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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Despite the Spinanes from Portland being only a duoRebecca Gates (guitar and vocals) and Scott Plouf (drums)their songs are as electric and violent as those of the more celebrated noise-rock groups. With just two singles in 1992, Suffice/ Rummy (Imp) and Hawaiian Baby/ Halloween Candy (Imp), plus a compilation track that became legendary for its subject matter, Jad Fair Drives Women Wild, the Spinanes rose to the forefront of the local scene. The early tracks were later collected on Imp Years (Merge, 1999). Their music, simple and linear in conception, situated between the Smiths and Marine Girls, melancholic and introspective, reaches its peak on the following years album Manos (SubPop, 1993), with small power-pop gems such as Noel, Jonah And Me, Spitfire and Epiphany, and the instrumental I Love That Party With The Monkey Kitty, showing how imagination can compensate for a lack of orchestration. In the tradition of Cowboy Junkies and 10,000 Maniacs (and at least on the singers side, of Juliana Hatfield), especially when the sound becomes insinuating as in Entire and Grand Prize. With Strand (SubPop, 1996), Rebecca Gates and Scott Plouf continue undeterred in their exploration of extremely shy atmospheres, in a non-minor but minimal key, such that compared to them even the Cowboy Junkies sound like a heavy metal band. Madding and Watch Down are songs only by virtue of containing a melody and a guitar accompaniment. The latter counterpoints the singers whisper with an arrangement made of microscopic touches. Azure and Valency are the most forceful tracks, when the drums begin to press forward, and Oceanwide finds a perfect balance in a sound similar to that of Luna. The music is very tender and overflowing with meaning, but requires a certain listening patience. A novelty for the group is the use of keyboard arrangements (Punch Line Loser) and a hip-hop cadence (Winter On Ice).
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Arches And Aisles (Subpop, 1998) showcases a
sexier Rebecca Gates (now relocated to Chicago) and vastly improved arrangements.
Suddenly, the Spinanes' spare, folkish sound has become a dense and nonetheless
breezy strain of ambience.
Since long-time collaborator Scott Plouf has departed (to join
Built To Spill),
Spinanes is now Gates solo project.
Suddenly, her persona is all over the place, and she backs it with baroque
and catchy pop ditties
(a funky Kid In Candy, an upbeat Love
While most songs display a dexterous hand at melody, Gates specializes in not
dwelling on a melody, in letting it float over the music without ever catching
it, in an amorphous meandering that crystallizes the mood if not the refrain
(Leisure Run, Den Trawler).
On ethereal and melodious tracks such as Reach vs Speed Gates sounds like
a more transcendent Natalie Merchant.
The bluesy, organ-based, quasi-spiritual Greetings From The Sugar Lick,
or the subdued, psychedelic droning of Heisman Stance, are masterful
examples of atmospheric singing.
Surprisingly, the album propelled the Spinanes into the charts.
Rebecca Gates was ready to go solo and she did, simply continuing the slide
towards a chic cocktail lounge. Now a Chicago resident, she
surrounded herself with members of the Chicago intelligentsia
(John McEntyre of Tortoise,
Noel Kupersmith of the Chicago Underground Quartet, Brian Deck of
Califone)
for Ruby Series (Badman, 2001), a collection of austere post-rock
pieces replete with electronica and digital beats.
Seldom Scene, for piano, mellotron, vibraphone, marimba, is the manifesto
of a new genre, both lounge ballad and post-rock sonata, both classical and
jazz and folk and rock and...
The Float (2012), Rebecca Gates first album in a decade, ran the gamut
from the garage rave-up of Tips On Spines to
the dissonant Slowed Lowed Lowered, but probably her heart was in
stately and plaintive elegies like
Rose,
The Curl Of The Coast,
Claudine Lounges Chiklet Chic.
The musicians included:
Joe Adamik (drums, percussion, organ, piano, celeste), Thierry Amar (contrabass, bass), Jim Becker (guitar, bass), Steve Berlin (saxophone), Joanna Bolme (bass), Rebecca Cole (organ, vocals, piano), Rebecca Foon (cello), Mark Greenberg (bass, cymbals, vibraphone, percussion), Gary Jarman (vocals), Ben Massarella (percussion), Douglas McCombs (guitar, bass), John McEntire (drums, synthesizer), Jessica Moss (violin), Sonja Myklebust (cello), Nate Query (bass), Tim Rutili (guitar, vocals), Ji Tanzer (drums, percussion) and she played
guitar, bass, xylophone, Rhodes, piano, celeste and organ.
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