Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.rock
Titolo: Avant-Rock, Avant-Prog ?

U Totem 1990
A Revelation.
Ever had one of those?
I had a few during my life; most occurred during dark, depressing or 
desperate times; others happened while listening to specific albums.
One such album was this one.
This revelation consists of the understanding that imagination and daring to 
explore are one of the great human traits; Understanding that music, at its 
most beautiful, whether complex or simple, can be a healer, a comforting 
friend, a motivator; Understanding that music can be a reason to live for, a 
purpose in life, a cause to get up in the morning and keep on living despite 
hardship.
Musicians from 5UU's and Motor Totemist Guild came together to create this 
masterpiece of an album and joined by other session musicians to complete 
the sound.
I am having hard time expressing just how wonderful and special I find this 
album to be.
It is one of those albums I feel a sort of catharsis while listening to it 
and want to start it over again when it ends. However, I feel un-equipped 
and not knowledgeable enough to write about this, but since I love this 
album so much, I'll give it a try and forgive any mistake or nonsense I 
might write.
Instrumentation - Abundant and varied instrumentation makes this album a 
delight to listen to; so rich and smooth is the sound, along with Emily Hay's 
vocals. Saxophones, flute, piccolo, bassoon, contrabassoon, sitar, piano, 
vibraphone, guitar, bass, drums, percussion and the use of tape recordings - 
all those play the music, making it lively and special.
Not only the type of music, the influences on composition, but the type of 
instruments are a look back at their influences which are I would guess 20 
century composers (I am not an expert on this at all, but having read about 
and listened to some I would assume this is the case; Stravinsky would 
probably be one) and previous chamber rock groups.
The music has been said to be a mélange of 20th century classical music, 
avant-garde, rock, chamber music all mixed to an end result that is the 
special sound of U Totem. Well, yes but how to translate the greatness of 
this album into words?
Complex, very well played, sophisticated and compelling, the music never 
ceases to amaze me. Just listen to "Both Your Houses" and how all the 
instruments combine together while the rhythm goes on.
Not only shown by the complexity, the progressiveness of the music is shown 
also in how they ornament the songs with the instruments; in the intervals 
which are filled with the occasional "odd" sounds, atonal parts or 
"experiments"; they drift away with each song from the main theme to explore 
the grounds. Each song is cleverly orchestrated, maneuvered through the 
gushing waters, from one part where the classical instruments lead the way, 
into other parts, where the more "modern" rock instruments take over.
With all this going about, the beauty is kept, the connecting musical thread 
is always there and the magic is never lost. The repetitive part in "Both 
Your Houses" around the fourth minute (before and after Emily screams her 
heart out in the background) is a fantastic example of how to play the same 
theme and make it sound great by changing the instruments and using whatever 
comes to mind (and using slightly different scales to create a seeming 
disharmony). Brilliant!
Take for instance "One Nail Draws Another" with its almost 15 minutes. It 
goes through so many different parts, uses so many elements of their 
influences, and yet there is not one boring moment, there is continuous 
movement, and constant progression while going back to visit the same themes 
as the song goes. Emily's vocals and the male opera-like vocals joining in 
the middle add to the richness already found in this song.
"Two Looks At One End" and Yellow Umbrella Gallery show their more modern 
influences, their avant-garde and quirky side (as if it wasn't enough as it 
is) and their use of the tape recordings and manipulation of the keyboards. 
Engaging and dynamic, weird and sometimes disharmonic, these pieces are 
enriched with the seemingly random use of the recorded sounds and voices and 
Emily's vocals (on that first track of the two).
Another thing to praise here is that each song is easily identifiable and 
different than the others. I don't sense a repetitiveness and yet the 
collection of songs and tracks fit very well together; each song brings its 
own approach (however slightly or not-so-slightly different than the 
others), making this collection of 7 songs feel as a whole - meaning, this 
feels like an album, and not like a collection put together.
This album might lead you to the US side of avant-rock/chamber-rock, if you 
haven't "visited" these realms already. Both the "donating" bands to U Totem 
are obvious bands to explore (although I much prefer this group or project), 
as well as Thinking Plague, whose In Extremis I think draws somewhat of an 
influence from this album.
To sum up, this is one of my all-time favourites. An album as rich in sound 
as it is special, complex, intriguing, thrilling, stimulating, exciting and 
whatever other adjectives you may want to add to it. Their sound mingling 
together music by 20th century composers, chamber rock and avant-garde is 
one that I treasure, and find beautiful, compelling.
It was a revelation the first time I heard it; being struck by the 
combination of complexity, oddity and beauty, realizing how fantastic music 
can be when musicians take it to a ride through their wild imaginations and 
perform for us their vision.
Honestly, my words cannot do justice enough to this fabulous album and these 
fine musicians and composers. Reading this, I feel I have failed to pass on 
what goes through my mind when listening to this and more importantly what 
the music actually sounds like and how great it is.
So I'll simply say that if you are a follower of this type of music, this is 
a must have album.
If you are interested in checking this type of music, but don't yet feel 
comfortable enough in it or are new entirely, I would start elsewhere, and 
save this to later on when you can appreciate it fully and without trying to 
adjust to this type of music. It might take the pleasure of the album. But 
this is a mandatory stop station in your excursions throughout the 
avant-rock/chamber-rock (or whatever you want to call it) realm. 

U Totem 1990
Lo riascoltavo proprio ieri (e a giorni, quando avrà digerito gli ultimi 
acquisti, lo prenderò originale). È un capolavoro. Con un controllato 
utilizzo di forme e modi della tradizione classica "colta" del primo '900 
(ci sento parecchio Bartòk, per esempio) da urlo in ua cornice progressive 
rock aperta.
Vivamente consigliato.