Biachi is the female voice and principal writer of Californian rock band CASTLES IN SPAIN. The fourth in a series of self produced CDs, AGAIN is a confident-looking package of mainly dusty-sounding rock history, made up to look a little new. The basic slow blues background of shearing guitars and thundering drums provides a nearly-convincing backdrop to a very clear and compelling set of vocal tracks. There are some neat additions of violin on a couple of tracks.
35 years on from LED ZEPELIN though, a musical rehash that doesn’t have the fresh virtuosity or effortless grandiosity of the pioneers lacks any sense of purpose. I'm oscillating between comfortable fuzziness and distracted boredom as I listen through for a fourth or fifth time. On home territory in bars and clubs in San Francisco I can imagine a decent, musically conservative but socialy adventurous crowd really enjoying some beer and a CASTLES IN SPAIN gig. But like the beer, this is fair-quality mass-produced stuff that is not in short supply in any bar in any city in any country. It's good enough: but wherever in the world we are it’s no more than we would expect of the hometown brew or local talent. Sent halfway round the world we might expect it to be something unique or unfamiliar, but it isn't.
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The sultry slow mood spreads across all 12 tracks with no obvious duds and no self-evident hits. The principal source of variation is in the range of guitar sounds. "Tribalicious" at track nine has a percussion break that might be part of a great visual stage show but which sounds pretty tame on my sound system. A final instrumental number (with some vocal sounds) makes it clear that while the playing is secure it certainly doesn’t fly.
www.myspace.com/castlesinspain
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