HALF
MAN
"The Complete Field Guide For Cynics"
CD/LP (Border Music)
1. Blues Ain't Nothing (But A Botheration On Your Mind) - 2. Insane - 3. Home
For Two - 4. Nowhere Leading Road - 5. When The Train Comes Back - 6. Ain't
Ya Coming Home, Babe? - 7. Two Perverted Men In The Swamp - 8. Hardly Wait
- 9. Searching For A Woman - 10. Two Drinks Of Wine - 11. Rodney's Song -
12. Shake That Thing
HALF MAN / MOTHERCAKE
"Half Man vs Mothercake Vol. 1" EP 7"
HALF MAN: 1. Red Herring - 2. Acid Park - MOTHERCAKE: 1. Fists Of Fury - 2.
Baglady
Lately, Swedish rock has been the talk of the town, and the stoner rock genre
seems to be the one which tickles Northmen's fantasy more than others, though
only a handful of bands (Spiritual Beggars, Roachpowder, Mammoth Volume...)
were able to free themselves from Kyuss' stylistic features. In reality, on
the wave of enthusiasm for "The Complete Field Guide For Cynics", Half Man's
fabulous debut CD/LP, I suspect that other excellent groups are dozing in
the Swedish underground, waiting to reveal themselves to the world...
On the back cover of their album, Half Man are portrayed at the foot of a
secular tree, while one of the band members grabs a couple of crutches, like
a real "half man". An highly symbolic image that fits well with the group's
"musical philosophy", considering that their swamp stoner blues feeds itself
with the imaginary berries and roots of the '60s/'70s heavy blues, with the
benediction of Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath, Hendrix, Cactus, Free, Captain Beyond,
just to mention a few names.
The record opens with a blues divertissement colored by the sound of a harmonica,
a song that for a die-hard stoner rock fan could go unnoticed if it wasn't
for a rhythm more thick and surly than usual and for a crude guitar sound
which presage the hurricane to come. In fact, it's with the following tracks,
"Insane" and "Home For Two", that we are introduced to the full dimension
of Half Man, musicians who manipulate the blues' classic three chords cramming
them with psychedelic tones, but preserving blues' personal characteristics
intact, among delicious and never intrusive high voltage guitar solos, rhythmic
breaks and Jan Bengtsson's hard vocals (a guy who drank deep from the swamp
water). As in "Nowhere Leading Road", introduced by a delicate arpeggio which
leads soon to a colossal mid-tempo with a rich arrangement. "Two Perverted
Men In The Swamp" deserves an applause: an instrumental track in which Patric
Carlsson's bass and Roger Bengtsson's drums seem to chase Jan Bengtsson and
Peter Lilja's unleashed guitars which ride on expanded and oneiric sounds,
before a lethal riff puts an end to the instrumental dialogue introducing
a funky groove and a solo which smells of Autumn and dead leaves...
But if it's true that you can judge a band of great worth even in the way
in which it plays with other's repertoire, Half Man's debut offers enough
remarks, thanks to a few covers among which there's an incredible rendition
of P.J. Harvey's "Hardly Wait", with its bare acoustic start and a majestic
electric explosion that sent shivers up my spine.
As for the 4-tracks split 7", Mothercake don't cut a sorry figure at all,
and "Fists Of Fury" and "Baglady" distinguish themselves for a more rock 'n'
roll edge, whose wickedness is multiplied by several guitar overdubs, while
Half Man press the foot on the accelerator of their stoner sound, and the
sabbatish "Red Herring" and "Acid Park" literally break stones, competing
with Spiritual Beggars' bluesier stuff.
Such instrumental erudition and skill, innate in every blues artist worthy
of respect, also hide a 13 years long "mess-tin" that the four from Sweden
had to face before releasing their debut, which already sounds like a classic.
But you know, the blues is like the wine: the vintage one has a totally different
taste...
Luciano Gaglio, Stoner
Rock Rules!
