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die band hatte sich eine Woche in einem Chalet in den Schweizer bergen eingeschlossen und dieses album geschrieben .. Doom Blues und Nasty No-Future-Wave und Synth Folk Trash
DEUTSCH
REVEREND BEAT-MAN & THE UNDERGROUND ist eine Kollaboration Arbeit zwischen dem PALP Festifal und Reverend Beat-Man, eine Woche Aufenthalt in Bruson (wallis, Westschweiz) mit Weisswein und Raclette und Musik kreieren, ich hab dann meine Lieblings Musiker kontaktiert: Milan Slick an den Tasten, er und ich haben bereits das Synth-Punk-Duo-Projekt Entartete Musik dann die Unglaublichen Beats von Beatrice Graf von Ester Poly. Benjamin Glaus von Skinny Jim Tennessee ist einer der meist unterschätzten Rockabilly-Performer Berns, und K.Lou aus Athen kümmerte sich um unser Catering und präsentierte uns die ganze Woche über neue Musik aus ihrer Schatztruhe. was du auf diese Platte hörst ist ein Prozess, ein finden einer Musik u.a. eine Doom Blues Version vom 'Jesus Christ Twist' oder die verliebte Kuschelrock Nummer 'It’s a matter of time'. Die meisten Songs wurden im Lockdown geschrieben wo ich und Benjamin Glaus akustische Musik spielte ‚slave to the phone‘ oder ’banned from the internet’ sind 2 von denen.
Unser schlecht beheizter Übungsraum war über einer Schaffarm wo wir den ganzen tag probten und alles aufnahmen, dies sind alles 1 Take aufnahmen.. keine Overdubs.. ist alles live eingespielt.. und ein paar Wochen später von Matteo Bordin im Ouside inside Studio abgemischt
dies ist Doom Blues oder No-Wave Rock’n’Roll von den Schweizer bergen
REVIEWS
REVERENDO LYS (IT)
Recorded in the Swiss mountains in the enchanting scenery of the PALP Festival, but with all the toxic mood of the cities inside, It's a Matter of Time sounds like a river of shit that floods Bern. Reverend Beat-Man, Beatrice Graf, Milan Slick and Benjamin Glaus, at very high altitudes, make a record of putrid rock and roll, a blues swamp up there on the glaciers, at the point where the Mongols talk to aliens and from here we hear their reverberation like a metal plate flexing between the earth and the sky. And where men are still able to sing languid love songs like It's a Matter of Time, where every space seems as infinite as the distance that separates us from the object of desire. The electric machines of the quartet, guitars and synths in the first place, act as catalysts for all the metallic particles that cover the planet, attracting them like a giant magnet and using them as a mechanism to bring up rotten rockabilly like Banned from the Internet, subhuman grafts among the Monks and Suicide like Shut Up !, atmospheric numbers that seem to come straight from Mephisto's sphincter like You're on Top, ghostly Screamin 'Jay Hawkins numbers like Back in Hell or garage-punk spanking like Get Down on Me or I Want to Fuck You Baby. The rock 'n' roll demon invades the canton of Vaud. The Hexenabfahrt stretches right up to the door of Hell.
RPM ONLINE (UK)
You can cut loose and just enjoy ‘Banned From The Internet’ for exactly what it is. Traditional and thumping good fun. There is a lot of wonderful tones going on here and the dark ‘Back In Hell’ is exactly that. Then to close the project off with the reflective and joyous ‘You’re On Top’ is a beautiful thing. I can imagine off my tits late at night with a bottle of absinth for company and this record blasting out would be some experience but all in a good way. A wonderful accompanying album for the new Urban Voodoo Machine or god forbid a new Gallon Drunk album (imagine that?) if you fancy going deeper and darker than what Nick Cave dishes up these days this is for you a wonderful multi-layered experience that just wins every time the needle drops. Top album
I94 BAR (AUS)
And it’s a Matter of Taste whether you dig the Reverend. We at the Bar have a lot of time for the venerable High Priest of Trash Rock, whether it’s in his clerical guise or cloaked in his garage trash skronk identity as leader of The Monsters. This long player (available as a CD or LP) re-visits some old songs and goes in a few new directions, but is unmistakably the work of Switzerland’s most cuckoo garage/trash rock original. The back story goes a little like this: Beat-Man was coaxed to spend a week in a remote Swiss Alps chalet to record with a hand-picked line-up of people he’d long admired. He chose Milan Slick (keys), drummer Beatrice Graf (of Ester Poly) and local rockabilly guitarist Benjamin Claus. The material was played live. What you hear are complete takes. No overdubs.
