Chiariamoci subito: io non sono un passatista musicale del menga. I passatisti sono una razza che si nutre di vetusti ricordi racchiusi in forzieri la cui inviolabilità è garantita da una genia di eterni nostalgici. Costoro, racchiusi in anemiche livery belonging to alien in this geological eras, pitted their knowledge with unwavering saccenza (a little 'fools like me but without annotations in brackets) and liquidate any musical product after 1973 (year of release of Dark Side Of The Moon) with a skeptical shrug, almost always correlated with profound contempt. Here, this review should (I repeat, should) meet their ears accustomed to analog noise of the turntable. I am going to speak, in fact, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, a collective of eccentric musicians who, between the end of the sixties and seventies of the first half, laid the foundations of psychedelic rock fusion. Two of the bold in their thirties who gave birth to the project were the great Billy Cobham (formerly batterista di "un certo" Miles Davis) e il mediamente grande John Mclaughlin, non esattamente la vera anima della band, ma di sicuro il collante che la tenne insieme un numero sufficiente di anni per produrre alcuni album a dir poco eccezionali. Fra questi, merita particolare attenzione Birds Of Fire (per la gioia dei passatisti, pubblicato proprio nel 1973). Si trattò del periodo di maggior fulgore dei Mahavishnu Orchestra, lo stesso in cui si esibirono in una serie di concerti al cardiopalma, oggi vere e proprie pietre miliari per ogni appassionato di psichedelia. Scioltisi nel 1976, tornarono con una formazione totalmente diversa, fatta eccezione di Mclaughlin (proprio quello tecnicamente più scrauso, ma è un parere personale e non riguarda le his ideas, almost always excellent), which produced bold new registrations, but not with the bursting of the original conviction. But now we see why Birds Of Fire breaks his ass.
TECHNICAL
Massa, braverrimi are good but, boys, they were still the '70s. I mean, the album is peppered with dirt sound, inaccuracies and vigorous virtuosity that would characterize excellent technique for many musicians to come had not yet appeared on the market of experimental rock. There are cocks. We must admit that Billy Cobham, with his double pedal, it was a decent precursor (even if that option had already been seen around since the early '50), Keyboardist Jan Hammer made a generous use of his synth and violinist Jerry Goodman (God bless him, an exceptional musician) ventured into the weird wah solos, but everything was not done with the cleaning in others, in later periods, were expected to admire. The applause, however, remains. Dad's have that.
Rating: 6.8
CREATIVITY '
And here we are at the core of the magnitude of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. The first time I heard Birds Of Fire, I had to immediately make sure the year of its publication and, once done, I was dumb, because if it were not for the expected low quality of the recording, I never thought that such ideas had been born six years before my birth, when he still ran around my lawn green with flared trousers and flannel dresses with floral decorations. Just listen to the opening title track to realize that that guitar riff in a loop that opens the piece was a precursor not only of countless similar ideas, but a new way of composing and designing psychedelic rock, progressive, and later , alternative. Dai, eccheccazzo, the ideas of the Mahavishnu you can hear the Pink Floyd as the Chemical Brothers, the Mars Volta in as Ozric Tentacles, as in the Franz Ferdinald Lost Prophets (well, ok, maybe not in the latter two). You know what kind of band that starts with bearing surfaces and a riff on it, build an endless string of psychedelic improvisations (or sound sequences, electronics abusatissime 90s big beat, but not only) interspersed with some intriguing bridge that breaks and leads the piece to an exaggerated conclusion? Behold, all taken from Mahavishnu. Then, well, everyone can jump on with thousands of similar examples, even prior to them, but hard to convince me that others have ahead of its time with such amazing talent and, above all, that their ideas have been slow to grow old so as to arrive, today, yet so effective. Not only do many of the new generation try listening to the Mahavishnu surprise, but just do not understand. "Oh, this stuff is maccheccazzo sperimetale output this year?". Embellishing, when this sound, your father was Burt Reynolds mustache, if you know what I mean. Sorry for the digression, here is the vote.
Rating: 8.2
CARISMA
Ammille. A palate. Will be complete with the ridiculous John Mclaughlin, the frenzied rhythm of riding Cobham, always accompanied by that expression is very incredulos that "we are in the 70s and are enforceable in a trance hippy", will be the Christological air of Goodman, who gave live thrill to the magnificence with which he was waving his bow, will also be the grainy quality of the video recordings, but live dei Mahavishnu Orchestra sono una vera goduria, uno spettacolo di estetica seventies che più cool non si può, di quelli che t'invitano ad abbracciare un sitar e ondeggiare sulle onde di un mantra multicolore. E' buffo pensare a come meritino assai di più di essere riposte in muffose cantine anteguerra le quattro cazzatine finto sperimentali (e ormai abusatissime) con cui si pavoneggiano certi sedicenti musicisti contemporanei, rispetto alle canzoni dei Mahavishnu. Della serie, guadagnamoci il carisma spaccando il culo, non con le solite du' note e una scurreggia (sarà bene che recensisca al più presto una band minimalista uscita ques'anno, sennò entro a far parte di diritto del club dei passatisti del menga citati a inizio recensione).
Voto: 8,2
CONCLUSIONI
Che ci volete fare, sono fichissimi. Devo essere sincero, se c'è una band in cui avrei voluto suonare in quel periodo (cosa impossibile per limiti tecnici e temporali, dato che sono un chitarrista mediocre e, soprattutto, non posso viaggiare nel tempo), avrei scelto a occhi chiusi i Mahavishnu Orchestra. Passi il nome ridicolo e pretenzioso, il resto è grande storia della musica moderna e Birds Of Fire ne è parte in qualità di, forse, miglior album in studio della band. Ed ora smettete di leggere, dannazione, e andate subito a procurarvelo.
Voto: 8
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