Soul Coughing: espressione metaforica per descrivere una crisi di vomito, nient'altro che una parentesi nella poetica di Mike Doughty a dare il nome all'ormai deceduto ensemble di cui faceva parte.
Senza nessun particolare riferimento a ciò, quel che distingueva i conati musicali della band era uno stile senza precedenti e difficilmente catalogabile, dove la proposta si poneva come un eterogeneo blocco di musica composita: lo sperimentalismo è un giunto che unisce funk, rock, pop, jazz, hip-hop secondo costrutti del tutto sregolati. Lo stile si potrebbe riassumere negli elementi di musica nera che vengono stravolti in un'ottica bianca di suonare, secondo una ricetta assolutamente non convenzionale. Il sapore compositivo potrebbe invece essere descritto inteso come avanguardia grossolanamente melodica, ma queste espressioni risultano in ogni caso limitate per le loro composizioni che sembrano quadri immagini sproporzionate.
Con il suo modo sgraziato di suonare la chitarra e fraseggiare, Mike Doughty si pone principalmente come un non cantante. I suoi poetici monologhi aggiungono elementi alla struttura portante dell'immensa orgia ritmica che la band crea, senza mai trasformarsi nè in puro rapping, nè in puro spoken. Ma il tappeto sonoro di più spessore è steso da un contrabbasso tozzo, goffo, che sembra alto chilometri e corre rimbalzando nei suoi smorzati contrappunti. Le percussioni sorreggono magistralmente la baracca e sample/tastiere talvolta decorano gli affreschi, talvolta si fondono alla ritmica. La loro è estrema raffinatezza adeguata ad un modo di suonare totalmente inelegante. Gli schemi si compongono di iterazioni che variano nella sovrapposizione, facendo perdere il classico approccio di ascolto a fronte di una completa immersione in questo imponente moto rotatorio. Una musica di suoni instabilmente appesi ad un filo traballante da l'impressione di continuo smontaggio.
Irresistible Bliss è la loro seconda fatica, e rispetto all'esordio del'94 (il capolavoro Ruby Vroom) mostra una band che cerca di sperimentare al contrario: un suono leggermente raddrizzato, normalizzato secondo uno standard più pop. Niente di eccessivamente diverso da quanto già visto, e forse l'effetto a sorpresa che viene a mancare è ciò che pesa sul lato negativo del disco. Leggermente più vario ed eclettico nella proposta, ma meno frenetico ed elastico.
Suoni attutiti, scatting, parentesi elettroniche (da intendere), samples, singulti musicali, filosofia groove-oriented; niente di tutto ciò che li caratterizza manca, è semplicemente un lavoro sputato in maniera più prudente, che risente del mancato assalto a sorpresa. Meno jazz e meno lineare (nel proprio sistema di riferimento) dell'esordio, rimane qualcosa di immensamente valido nella loro esigua discografia. Non sarebbe infine giusto non citare l'opening track Super Bon Bon, probabilmente il capolavoro del lotto che rende perfettamente la sagoma della band.
Consiglio di rispolverare questo disco, ma non prima di quell'opera d'arte che è Ruby Vroom, l'episodio che meglio ha dipinto l'affresco di questa bizzarra e stravagante entità tossita dalla New York dei 90s.
Deep slacker jazz.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Super Bon Bon (03:31)
Move aside
and let the man go through
let the man go through
Move aside
and let the man go through
let the man go through
Move aside
and let the man go through
let the man go through
Move aside
and let the man go through
let the man go through
Through
If I stole
Somebody else's wave
To fly up.
If I rose up
Up with the avenue
Behind me.
Some kind of verb.
Some kind of moving thing.
Something unseen.
Some hand is motioning
to rise, to rise, to rise.
Too fight that you must cut clean.
You got to take the elevator to the mezzanine,
Chump, change, and it's on, Super bon bon
Super bon bon, Super bon bon.
Too fight that you must cut clean.
You got to take the elevator to the mezzanine,
Chump, change, and it's on, Super bon bon
Super bon bon, Super bon bon.
And by
The phone
I live
In fear
Sheer Chance
Will draw
You in
To here.
Too fight that you must cut clean.
You got to take the elevator to the mezzanine,
Chump, change, and it's on, Super bon bon
Super bon bon, Super bon bon.
Too fight that you must cut clean.
You got to take the elevator to the mezzanine,
Chump, change, and it's on, Super bon bon
Super bon bon, Super bon bon.
Super bon bon, Super bon bon.
Super bon bon, Super bon bon.
Super bon bon, Super bon bon bon bon
Move up and let the man go let the man go
Move up and let the man go let the man go
Move up and let the man go let the man go
Move up and let the man go let the man go through
Move aside
and let the man go through
let the man go through
Move aside
and let the man go through
let the man go through
Move aside
and let the man go through
let the man go through
Move aside
and let the man go through
let the man go through
02 Soft Serve (03:13)
The body like soft serve, dripping down in the June sun,
I tried to shoot a thought, but the thought sunk.
Nothing to do but scratch words in the dirt and
Watch the water roll down.
Phantom kisses buzzing like the insects.
Beads of sweat dripping down on the rent check.
My Candyland melted down to syrup while I
Watched the water roll down.
And here comes the lust in phaze,
but you're down in Marietta.
So sweet my mouth was seared,
But the words you mouthed were sweeter.
My Sister,
Your words can be held against you in a court of law.
My Sister,
You owe no allegiance to the facts, yeah,
Talking like the saint on the site of the accident.
