Home
(Copyright © 1999-2024 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )

IX , 6.5/10
X , 7/10 (EP)
Elf::Gulf Bore Waltz , 6/10
Netherregions , 7/10
XIV , 6.5/10
Leels , 5.5/10
Sexteen (2006), 6.5/10
Links:

Home is a Florida trio (Andrew Deutsch on guitar, Brad Truax on bass, Eric Morrison on keyboards plus, orginally, Sean Martin on drums), that spent most of its existence in the most humble underground. After some eight self-produced cassettes (religiously titled I, II, III, etc) recorded live, Home finally released IX (Relativity, 1995) on CD. The album (74 minutes long) contains the 24-minute suite Concepcion as well as brief songs in the postmodern vein of Brian Eno (Lost It, with an epic guitar riff) or Todd Rundgren (My Friend Maurice, Reprint), often bordering on psychedelic pop (Make It Right, The Moving In). A wealth of instruments helps them achieve the complex harmonies of these unbalanced pieces. Home fares so much better at an abstract cacophonous industrial fanfare like Freedom Rd and at a dejected free-form ballad like Atomique that one wonders why waste the talent in derivative ditties. Concepcion starts like and early Zappa operetta but then gets lost in a documentary recording of conversations. IX is an uneven (and self-indulgent) record that shows talent and even genius but definitely not discipline.

The EP X (Trance Syndicate, 1996), arranged by the Devil's Isle Orchestra (horns, strings and choir), is their most structured and therefore accessible work, although its stylistic excursions range from hyper-distorted garage-rock (Halloween) to Pink Floydian choral crescendos trasecolati crescendos (Pretty Little Head). My Passion even revives epos, tension and drama of Van Der Graaf Generator's progressive-rock. Underwater and Children Suite perhaps represent the authentic mission of the band: cycles of delicate sounds, chords in light crescendos, whispered chants in the background.

Elf::Gulf Bore Waltz (Jetset, 1996) is the melodic/structured alter ego of X. Home turns into Pavement and plays quirky ditties like Seganation and Bad Vibrations.

A new peak of weirdness is achieved on Netherregions (Jetset, 1998). Our Blue Navy and Boogeymen warp lo-fi pop until it resembles spastic counterpoint. The lengthy Turn Away turns a country ballad into a minimalist suite, and austere Zappa-esque prog-rock compositions such as Industry 2000 and Another Season derail the concept of cinematic instrumentals.

XIV (Arena Rock, 2000) is a collection of richly-arranged madrigals of abstract, psychedelic music. Chaos is mitigated by sonic density, but ultimately Home is focusing too much on form rather than on content. It's sort of like Residents without the humour.

Leels (Emperor Jones, 2002) is a project of Home's Eric Morrison with Trey Conner and Chris Sturgeon of Meringue. The trio's music harks back to a simpler form of roots-rock. Happenings (that echoes Donovan's Mellow Yellow) and Precious Time are simple ballads that echo Grateful Dead's country shuffles and Donovan's naive folk. The dreamy Arbor Bay, the delicate serenade Odessa, the tender singalong Closer To Be are intimate and philosophical. There are experiments (the dilated country-rock with pastoral flute of Throttle, the art-rock progressions with Allman Brothers-ian jamming of Floridian Towel, the trippy boogie and epic chorus of Sailing Sister) but they too rely on simple, hummable melodies.

Sexteen (2006) is a concept on sex, featuring Sean Martin on drums. It contains only 20 of the 50 songs that they wrote on the subject. The project is not only amusing but also philosophically intriguing: sex has been the topic of countless rock songs, but hardly ever faced directly. In the post-Darwinian age, Home decided to tackle it for what it is (the act of sexual intercourse, as opposed to the whole ritual of dating and breaking up and cheatin and so on that surrounds it). It is not the Cramps-style exhibition and parody of lust, but a sort of mental cinema-verite' about sex life, that, for most young people, is more than just pleasure. As Home says, "Fucking is currently my favorite form of expression" (Fucking). The music is far from monotonous: each song is pretty much a creature of its own, with styles ranging from acid-rock to rock'n'roll to prog-rock.

Home e` un trio che ha condotto gran parte della propria esistenza nel piu` umile underground. Dopo otto cassette autoprodotte (religiosamente intitolate I, II, III, etc), pubblicate fra il 1991 e il 1994 e riassunte in seguito su Issues (Cooking Vinyl, 2001), e` uscito IX su CD.

Un X (Trance Syndicate, 1996), accompagnato dalla Devil's Isle Orchestra (fiati, archi e coro), ha divulgato l'opera su scala piu` ampia. L'EP e` un po' sfocato e disorganico, spaziando dal garage-rock iper-distorto di Halloween ai trasecolati crescendo corali dei Pink Floyd psichedelici di Pretty Little Head. My Passion resuscita persino epos, tensione e dinamica del progressive-rock dei Van Der Graaf Generator. Underwater e Children Suite rappresentano forse la vocazione autentica del gruppo: cicli di suoni delicati, accordi in lieve crescendo, cantilene sottovoce in sottofondo.

What is unique about this music database