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One of rock's most uncompromising and complex individuals, the inventor of 'tapping', has moved on. More revealing than ever before and firmly autobiographical, DARKTOWN is as personal a Hackett album as you're likely to see. The guitar work is as alive and inspired as ever and the usual impossibly big and haunting sounds are occasionally twinned with Ian McDonald's searing, angst-ridden sax bellowing from places only glimpsed in a child's nightmare.
DARKTOWN is like a series of miniature movies or short stories - but don't zoom in on one fragment - you need the whole picture which is detailed to say the least. "I didn't want to impress my personality on any of it... just to go at it like a character actor, turning up in different guises to help the plot along." Hackett hasn't flinched from exploring the limits of the term 'progressive', he drags that much maligned genre screaming and kicking into the 21st century. The album opens with "Omega Metallicus", a remarkable 'beats' driven guitar tour-de-force where everything you hear that isn't bass and drums is wrung from the electric guitar. In the Latin-tinged "Dreaming With Open Eyes" the entire percussion picture springs from Hackett's nylon guitar - slapped, plucked, sampled and looped. The ride through the dark continues - who could fail to be moved by the evident pain of "Jane Austen's Door"? - and when light finally emerges in the shape of tracks such as "Days of Long Ago", with Jim Diamond's soulful vocal, the sense of relief has been well earned. Finally there's a magnificent goodbye with "In Memoriam", a deceptively relaxed and world-weary but ultimately salient observation. Steve Hackett has never lacked the nerve and imagination to take risks, try out new techniques and push forward the boundaries regardless of the consequences. He has always gone out on a limb, even courted unpopularity in his pursuit of fresh musical satisfaction. This is a record from someone who has lived and needs to tell you what he's discovered - an exorcism, from the harshest moments to the most cherished memories. |
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1 / Omega Metallicus 2 / Darktown 3 / Man Overboard 4 / The Golden Age of Steam 5 / Days of Long Ago 6 / Dreaming with Open Eyes |
7 / Twice Around the Sun 8 / Rise Again 9 / Jane Austen’s Door 10 / Darktown Riot 11 / In Memoriam
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Hackett MP3's Now Available
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CAMINO RECORDS
CAMCD17 |
EUROPEAN
RELEASE DATE 26TH APRIL 1999 |
HOLLAND DURECO
BELGIUM DURECO FRANCE MSI GERMANY SPV |
ITALY EDEL
POLAND ROCK-SERWIS SWEDEN BORDER MUSIC UK CAMINO |
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1 / Omega Metallicus
Omega Metallicus is of course old
Etruscan for "Let’s Party" a tune for
all bass instincts! Although guitars
were stretched and frets were rattled,
no instruments were injured during
this recording. Experiments on live
guitars were carried out in the most
humane conditions imaginable.
A big thank you to Fernandes for
finally making my dreams come true,
If there is a God of sustain, you are it!
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2 / Darktown
This fondly remembers the abuse
of power masquerading as education.
Congratulations to all who have
observed and survived this
phenomenon in our Great British
schools - "The best years of your
life" - which is why half of you are in
therapy right now and the other half
are probably too drunk to feel the
pain anymore. (Wonderful sax from
Ian by the way on a very pretty
tune, don’t you think?)
If you haven’t got time to go on
holiday, perhaps this track might
convey the feeling of "slowing down
in the sun" Bermuda style, which is
where I wrote this many years ago.
The song popped into my head
while sitting on a rock overlooking
Jobson's Cove and watching a
sunset work its magic while
Kim searched for parrot fish in
the salt water below. A parrot fish
lookslike a swimming rainbow
by the way.
A strange track (partly dreamt)
influenced by the book "The Diary
Of Anne Frank"... I remembered
being told that children made the
best spies in World War Two ...
What if a child had been responsible
for her family’s discovery? The song
follows an imaginary character’s
development from child, to spy and
to monster - a story of opportunism
at its worst.
A wistful love song featuring Jim
Diamond as the one and only special
guest vocalist on this album.
The melody seemed to write itself
as Jim and I sat down after a walk in
the park. It served to calm us both
after the hectic business of living
was put to one side. The following day
Jim arrived with a complete set of
lyrics and, as I recall, we recorded it
right then and there or was it there
and then? Those of you unfamiliar
with Jim Diamond’s voice will of
course please note that his unique
sound shines indeed like a diamond
and is also as clear as a bell - a true
original . Why do all the great singers
come from Scotland?
A car journey, this time put to music
- a serendipity of daydreams and
night dreams. The mind wanders off
and you’re in two places at once -the
rain beats down and you feel
protected in your bubble ... Dad’s
old Standard Vanguard is brought
to mind, shaped like the Batmobile,
painted battleship grey and roaring
like a lion. Lots of happy memories
listening to Jim Reeves, The Everlys,
Dylan & Duane Eddy.
"My baby goes to the movies, nobody looks at the
screen "... and the beat goes on with
its irrevocable exhortion towards
movement in the young. Where will
it end?
An instrumental track which both
pounds and occasionally floats,
notable for possibly the longest
sustained guitar note in the history
of modern recording to date - played
with my favourite ‘Golden’ tone.
Reincarnation & survival - pet
themes of mine - consciousness
exists outside the body - you’ll see
it’s so-called ‘Reality’ that’s the big
hoax ...
A song about wishing someone the
best - shine on wherever and what-ever
you choose ...
If you push people, including
children, far enough they will
retaliate - here endeth the lesson!
I might be saying too much here,
but I believe alienation strikes even
the most communicative of us all
from time to time, and we are
bound to ask what could we even-tually
do without? The paraphernalia
of living ... Like a theatre stripped of
its props ... or a drawing almost
completely erased ... Emotionally
gutted as we all must become as
the forms we hold dear slowly
crumble about us. Yet the spirit
lives on ... Even the lowliest of us
are worth something from the "use-less"
butterfly to the "grubbiest"
slug. In other words an idea of God
as the sum of all experience ...
A party to which everybody is invited.
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