Dirty Sweet – American Spiritual

Dirty Sweet – American Spiritual
Acetate / Sonic Rendevous
Rock/Hard/Blues/Seventies/Southern
Waardering: ****

When their first record Of Monarchs And Beggars was released I had the pleasure of seeing the guys play in a small venue called The Rambler in Eindhoven. Dirty Sweet showed us what a perfect mix of southern rock, seventies and muddy blues should sound like. On their new album American Spiritual we are once again treated to much of all that; but now with much more conviction and a sound that is much more their own and maybe a bit cleaner. Ofcourse we can still hear the Black Crowes, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd influences. But their damn strong compositions and arrangements sound refined, rub against rootsrock and can justly be called the Dirty Sweet sound. Add to this the extraordinary fine voice of singer Ryan Koonts and you got a recipe for a great record. One that deserves to get a lot of spins; just like the charismatic band deserves to become damn freaking big. Get it on!

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Serena Maneesh – Abyss in B Minor

Serena Maneesh – Abyss in B Minor
V2/4AD – 2010
Rock/Shoegaze/Krautrock/New Wave
Waardering: ****

Upon return from Oslo I can now say for certain that it is in fact heaven on earth. Not only because of the fact that the first rays of the summer sun made the Oslo women discard most layer of clothing. Mostly because it is the musical Mecca; due to the fact it has an incredible amount of stages; music cafes, underground bars, hundreds of festival, authentic record stores and sinister drinking halls for the raw sailors, whores and lost souls. To prove the fact we have Serena Maneesh’s second album Abyss in B Minor. Recorded in a cave outside Oslo the album sports a truckload of guest musicians, friend Sufjan Stevens and producers Nick Terry (Primal Scream) and René Tinner (Can) and sounds like a hypnotic ode to the shoegaze. Thousand and one layers, distorted by noise and hard distinguishable hooks and riffs; could lead to an almost unlistenable pulp. But this is not the case with Serena Maneesh; they make sure this form of music has… errr… Form… And in that respect they can easily hold a candle to My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless. The album has enough dark moments to propel feelings of unease and claustrophobia; ethereal lines of space and light and without losing complete sight of the pure pop-song. Breathtakingly beautiful and mysterious!

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