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Chiudi gli occhi. Immagina di far scorrere il dito sul mappamondo, punti una destinazione, in quello stesso istante ti ritrovi risucchiato nel luogo. Senti il clima, vedi i colori, le strade, i ruscelli, il suono della natura, avverti l’odore dell’aria stopposa, l’invincibile sfida del gelo continentale. Immagina che il mondo ti osservi, almeno quanto lo osservi tu che lì ci sei capitato quasi per caso; che qualcuno segua i tuoi passi, li anticipa col pensiero, studia i percorsi, ti legga dentro. Con slanci lenti e profondi e con passo felpato, l’aria ti penetra e scorge ciò di cui sei fatto, diventa un tutt' uno con te e va a cercare ciò di cui non è possibile proferire, che non ha parola ma solo sostanza invisibile, un liquido vischioso che non puoi mostrare alla luce del giorno, che irrompe di notte, quando è incredibilmente complicato guardarsi, estremamente semplice far emergere tratti della personalità complicati e offuscati. È una voce che parla, una voce antica, che appartiene al mondo intero, che resituisce a quella sostanza una dignità in forma di suono. Ti conquista lentamente, ti afferra per i fianchi e ti possiede in un amplesso che dura tutta la notte, per tutta un’ epoca.
Tutto ciò è diventato musica, suono, ritmi tribali e avvolgenti, soluzioni armoniche sospese e intense, un misto di new york hip hop, ambient, musica elettronica, dub, reggae, musica psichedelica, jazz, funk e soul. In una sola parola Trip hop, un genere che mette insieme l’hip hop all’idea del viaggio mentale, onde che si incastrano ad un groove instancabile, ambienti che si riconoscono e si fondono in un universo inesplorato, un assemblaggio di generi diversificati, il tutto modellato in un flusso sonoro quanto mai gentile e aggressivo, prorompente, affascinante e tagliente, violento nella sua voluttuosa delicatezza. È a Bristol che nasce questo genere incredibile, è negli anni Novanta che si afferma con i Massive Attack nel 1987, che insieme a Tricky, Portishead e Morcheeba rappresentano la storia di questo genere, andando a ripescare sonorità retrò e lo-fi in chiave anche orchestrale.
Nell’album ci sono tracce che sono storia e fanno scuola a tutto il mondo dell'elettronica e non. Il viaggio comincia con Angel, un puma dalla voce incredibile di nome Horace Andy che avanza lento verso la sua preda, che implode in un beat apertissimo arricchito da una chitarra distorta ma che poi segue nuovamente le sue orme, volge le spalle e si richiude, come se nulla mai fosse accaduto; un preludio alle luci bianche di Risingson, un vero capolavoro che apre le danze alla eterea Teardrop, rara perla della musica elettronica interpretata dalla voce angelica di Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) che rompe l’atmosfera dark del disco. Ma questa dolcezza è solo una patina che offusca il guardo, che si libera con l' arrivo di Inertia Creeps, un racconto di un mistero antico mai svelato, un viaggio nelle tenebre di un Paese lontano che fa eco a ritmi tribali e tappeti dub; pare poi che alla fine del tunnel si riesca a trovare ristoro in Exchange, il punto luce del disco, un basso pizzicato che sottende ad armonie sospese tra fade out alternati a fade in, compressori e filtri dal sapore analogico e retrò, uno stretching del resto più che meritato. Sara Jay fa rientrare il tutto con Dissolved girl e Robert "3D" Del Naja, Grant "Daddy G" Marshall e Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles continuano il viaggio con Man next door di nuovo con Horace Andy, con Mezzanine che dà il titolo dell'album, mentre la voce soave della Fraser torna poi su Black Milk e Group Four.
Il viaggio introspettivo, multiculturale, potente, si risolve con il ritorno splendente a riva di (Exchange) le cui coste avorio luccicavano in lontananza, e risplendevano a contrasto con la sabbia nero pece che ricalcava le tracce lasciate lungo il cammino di Mezzanine, un racconto dell’eternità di cui può godere la musica elettronica di un certo livello, di una certa profondità e spessore ad oggi ineguagliato.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 Angel (06:19)
You are my angel
Come from the above
To bring me life
Her eyes... she's on the dark side
Future life (every man inside)
Every man inside....
You love you love you love you love
You love you love you love you love
You love you love you love you love...
You.. are my angel (my angel)
Come from the above...
You love you love you love you love
You love you love you love you love
You love you love you love you love...
