NOW I GET IT
The Editor of
Hollow Ear Looks At
Industry and Art in America and the Czech Republic
Two of those wonderfully ridiculous events the music industry loves come
our way this month. The first was the Grammy Awards. Sheesh... Bruce Springsteen
gets best contemporary folk (whatever that means), and Pete Seeger's weakest
effort in a decade gets best traditional folk album. I love Pete, but where
were they when he producing great recordings? Meanwhile, of all the albums
out there in the world, the RCA driven hype on The Chieftains lands the prize.
Again, I liked the album, but "best record in the world?" And I won't even
get into the major categories, so pathetic are they. The Grammys once again
proves what a silly little ghetto the music industry is.
The second bit of nonsense came when Reprise Records' president conspired
with an ABC News' program to promote a "new" band. (I won't join the hype
by mentioning their name.) Howie Klein gives the network "unprecedented access"
to the silliness that is star-making in the last weeks of the century. Why
has this band not made it on radio? Because, explains one Warner promo geek
to timid to just tell his boss the band is a bore, they "sound too different."
Yeah, like Pink Floyd meets Nirvana? It's "alternative." Been there, done
that. But hey, let's hype it on the networks as news and give Howie's half
million dollar flop another breath of life. That's news: "Network makes stars
of unknown band that sounds like X, Y and Z." Well, what should we expect
from a news organization owned by Mickey Mouse's handlers? Are folks now
rushing to put this band on the air and flocking to the store to buy this
record? I'd like to think not, but, as the saying goes, "Baaahhhhhh."
 Where's this leading? Believe it or not,
to a record review of a little known band from a little known country (to
the music industry) who really does sound too different to make it. Really
different. UZ JSME DOMA come from the Czech Republic carrying the
weight of the twentieth century on their musical shoulders, from the ponderous
classical music of the early years through the Plastic People's universe
of the bizarre. What do they sound like? Nothing I can nail down, and everything
I've ever heard. They are complex, with theatrical changes in rhythm and
melodies that leap from the simplicity of folk to the intricacies of modern
avant-garde theory, all imbued with a sense of rock's need of noise and light
and jazz' love of improvisation. Unloved World (Skoda Records, PO
1389, Wilmington, DE 19899-1389) is music unbounded by convention and so
full of conflicting conventions that you wonder how they all managed to fit
together.
And yet they do. Equally amazing is the size of the band. This quintet often
seems like an orchestra (and not all due to the wonders of multi-tracking)
of skilled instrumentalists and singers who sling funk, ska and art-rock
(remember that term?) into cauldron of classical-jazz-musical-theater madness.
Frantic. The name of the band translates as "Now I get it" or "We're home
now." The lyrics are equally complicated in translation, leaving you with
a vague sense of estrangement and discomfort as they ponder the passing of
history. Screw the confusions of middle-aged teen-age love that the American
rock industry is spewing still, this band is suffering the agony of contemplation
in word and melody. You can't dance to it, but it's got a great beat. - CF
—Hollow Ear, 1996
(reprinted with permission) |