“It’s a Matter of Time” is 11 tracks of warped garage fun. Beat-Man describes it best when he calls it Doom Trash Blues. You know what’s in store when you hear the opener, “I Want To Fuck You Baby”, a semi-acoustic strum, whose central lyric is precise in its intent. It’s all downhill from there. Other than carnal concerns (also expressed in “Lass Uns Liebe Machen”, which means “let’s make love”), the songs are about technology addiction (“Slave to the Phone” and “Banned From The Internet”), inter-personal communication (“Shut Up!”) and dancing (“Jesus Christ Twist”.) And I lied about dancing; welded-on Beat-Man fans will recognise that last one as the re-working of an older song.
The sound of The Underground is punchy and the playing tight, suggesting the combo quickly developed an understanding in a week spent living in each other’s pockets. The production is suitably uncomplicated and lets each instrument shine through. Beat-Man’s vocal is an instrument in itself. Its default position is set to “croak”. Its owner switches up to a gravelly shriek or a guttural growl, as the mood (and song) takes him. As the old saying goes: If you think it’s an acquired taste, you need to acquire some taste.
You need lyrical depth? “Banned From The Internet”:
They banned me from Facebook
They banned me from Twiter as well
They banned me from Instagram
Because I posted a picture of you
It shows how you really are
I shot it with my own camera
It shows you in a natural pose
Well the one from behind I suppose
That might reek of revenge porn to some, fixated adoration to others. If you know Reverend Beat-Man by his prior convictions for lewd and lascivious behaviour, you’ll know that it’s all in the eye of the beer-holder. Milan Slick is in a synth duo with the Rev and brings a touch of Suicide’s edge to many of the songs – especially the doom funeral plodder, “Mongolian Talks to Alien”. Graf’s drumming on that one adds a desolate touch of which the old-time Bad Seeds would approve. She’s also capable of great subtlety – as the relatively tender crooner “It’s a Matter of Time” attests. “Get Down On Me” is a warped junk shop glam pop reject that’s been bent into a new shape, while “Banned From The Internet” puts on a country air to be the real odd man out among these 11 tunes
GROUND CONTROL (CAN)
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the It’s A Matter Of Time – The Complete PALP Session LP by Reverend Beat-Man & The Underground. In this era of digital production, rare is the album which feels and sounds dirty. Now, I don’t mean “dirty” in the sense that it was recorded poorly or the sound quality is poor, I mean the music feels dirty in that, after listening, a record leaves listeners feeling so unclean that listeners don’t just feel like they need to take a shower – after listening, they’ll feel like they need to go to confession. After listening to It’s A Matter Of Time – The Complete PALP Session LP, those who have run front-to-back with the album may feel that way exactly – and justifiably. To be clear, no moment on It’s A Matter Of Time feels dark or particularly dangerous – it just feels dirty; it gets down and dirty, it revels in thoughts and statements which are nasty, different aspects of the presentation feel greasy or otherwise bedraggled and, in the end, listeners may be left feeling cheap and used – but certainly in a good way as they walk away from the album experience.
But that’s all, as stated, something which can only happen as the end of the album experience. In order to get there, you need to begin at the beginning.
From note one, listeners will not have to guess – they’re know what they’re in for, from the moment needle catches groove and “I Want To Fuck You Baby” opens the A-side of the album. There, singer/guitarist Beat-Man Zeller, guitarist Benjamin Glaus, keyboardist Milan Slick and drummer Beatrice Graf lay everything squarely on the line with an instrumental performance that sounds like Elvis Costello and The Attractions might, after a healthy round or huffing glue; it’s not sloppy really, it just feels unclean. The keyboards wheeze and there is precisely no shine on the guitars at all. Some readers who have yet to hear the record might be put off by that description of the sound – like it might be of poor sound quality, but that would be incorrect. Yes, it’s dirty – but it’s also very provocative and compelling.