02 Risingson (04:58)
3d
I seen you go down to a cold mirror
It was never clearer in my era so
You lick a shine upon your forehead or
Check it by the signs in the corridor
You light my ways through the club maze
We would struggle through the dub daze
I see myself in there upon my lover
It's how you go down to the men's room sink
Sad we talk of how madmen think
I see myself in there upon my lover
I don't know her from another miss
I don't know you from another
See me run now you're gone...dream on
Daddy G
Why you want to take me to this party and breathe
I'm dying to leave
Every time we grind we know we severed lines
Where have all those flowers gone
Long time passing
Why you keep me testing, keep me tasking
You keep on asking
3d
Toy-like people make me boy-like
Toy-like people make me boy-like
They're invisible, when the trip it flips
They get physical, way below my lips
And everything you got hoi-poloi like
Now you're lost and you're lethal
And now's about the time you gotta leave all
These good people...dream on
Nicer than the bird up in the tree top
Cheaper than the chip inside my lap top
All the variations you could do with me
Nicer than the girl up in your mind you're free
Daddy G
Automatic crystal remote control,
They come to move your soul
3d
You're gonna fade into the background
Like a better smoke'll bring you back round
Like a man slide inside you my dear
Your cheap beer's filled with crocodile tears
See 'em run now you're gone...dream on
Toy-like people make me boy-like
Toy-like people make me boy-like
I found a reason
I found a reason
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
03 Teardrop (05:30)
Love, love is a verb
Love is a doing word
Feathers on my breath
Gentle impulsion
Shakes me, makes me lighter
Feathers on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Feathers on my breath
Nine, night of matter
Black flowers blossom
Feathers on my breath
Black flowers blossom
Feathers on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Feathers on my breath
Water is my eye
Most faithful mirror
Feathers on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Of a confession
Feathers on my breath
Most faithful mirror
Feathers on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Feathers on my breath
You're stumbling in the dark
You're stumbling in the dark
04 Inertia Creeps (05:57)
Recollect me darling, raise me to your lips
Two undernourished egos, four rotating hips
Hold onto me tightly, I'm a sliding scale
Can't endure, then you can inhale
Clearly
Out of body experience interferes
And dreams of flying I fit nearly
Surrounds me though I get lonely
Slowly
Moving up slowly
Inertia keeps
She's moving up slowly
Slowly
Moving up slowly
Inertia creeps
Moving up slowly
She comes
In my home no chrome as clear as
See me now with my nearest dearest
Been there when I'm over careering
Room shifting is endearing
Between us is our kitchen
Would you found my irritant's itching
Been here before
Been here forever
Moving up slowly
Inertia keeps
Moving up slowly
Inertia creeps
Moving up slowly
Inertia keeps
Moving up slowly
She comes
Moving up slowly
Moving up slowly
She comes moving up slowly
Inertia creeps moving up slowly
She comes
There be no sound in my eiderdown
Awake I lie in a morning's blue
Room is still, my antenna in you
Nylon burns the bedspread with two
Gravity's zero, see me stall
I bounce off walls, lose my footing and fall
It can be sweet though, incomplete though
And the frames will freeze
See me on all four's
It's been a long time
She comes
She comes
I want to x you
She comes
I want to x you
She comes
I caught your radio waves
I caught your radio waves
Will you take a string
Say you string me along
Say you string me along
Say inertia creeps
Inertia creeps and she comes
Say she comes
06 Dissolved Girl (06:06)
Shame, such a shame
I think I kind of lost myself again
Day, yesterday
Really should be leaving but I stay
Say, say my name
I need a little love to ease the pain
I need a little love to ease the pain
It's easy to remember when it came
'Cause it feels like I've been
I've been here before
You are not my savior
But I still don't go
Feels like something
That I've done before
I could fake it
But I still want more
Fade, made to fade
Passion's overrated anyway
Say, say my name
I need a little love to ease the pain
I need a little love to ease the pain
It's easy to remember when it came
'Cause it feels like I've been
I've been here before
You are not my savior
But I still don't go, oh
I feel live something
That I've done before
I could fake it
But I still want more, oh.
07 Man Next Door (05:56)
There is a man that live next door
In my neighborhood
In my neighborhood
And he gets me down...
