The Amazing, Stockholm, 2011. © Carl A
It must be very hard to be a rock musician these days. I mean, everything’s already been done before, probably a gazillion times or more. But somewhere deep inside lurks that feeling that although whatever it is you want to achieve has most likely already been achieved by someone else, you must carry on in the same brave spirit, paying homage to past demi-gods by echoing the cool chords of yesteryear. And perhaps life could be worse than that?
Occasionally though, something original does happen. It’s probably as rare in rock as in other generic genres. Suddenly something elevates the listener, knocks on tightly shut doors of fantasy and emotion, makes you shudder, makes you wake up. Music that despite well known ingredients still manages to make a genuinely new and nutritious audio-emotional stew. Why this happens, remains a complete mystery. People usually talk about chemistry. Sure, the interaction between two or more creative minds in a band can certainly make magic happen. Is that the chemistry usually referred to? Well, at least it’s one kind. Another kind are the stimulants that already creative individuals immerse themselves in to be relieved of everyday hassles, and to be one with their creation(s). This is of course a vilified perspective (and action) in a culture that defies and mocks originiality and the concept of the ”unique” in favour of pre-packaged safety and opaque visions. Perhaps another crucial piece of chemistry is the neuro-transmitted one that manifests in the anger and frustration at this obscene contemporary complacency.
No matter what, chemistry abounds in The Amazing. Mainly the multicoloured kind that seeps serenely out of their emotionally charged music. The title of the new album, Gentle Stream, couldn’t be better or more appropriate. The album is, simply, one gentle stream of highly narcotic music. I don’t dare comment on the band members’ individual metabolisms, but what I mean is the actual album itself. It’s narcotic. It really is. It’s addictive. It’s soothing, pleasant, elevating, mind-blowing, curious, happy, sad, blissful, frustrated, etc. The totality never ends and I really don’t want it to either. It’s a total ”repeat” album, perfectly assembled to provide a soundtrack for life as it is or can be at any time of day or night.
Groovy guitars, loose and cool jazzy beats’n’bass, Christopher Gunrup’s ethereal vocals, dreamy arrangements, and psych-poppy dues paid to the Age of Aquarius as well as to brave new worlds of exciting proportions. It’s highly pleasant to be a part of this experience, even if only as a listener. The songs all gradually melt into one singular ray of human life force and then dissolve again, only to start right over. Want chemistry? The Amazing have plenty, of the enticing enchantment kind that floats all around you as you drift slowly into hypnagogic fantasies and inner vistas.
This concoction is constructed by a veritable dream team assembled from the Anna Järvinen and Dungen cabals in Stockholm. Reine Fiske’s guitars are as fierce as in Dungen, but he does seem more playful (as in ”spontaneously innovative”) in this environment. Mr Gunrup is a poetic beacon of electrified sensitivity, armed with a fingerpicking will to let words be intimately cathartic and soul-searchingly soothing at the same time. He succeeds. And the entire band is tight as… [pick your own more or less sexual euphemism] … When they all get together and crank up the volume it’s almost as much a jazz thing as a rock thing. They know their music. They don’t have to think about it (I doubt they do). They just do what they do and they do it in a way that very gently (yes, there we are again) fells you like a tree that hits the ground in slow motion, whereupon the scene is rewound backwards and you suddenly find yourself standing up in the presence of the gentle giants of The Amazing again.
This really is a knock out album in every possibly conceivable way. ”Gentle Stream”? How appropriate. ”The Amazing”? Even more so. I don’t really have a rating system here at the blog, which is naturally why I feel inclined to award this album eleven psychedelic hard-ons out of ten possible.
The Amazing
Gentle Stream
CD/LP/Download, Subliminal Sounds 2011
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