|
(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
The sensual, jazz-tinged sound of Elysian Fields (originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, but based in New Yorks East Village) recalls that of Mazzy Star, but with the presence of a cocktail-lounge chanteuse and the shadow of the most nocturnal Lou Reed. Guitarist Oren Bloedow, keyboardist Ed Pastorini, and singer Jennifer Charles form the bands trident. The latters Marlene Dietrichstyle delivery is the most immediately striking element, but the quartets anemic, noir-tinged accompaniment is just as essential.
Their debut, Bleed Your Cedar (Radioactive, 1996), brought them to light. The dreamlike atmosphere of Lady In The Lake, the impalpable whisper of Anything You Like, the alienated swing of Parachute, and above all the psychoanalytic nightmare of Rolling rest on pointillistic arranging. Pushing the slow-motion country of the Cowboy Junkies to its extreme consequences, with the funereal rumble of the bass leading the dance, the lengthy Fountains On Fire turns those hallucinations into metaphysical mantras. When Charles abandons her femme-fatale poses, she even manages to sketch the near a cappella gospel of Off Or Out, against a backdrop of ghostly acoustic-guitar chords and sitar. The most conventional song is Star, which merely accentuates the martial tempo and speeds up the bland melody that runs through the album from beginning to end.
|
