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There is a border. Right on that border sits a ghost town. In that ghost town is a saloon. In that saloon Tarantella is on the stage.
Alternative Tentacles records founder and punk spokesman Jello Biafra has done some great things to help keep dark, challenging roots music alive. He started off by releasing material by Evan Johns. He keeps it up by featuring artists like Slim Cessna's Auto Club and reissuing classic albums by 16 Horsepower. The CD "Esqueletos" by Denver act Tarantella continues in this fine tradition.
Not that "Esqueletos" is traditional. Tarantella takes a solid foundation of Americana and then builds upon it. Spaghetti Western guitar, alluring Spanish vocals, strange chants, old world dance, sinister jazz and the occasional dash of 80s rock all add together into an otherworldly whole.
And it is "whole". The sound of Tarantella is a cohesive thing. Nothing sounds tacked on. On each of song on this CD everything that needs to be there is there, no less. And, perhaps more importantly, NO MORE. The band, led by Kal Cahoone on vocals and accordion and by John Rumley on vocals and guitar, waltzes away from the pit fall of overproduction. The key to good "organic" music is the openings where we can hear the emptiness of the world sneaking in.
Like the lovers that embraced on the cover "Esqueletos", Tarantello dance dangerously close to the edge. Under their feet is a solid wood-cut reality, but just a few feet away lies the rest of the universe waiting under a Southern Cross of stars. But this is the best place to dance, the most interesting place to risk placing your feet. In the shadow of the dancers the darkness of eternity starts.
Tarantella would never be able to pull this off if the band wasn't made up of musicians who were masters of multiple instruments. But their secret weapon is violinist Kelly O'Dea. The violin is a powerful instrument, but most band only feature one violin sound. O'Dea is talented enough to bring in different sounds as each song dictates. Here country fiddle, there gypsy dance, and then an old world reel. She has to bring it all because Tarantella's finishing stroke is that, while the have a distinct sound, they aren't afraid to explore that sound's boundaries. Like any great pop band they push the borders and themselves.
Tarantella is border music. The border between contemporary Denver and the old west, between America and Argentina, between the real and cinematic, between love and loss, between the haunted and the whole.
If David Lynch ever films a Western, the soundtrack is right here.
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Tarantella
http://www.tarantellamusic.com/
http://www.alternativetentacles.com/bandinfo.php?band=tarantella&sd=sDAIn8NrqWB6MjSgVCd
Alternative Tentacles
http://www.alternativetentacles.com/ |