As unlikely as it might seem, that compelling, provocative bent endures past the end of “I Want To Fuck You Baby.” As soon as “Slave To The Phone” starts, in fact, it picks up just where its predecessor left off; with a slightly more math-y, angular performance in place, Beat-Man bemoans the encroachment of technology into every facet of everyday life (as exemplified by lines like, “Text message problems/ Slow wi-fi/ Too many facebook friends/ Spam emails and a hard disk freeze – argh!”) before trying to dance around organized religion with “Jesus Christ Twist” (which doesn’t quite make it to “danceable” and is twice as long as the cut which preceded it), getting slightly more aggressive with “Shut Up” and “Mongolian Talks To Alien” and then switching things up with the far more ominous-feeling title track. There, Beat-Man and his band get genuinely terrifying as the song slows, and more noir-ish coloring is employed.
Really, how the album’s title track closes the A-side of It’s A Matter Of Time would have been a great way to end the whole album. It offers a genuinely classic feel to the proceedings, and the dimly lit aesthetic would have made for a satisfying conclusion. Instead though, listeners get more goodness with the B-side – which proves to be another fantastic which nicely mirrors its counterpart.
The B-side opens by finding a startlingly solid way to cross a joyful desire to celebrate tactless behavior (similar to the way that NOFX does it, at their best) with more of The Underground’s signature “Attractions and glue” styling in “Get Down On Me,” before completely changing their own drive and getting very Ween-y with “Banned From The Internet.” There, The Underground presents a gear that no one could possibly have assumed the band had as they assemble something which feels like golden country greatness and bemoan a fate on par with death (getting banned on social media for posting photos). Of course, the song is design to get as many laughs as it can, but it also betrays a startlingly high level of musicianship which just doesn’t appear anywhere else on the album. It’s so good, in fact, that listeners will actually bemoan the song’s end, after just two minutes, and quietly hope for something they might find that’s comparable to it later in the side’s running.
Of course, like most good bait, more countrified silliness like “Banned From The Internet” does not appear anywhere else on the B-side of It’s A Matter Of Time, but that spark does ignite more excitement. Immediately thereafter, “Lass uns liebe machen” completely changes the movement of the side by setting the song up on a droning platform of low-end and dumping a tonne of reverb on the band’s guitars as well as Beat-Man’s vocals – which decry something in a different language from the rest of the album and so amount to a delightful curiosity, as a result. After that, the band returns to the darkened doldrums which characterized “It’s A Matter Of Time” for the aptly-entitled lovelorn ballad, “Back In Hell.” On the right day, hearing the growling tale of a man who found his girl cheating and shot her down like a dog – all delivered with Beat-Man’s own growling vocal tone – can make eyes roll or smiles crack even the stoniest faces but, on the wrong day, the song can just test patience and play for an awfully long less-than-three-minutes. Frustratingly too, the side closes on the exact same tip as Beat-Man drags himself along concrete through the four fucking minutes it takes to play through “You’re On Top.” Now, it could be argued that the styling employed to make it through “You’re On Top” betrays a desire to come close to being a European answer to Tom Waits – but the problem with that logic is that, when Waits growls, the sound is compelling, while it fails to really get much traction here and that “You’re On Top” is where the album ends, the song’s title feels like a complete misnomer.
As weakly as the B-side proves to play, that is not to say It’s A Matter Of Time is beyond redemption – in fact, there is a fury on the A-side in particular which is fantastic and infectious. Because of that, this critic argues that The Underground has embarked on a learning curve; they’re finding out what works for them, and what doesn’t. Yes, there are points in the running which require patience, but those moments in the running when the album works are the ones which more than pay for the moments which don’t. Here’s hoping that Beat-Man & The Underground return with another offering soon, with a better focus. There’s no question that the band has promise and is showing some of it here, they just need to iron out a few more creases. [Bill Adams]
SONICWAVE (ES)
This experiment carried out by the Reverend Beat-Man could not fall on deaf ears, it had to see the light. And more than one reader will wonder, how did this striking alliance come about? Simple, various musicians met for a week in the Swiss mountains, specifically in Bruson, western Switzerland, stocked up on white wine and recorded in a mansion, over a sheep barn. The musicians and friends, coming from punk and rockabilly formations, carried out the recording without complications, enriching it with their charisma and personal experience. The result is eleven songs that move between the aforementioned styles, adding synthesizers with certain dance, blues or rock and roll touches. A striking and entertaining experiment in which songs like "I want to fuck you baby", "Slave to the pone" or "Shut up!" stand out. God raises them and they mess it up.
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