CHIEF MART'S - Morning Maniac Music

Chief Mart's - Morning Maniac Music

8 songs
56:50 minutes
***** ****
Sharktea

Bandpage

Chief Mart's are quite a phenomenon. Starting out in 1999 with Imhotep's Galactic Cubism Theorie, they were still sounding very garagy, with a fierce attitude towards long spacy instrumentals, their follow-up album Cosmic Hope Indian Eskimo Fellowship (2001) showed them from a more professional side, very ambient-emotional, but a certain cold distance when it came to the song writing.

So far, so good. And when nearly no one saw much future in the band, they re-emerged in this year's Emergenza contest, and although they "only" made it to the finals, most people with a good taste in music knew that Chief Mart's were the unofficial winner. Speaking of that, it was really hard to wait for their third album curiously titled Morning Maniac Music. Can it fulfil the expectations? The short answer is yes, but the long one wants us to have a much closer look at this chef d'oevre.

The opener Bütschky is one of the few longer songs, filling the beginning of its 8 minutes with regular Chief Mart's sounds, before the ending is crowned with a great flute part, reminding of 70s progressive sounds. An unusual opener, with a lot of charm. The second song, Clarence Hair, is the first highlight. It's a song like this that proves the progress of the Tétange spacemen. With slightly less than 5 minutes, this songs starts very Tortoisy (not to say post rock, as post rock never really was a movement), and ending on a catchy, more jazzy note. Gilbert Chunks is more of a mellow piece again, in my opinion the weakest track on the album. VIERVIER (in capitals, please) with something below 2 minutes very short, showcases some weird sounds that catch your attention just to let it drop again. Funny! Glossy Neon is the second masterpiece on the album, where atmosphere and melody are combined at the right rate, with this cool jazzy guitar solo ending the track. More of this in the future, please. Gurd Jungblut will never be played on Eldoradio, DNR or RTL: fucking raga mushroom sound collage, but the more I listen to it, the more I like it. 6 minutes long, but on the right trip, this could go on forever. That's the kind of crap Amon Düül II used to fill whole albums in the early 70s. This is fun, and a nice way to prepare the ground for the magnum opus 2informations (in 3 bottles): 16 minutes of sprawling instrumental space rock. Maybe not happening that much to justify its length, but it's a beautiful way to end the regular part of the CD. As an encore, you get a Low Density Corporation remix of the Chief Mart's classic song TutenchAmun, 8 minutes that show that the Chief's finesse for ambience works quite well with LDC Rocco's wackiness.

Morning Maniac Music ends thus, and although it is not filled with greatness only, it's one hell of an album. Most international bands can't come up with so many cool ideas and great songs. The short hour goes by without the listener even noticing. This album has thrown Chief Mart's to the very top of our national music scene. This is one CD you really have to have. 9 fat points.

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