Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Blackfield
Label: Kscope
Release: 2013
Duration: 31:29
Rating: 4/5
The Blackfield project doesn’t need much of an introduction anymore. It’s been launched successfully and has won a hefty crowd of supporters. On the international scene. Thanks to the Steven Wilson name. Our visit to the band’s gig in April 2011 confirmed it, when Steven Wilson and Aviv Geffen, the two main drivers of Blackfield, took the stage with their backing crew in the Italian town of Roncade near Treviso. They were presenting their then-current album »Welcome to My DNA« (2011).
Barely two years have passed since then, and here’s the project’s fourth studio album already, simply titled »IV«. The album carries all the proper trademarks of the previous three. At the same time, it underlines that Blackfield is becoming more and more Aviv Geffen’s own personal artistic statement. Steven Wilson is busy as hell all the time. He simply ran out of time to focus fully on the fourth Blackfield album. But we know what kind of stuff this brilliant artist is made of, and his guiding principle is that you’ve got to create, record and release albums for as long as »the music flows«. So this time Aviv wrote all the songs and also did the lion’s share of the sound production. Wilson took care of the final mix.
Since Aviv Geffen is a perfectionist, which is also a big character trait of his buddy Steven Wilson, the guy invited no fewer than three guest vocalists, who delivered their contributions with flying colors. Three vocalists who each create their own musical world, just like the bands they belong to, Mercury Rev, Anathema and Suede, each with its own musical universe. The melancholic atmosphere of Geffen’s musical minimalism, from a pop-leaning composer, is tailor-made for these voices, since that direction has quite a bit in common with the direction of their home bands. Of the lot, Firefly is the real winner, with Suede frontman Brett Anderson’s lead vocal igniting fantastically in a one-of-a-kind blend of symphonic and psychedelic elements. It’s the darkest moment on the album!
Lost Souls features an interesting doubling of a guitar motif in harmony with the bass line (which deliberately stays in a high register). The harmony recalls the energy of post-punk / darkwave bands like The Cure or the first two The Mission albums (1986-1988 period), which, combined with the psychedelic Mellotron backdrop, creates a special moment on the album.. The melodically compact feel of the verse and chorus, meanwhile, gives it, for all its retro sound, the up-to-date haircut of modern indie pop rock bands, and this tune is a great hit single candidate! Funny thing is that a retro sound is in hot demand on MTV, you just have to »repackage« it the right way.
Since the new Blackfield album continues to reduce the progressive elements – we’re starting from the point that early Blackfield were »softly progressive« – the album »IV«, unlike the first two records, comes closer in style and atmosphere to the solo work of Aviv Geffen, who is a genuine national music hero in Israel. So there you have it. »IV« has almost more in common with the melancholy and pop orientation of Aviv Geffen’s solo albums than with the first two Blackfield records.
Wilson contributed vocals to the opening track Pills and later to Jupiter. You can’t miss his voice in either one. In the first, the verse is backed by a signature old-school Lennon-esque effect (Porcupine Tree’s music is full of those, of course). In Jupiter, his gorgeous voice in the catchy chorus melody is joined by a psychedelic keyboard accompaniment. Wilson colored the guitar passages with his own guitar (in Pills you can’t get around the outro, which smells »Porcupine Tree-ish«). What’s most striking about »IV« is its ultra-mellow sonic contrast, which feels authentic and organic in its ultra-retro sound. It’s got the sonic elements that pioneering rock bands built their sound on at the turn of the sixties into the seventies, when they gradually molted from psychedelic imitators of The Beatles into true symphonic progressive rock experimenters! Mellotron is heard everywhere in abundance.
On the other hand, this very retro sound is so subtly wrapped in arrangement minimalism that it approaches the contours of hit-makers Coldplay (the track Faking), and U2 too (the solemnity of Sense Of Insanity). These are the moments on the album that sound especially generous to the frequencies of commercial radio. So IV is first and foremost an indie pop rock album!
The album is totally unpretentious. It leans toward trimming ideas rather than stretching arrangements out. And that very minimalism works across the board. The Only Fool Is Me, the fragile ballad moment of the album, is under two minutes long, yet it feels like a song of at least three and a half. Mercury Rev singer Jonathan Donahue’s vocal works exceptionally well in it. The album’s closer is also extremely short, After the Rain, with a masterfully layered programmed pattern filling out the rhythmic framework. There could have been plenty of moments like that on the album, but Wilson and Geffen are apparently saving such ideas for later.
The album »IV.« is like a sinfully good bite of dessert. You’ve barely tasted it and it’s already spinning into the final crescendo, forcing you to hit »play« on the CD player once more. And in the minimalism on offer, driven by both musicians’ fine sense of the right measure of idea-rationalization, what stands out is the emphasis on melodic compactness and the unique melancholic atmosphere inherited from past Blackfield albums! Let me say it again. »IV.« is pleasantly catchy for radio from the first second to the last, and at the same time it’s got a superb blend of symphonic and psychedelic elements living side by side, from which it’s not hard to work out once more, not only from the arranging principles but also from the singers’ vocal color and interpretations, that the makers of this album are, deep in their hearts, big fans of the timeless work of some unique sages. The Beatles!
Lineup
Aviv Geffen – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Steven Wilson – guitar, vocals on “Pills” and “Jupiter”
Seffy Efrati – bass guitar
Eran Mitelman – keyboards, piano
Tomer Z – drums, percussion
GUEST VOCALISTS:
Vincent Cavanagh (Anathema) – vocals on “XRay”
Brett Anderson (Suede) – vocals on “Firefly”
Jonathan Donahue (Mercury Rev) – vocals on “The Only Fool Is Me”
Production
Aviv Geffen & Steven Wilson
Tracklist
1. Pills
2. Springtime
3. XRay
4. Sense of Insanity
5. Firefly
6. The Only Fool is Me
7. Jupiter
8. Kissed by the Devil
9. Lost Souls
10. Faking
11. After the Rain