Talking like the clause in the lease about the late rent.
Ringing like the random call patched to the payphone.
Talking like the water rolls down.
And here comes the lust in phaze,
but you're down in Marietta.
So sweet my mouth was seared,
But the words you mouthed were sweeter.
Talking like the saint on the site of the accident.
Talking like the botched shot, attempt on the President.
Ringing like the change in the legless man's Dixie Cup.
Talking like the water rolls down.
Day Undone,
Day Undone,
Day Undone,
Watch the water roll down.
03 White Girl (02:38)
White Girl,
Market at Van Ness,
Heels to drag,
Discombobulated.
Air all soft around,
Hear the man singing,
Inclines and wires,
Telegraph Avenue.
Look away she's eastbound, out of sight.
Dropped here,
By the hand of the Astronaut,
Builder of the pyramids,
The man from outer space.
Innocent farmgirl,
Raised by the aliens,
Out in Northridge,
Out in the larger world.
Look away she's eastbound, out of sight.
04 Soundtrack to Mary (03:07)
Easy places to get away to.
Easy limbs languid all around you.
All my time is
Dirt on your hands.
Fingers drifting
Down my spine now.
Fall,
Fall,
Fall,
Fall,
Fall,
Fall.
Soundtrack to Mary.
Many minds wandering from room to room.
Many trees slain just to write it to you.
Many rays blinding,
Almost drowning,
Keep this whole shine,
Locked in my room.
Throw back the noise, get another one.
Pour out the rum, I've been drunk enough.
I know the sound that you made and I
Can't seem to unremind myself.
I hope you feel better
later on.
05 Lazybones (04:49)
When all the limbs are numb and clean,
and you're in transit, dream to dream,
I'll drift there to meet you, lazybones.
When all the world has lain and sank,
and money sleeps inside the banks,
I'll drift there to meet you, layzbones.
Cameraman sways to remember how the eye dances,
drunkenness is a hand-held
scrambling down Delancey
I come stumbling;
well I hear you had to take a shine
and firing at random, I hear the rays fell upon mine.
Cool you, Miss Amaze, with a handful of water
trucks encircling, bearing down, coming louder.
If I could stay here, under your idle caress
and not exit to the world and phoniness and people.
When all the noise has left your head
will someday you rise off the bed?
I'll be there to lift you, lazybones.
07 Paint (02:55)
Paint!
Paint!
Collide a clause, unremitting can you cram?
I know you're dumb as paint.
08 Disseminated (02:41)
The Goat chewed up,
Once a tin can.
The Goat shat out,
A was a Ford Sedan.
I like an eyeball.
I like a square cut.
I like a funny car.
I like a monster truck.
Call up bop and I'm bunting stomach,
Koko mop I stop nothing plummet,
One on top, if I ate the chocodile.
Call up bop and I'm bunting stomach,
Koko mop I stop nothing plummet,
One on top, if I ate the chocodile.
And ever since then, I got disseminated,
And ever since then, I got disseminated,
And ever since then, I got disseminated,
Well its a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Jupiter Moon, I got disseminated,
The Jupiter Moon, I got disseminated,
The Jupiter Moon, I got disseminated,
Well it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A Toots Hibbert,
Up at the wrong prom.
Serves a beat down,
Up on a tom tom.
I like Genius.
I like Jason.
I like Joseph.
I like Dervin.
Call up bop and I'm bunting stomach,
Koko mop I stop nothing plummet,
One on top, if I ate the chocodile
Call up bop and I'm bunting stomach,
Koko mop I stop nothing plummet,
One on top, if I ate the chocodile
The Jupiter moon, I got disseminated,
The Jupiter moon, I got disseminated,
The Jupiter moon, I got disseminated,
Well its a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And ever since then I got disseminated,
And ever since then I got disseminated,
And ever since then I got disseminated,
Well its a self-fullfilling prophecy.
The average man i got disseminated,
The average man I got disseminated,
The average man I got disseminated
Well its a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And ever since then I got disseminated,
And ever since then I got disseminated,
And ever since then I got disseminated,
Well its a self-fulfilling prophecy.
09 Collapse (03:06)
Mid-level manager
Says he heard about
Some mulatto girl
Shot him in the mouth,
And left him a hotel Near the mid-south offices.
He worked in distribution,
Regional vice-president.
Collapse, unload it, pop! pop!
I must accumulate, unload it,
Pop! Pop! I must accumulate.
Well the soil is rich
Competition fat
Ripe and vulnerable
Oozing from the slats
And too cash-heavy, bloated
Sitting there all puckered up.
Index of numbers is,
Scrolling upscreen, scrolling up.
Smash it down to digits.
Gut it out and break it down.
Liquid assets are Seeping down, seeping down now.
Seeping down, seeping down now.
11 The Idiot Kings (03:57)
Everything is going up.
Everything is going as planned, yeah.
Everything moves along.
Everything is fine, fine, fine.
Oh I could be
Condemned to Hell for every sin but littering.
I could
Slip on the East River and crash into Queens all skittering.
I've seen the
Cops and the robbers, and I know they dance the same.
I've seen a
Half a zillion girls and haven't spoken to a single one of them.
Batting in the light,
My reptile-lidded eyes.
And all this strung end to end,
Is wider than the mind.
And this cool I've been playing I have been
Playing too long now my
Capacities are dwindling 'til they're
Gone Gone Gone.
Baby can I change my mind?
I just want to change my mind.
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