CD Feature/ Blood Meridian: "Liquidate Paris!"

To most contemporary musicians, going back to the 60s is like revelling in a nostalgic dream. To Blood Meridian, it means coming home. “Hey, if you werent able to find a copy of the new record, some eager beaver put it here on the net. Go ahead”, Blood Meridian frontman Matthew Camirand quips on the news section of the band’s homepage, but somehow he appears to genuine when adding: “We won't mind.” This ain’t no case of flower power, this is true love.

Certainly the music on “Liquidate Paris!” (a bewilderingly beligerant title for a silkily psychedelic album) could have been taken right from the sweet escapist dream of a 21st century hippie caught in dire straits: Of course, he knows it’s not real, but it just feels too good.

All the ingredients that turned the early years of American experimental rock music into a golden age are happily united on this record. Acoustic guitars, subcutaneous distortion, twisted chord schemes, mysterious noise lingering in the background of openhearted loves songs and sudden beauty glowing inside crackling eight track recordings.

In fact, the only thing that is missing from the album are glorious polyphonic chorusses, but they are skilfully replaced with the naive charm of one-finger keyboard soli and the late-night brokenness that dawns after one glass of bourbon too much at the end of a drinking spree at the loneliest bar of town. While this may sound as though Blood Meridian were generally unhappy people, they cleverly avoid indulging in too much sad head drooping. “Liquidate Paris!” is never without hope, its depressions mellowed by the ease and casualness of its flow.

For everyone interested in maintaining a certain coherency between content and form, the fact that “Liquidate Paris!” is available both as a CD and a Vinyl LP should come as an additional treat. Which brings us to a well-meant piece of advice towards the end: Do not download this record from that eager beaver in the first paragraph. Instead, go out and buy it from the band or their record company, just like you would have in the 60s. Matthew Camirand may have a lot of love to give away, but sometimes he needs to be protected from his own generosity.

By Tobias Fischer

Homepage: Blood Meridian
Homepage: Elevation Recordings