Tuesday 29 July 2014

High Voltage Men: The Magic Band Plays the Music of Captain Beefheart

The Magic Band (80)iTunes has autonomously decided that the music of Captain Beefheart, as played by the re-formed, re-constituted Magic Band ain’t nuthin’ but the blues. We beg to differ over this arbitrarily allocated tag. It’s surely obvious to anyone who has ever heard Don Van Vliet’s ideas about contemporary music that any album which bears his name should be filed under “extraordinary”.
This recording is from last year’s London shows featuring a line-up that included Magic Band originals John “Drumbo” French and Mark “Rockette Morton” Boston, along with Denny “Feelers Rebo” WalleyEric Klerks and Craig Bunch. It has to be said that The Magic Band in all it’s permutations is one of those confusing musical entities shaped by a combination of long standing founders and a subsequently fluid membership. However, this particular incarnation is very much in tune with one particular core value of the Beefheart manifesto, and that is electricity. It ran through everything that Beefheart did musically, and contributed much of the shock value of the music. It’s present here and the wattage is palpable even on a little silver disc.

Don Van Vliet (born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter, artist and poet known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work..


Don Van Vliet (born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter, artist and poet known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work..

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