The former black midi frontman’s debut LP is a brilliant swirl of guitar rock, jazz, prog, funk, pop and a big dash of Latin, channelling Frank Zappa, a dramatic Scott Walker delivery, Broadway musicals, cello, a punchy horn section, his distinctive voice, clever, humorous, soliloquy-style lyrics. Black midi were groundbreaking, band, but this titular pushing of the envelope further is certainly a success, a stop-start frenetic finesse expressing Greep’s full creative freedom, not merely with his virtuosic fretboard fingers but also a swath of fabulous playing by others, with over 30 various friends and session musicians involved, recorded in São Paulo and London. This is an album of striking turns and vivid images, a portrait of insecure egos and, as in the terrific second track, Terra, captures a “museum of human suffering”. Arresting brilliant musicianship and striking, oddball, ironic, anguished lyrics come throughout, from the bold opener Blues, (“And you have a bigger dick than any man who’s ever lived / And you can cum more than a hundred stallions / In a room that smells of cigarettes and carrion,”) to the superb stream of consciousness about an urbane romantic fantasy rendezvous in Holy Holy, the bold funk-jazz-Latin adventures of the instrumental title track, or Through a War, where the music makes a very polished stab at aping a soul revue, or a salsa class. Motorbike brings a different lead vocal, by bassist and album producer Seth ‘Shank’ Evans, who releases a humorously doleful soliloquy about not getting what he wants, but actually maintains that high level of power and drama, and is a little reminiscent of the Berlin-era Bowie style. Greep returns with the fabulous dark fantasy of As If Waltz, which draws on that three-four time classical genre as well much more: “What a sweet hour”. Magician is a 12-minute musical-style epic, with the album’s curtain coming down on the brass-infused romantic If You Are But A Dream. Overall, a fabulous, fast journey of rich fantasy and musical adventure, and undoubtedly among the most distinctive and brilliant albums of the year. Out on Rough Trade.
A new unfettered freedom: Geordie Greep (Photo: Yis Kid)
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