful.