He gets in so late at night
Always a fuss and fight
Always a fuss and fight
All through the night
I've got to get away from here
This is not a place for me to stay
I've got to take my family
We'll find a quiet place
Hear the pots and pans they fall
Bang against my wall
Bang against my wall
No rest at all
He gets in so late at night
Always a fuss and fight
Always a fuss and fight
All through the night
I've got to get away from here
This is not a place for me to stay
I've got to take my family
We'll find a quiet place
There is a man that live next door
In my neighborhood
In my neighborhood
And he gets me down...
He gets in so late at night
Always a fuss and fight
Always a fuss and fight
All through the night
got to get away
08 Black Milk (06:21)
You're not my eater
I'm not your food
Love you for God
Love you for the Mother
Eat me
In the space
Within my heart
Love you for God
Love you for the Mother
Mother fountain
Or live or not at all
The most level
Sunken chapel
Love you for God
Love you for the Mother
All's there to love
Only love
09 Mezzanine (05:56)
I'm a little curious of you in crowded scenes
And how serene your friends and fiends
We flew and strolled as two eliminated gently
Why don't you close your eyes and reinvent me
You knew you had a heart made of stone
You should have let me know
You could have let me know
We'll go 'till morning comes
And traffic grows
And windows hum
Spending all week with your friends
Give me evenings and weekends
Evenings and weekends
I could be yours
We can unwind
All these other flaws (x2)
You'd agree it's a typical high
You fly as you watch your name go by
And once the name goes by
Not thicker than water nor thicker than mud
And the eight k thuds it does
Sunset so quickly
Let's make it quiet and quickly
Don't frown
Taste better on the way back down
I could be yours
We can unwind
All these other flaws (x3)
Will lead to mine
We can unwind
All these other flaws (x2)
Will see to
All these other flaws
Will lead to mine
We can unwind all our flaws (x2)
10 Group Four (08:12)
A flask I drink of sober tea
While relay cameras monitor me
And the buzz surrounds it does
Buzz surrounds
Buzz surrounds
Closed eyed sky wide open
Unlimited girl unlimited sigh
Elsewhere
Indefinitely
Far away
Magnifies and deepens
Ready to sing
My sixth sense peacefully placed on my breath
And listening
Keeps me from my hurt
My ears know that my eyes are closed
Perish thoughs like contraband
I train myself in martial arts
As advertised
I reinforce my softened parts
As advertised
See through me little glazed lane
A world in myself
Ready to sing
My sixth sense peacefully placed on my breath
Flickering I roam
And listening
My ears know that my eyes are closed
Ready to sing
My sixth sense peacefully placed on my breath
Flickering I roam
And listening
My ears know that my eyes are closed
I see to bolts
Put keys to locks
No boat are rocked
I'm free to roam
On dummy screens
And magazines
Closed eyed sky wide open
Unlimited girl unlimited sigh
To think that I lay next to you
Wasting time when I could do
A simple job in strip lights
A flask I drink a sober tea
'Till daylight sends me home
Flickering I roam
Daydreaming admiring being
Quietly, open the world
I hear the time of the starry sky
Turning over at midnight
Seen through me little glazed lane
A world in myself
Daydreaming admiring being
Quietly, open the world
I hear the time of the starry sky
Turning over at midnight
11 (Exchange) (04:12)
(Vowles, Del naja, Marshall, Hinds, Hilliard, Garson)
Horace Andy
Yeah yeah yeah ah
You see a man's face
But you don't see his heart
You see a man's face
But you will never know his thoughts
Everywhere you go
There's a man to say love
Never neither never neither
Take it to heart
For your heart is your heart
And your thoughts is your thoughts
Never mix love with hatred
You see a man's face
You will never see his heart
You see a man's face
But you will never know his thoughts
You see a man's face
You will never know his thoughts
You see a man's face
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Altre recensioni
Di Cleo
Questa creatura quasi irreale ci avvolge immediatamente con la sua voce dalla prima traccia 'Angel'.
A mio avviso uno dei migliori album degli anni '90 e come tutti i miei album preferiti da ascoltare (dopo aver inserito il repeat) dall’inizio alla fine, in penombra prima di scivolare nel sonno anche se qualche incubo non è da escludere.
Di Gemma
Questi suoni sono cupi, a tratti claustrofobici, inquietanti in canzoni come 'Risingson' e 'Inertia Creeps'.
Un disco che ad ogni ascolto migliora. Un vero capolavoro!
Di DeLiam
"Il primo amore elettronico non si scorda mai."
"Mezzanine è una delle canzoni più cupe di sempre, la title track perfetta per questo disco."
