HOPE (2 vinyls)

Description

FREE, PUNK, FUNK, EXPERIMENTAL, PSYCHEDELIC, POST-ELECTRONIC. The guitarist, who has played with Tom Waits and Marianne Faithfull, as well as John Zorn, Alain Bashung, and Diana Krall, returns with his trio Ceramic Dog and an album, Hope, that evokes the astonishing period we are currently experiencing. 'Wanna,' the third track on the album, simply reflects the incalculable joy the band felt being reunited and playing together. But some songs, like 'B Flat Ontology,' which opens the album, are minimalist stories that convey the boredom, a certain sense of futility felt by the guitarist recently. "My No Wave roots resurfaced," says Ribot about 'They Met In The Middle,' a track that benefits from the contribution of alto saxophonist Darius Jones. "It's a song about how not to go anywhere. You can go nowhere by staying in the same place, or by going around in circles. This song is also about people who go to places and then come back. There are different ways to go nowhere." On 'Hope,' 'The Activist' is more a satire than a reproach. "I wrote this after attending the millionth political meeting that went nowhere," says Ribot. "So, in this song, I'm making fun of those people who genuinely enjoy spewing out crappy radical remarks, instead of actually getting their hands dirty and doing what urgently needs to be done." Ches Smith perfectly summarizes this track, as well as the album: "This album, unlike the previous one, feels more like a political burnout." Breaking free from any political, historical, or even musical categorization, the two long instrumentals towards the end of the album - 'The Long Goodbye' and 'Maple Leaf Rage' - offer 23 minutes of respite from Ribot's poetic commentaries. "I think Marc has a very pictorial way of following his intuition, to know whether or not an instrumental moment is needed after more lyrical or text-centric pieces," says Ismaily. "It seems to me that it's close to a subtle intuition, the right balance, to feel the listener's emotional experience." While it's clear that Ribot offers us detailed snapshots of life during the pandemic with 'Hope,' the primary passion that brought Ceramic Dog back into the studio last spring is palpable on every track. "We were so happy to play, to record, to make music again," Marc Ribot tells us. "In future times - if there are future times when people look back at the year we've just lived through, they won't believe it. But this album was both its witness and our lifeline." The "power trio" founded by Marc Ribot, with Ches Smith and Shahzad Ismaily, defines itself as a collective that is "free, punk, funk, experimental, psychedelic, post-electronic" – in short, beyond genres. "THE GUITAR LEGEND RELEASES AN EXCEPTIONAL ALBUM." --- LES INROCKS ---. "A REAL MUSICAL UPPERCUT." --- JAZZ NEWS ---.