New album: Solar Secrets
Artist: Capsula
Label: Krian Music Group
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
The new album from Argentinian trio Capsula is probably the greatest garage-rock album to come down the pike in at least a decade.
Blending the spooky, minor-chord changes of The Cure with the attack of The Who, with “Solar Secrets,” Capsula has updated a tired rock sub-genre that’s been stuck in an empty nostalgia rut for many years. Propelling opener “The Riverside of Love” even evokes the melodic, sane side of Sonic Youth.
Led by bassist/vocalist Conni Duchess and guitarist/vocalist Martin Guevera, Capsula has been a working unit since 1998. The first release to receive much attention in the United States, “Solar Secrets” is the perfect mix of song craft, aggressiveness and cool. Listening to drummer Ignacio Villarejo pound and pummel his way through the blazing “Atomic Breakdown” is enough to make you forget Staind even existed — if only for a few minutes.
Duchess and Guevera share a moody duet on “The Fear,” with menacing guitars swirling around like gnats on a street lamp. “The Fear” — as with most of “Solar Secrets” — has an unrelenting drive reminiscent of Neu! or Can. The guitars on “Solar Secrets” deliver perfectly-measured sheets of noise that fill all the space without overpowering the songs. “Birds of Wood” wanders into Velvet Underground territory, complete with surreal lyrics and a tambourine beat.
“Solar Secrets” is a concise, expertly-executed garage rock album with enough lysergic overtones to satisfy fans of Pink Floyd, Kasabian and Radiohead. Hopefully, Capsula will grace our shores for years to come.
Classic album: Mr. Fantasy
Artist: Traffic
Label: Island
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Fresh from a stint with the Spencer Davis Group (“Gimme Some Lovin’,” “I’m a Man”), Steve Winwood joined Jim Capaldi, Dave Mason and Chris Wood to form Traffic in 1967. Traffic’s fusion of jazz, folk and world music elements helped set them apart from the electric-blues tidal wave that would envelope rock music for the remainder of the decade.
Depending on your country of residence in 1968, the debut LP from Traffic would have been titled either “Mr. Fantasy” or “Heaven Is in Your Mind.” For whatever reason, when British albums were released in the U.S., the album titles (and sometimes the songs included therein) were sometimes altered from their original form. To save 37 pages of investigative explanation, the most recent issue of “Mr. Fantasy” has all of the original album tracks and stray singles collected.
The most famous song from “Mr. Fantasy” is “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” a folk-ish tune given a virtuoso rock treatment. Featuring apocalyptic vocals and guitar from Steve Winwood, “Dear Mr. Fantasy” became the signature Traffic tune until “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” popped up four years later.
While Winwood, Capaldi and Wood favored a group writing approach, guitarist/vocalist Dave Mason preferred to write on his own, which caused tension early on. Mason’s “Hole in My Shoe” was his standout track on “Mr. Fantasy” and a moderate hit in the U.S. Although he went on to write some great songs for Traffic, “Giving to You” was a rare group composition which foreshadowed the brilliant work that would shortly emerge from the Allman Brothers Band.
Traffic never got the ink that their bombastic, blues-scavenging countrymen did, but their catalog has aged better than most from their era. Most Traffic albums are recommended, but they’re best listened to in order. The metamorphosis Traffic would undergo in just a few short years was one of the greatest in rock/pop music.
Jon Dawson’s album reviews appear every Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or jon.dawson@kinston.com. Purchase ‘Making Gravy in Public’ at jondawson.com.