Said an advertising slogan for the cereal brand kellogg’s what “The original is always the best”, alluding to the many competitors who, after their success, decided to imitate their formula. The same theory could be applied to Slowdiveseminal band and reference of what was called dream-popin a genre that the Reading lineup helped define by shining it with their three classic albums from the nineties: “Just For A Day” (Cherry Red, 91), (of course) “Souvlaki” (Cherry Red, 93) y “Pygmalion” (Cherry Red, 95). Later, countless more or less advanced disciples would arrive, but very few can be compared in transcendence to the group of Rachel Goswell, Neil Halstead and company.
It also happens that on the return of the British in 2017 it was materialized in a self-titled album capable of keeping the myth intact. An achievement conscientiously endorsed last season with the (again) splendid “Everything Is Alive” (Dead Oceans, 23), which they now came to present and which, once again, could afford to look head-on at its predecessors in the catalogue. It is not surprising therefore that, on the occasion of the visit of Slowdive In Madrid, La Riviera looked like a big occasion, with tickets sold out for weeks, a huge queue stretching around the area two hours before the start of the concert, and the general idea that the evening could be nothing short of historic.
Expectations were effectively and fully satisfied in an hour and a half. Nothing more was needed, in reality, because the quintet dragged souls towards its very personal universe since the first notes of “Shanty”, with a mix of austerity and elegance that contrasts with the crazy effect (due to pure emotion) that their music has live. The combo achieved an unquestionable sound with which to highlight every nook hidden behind those (indeed) dreamy and amazing songs, with hypnotic effects that turn the listener between their layers like sound waves and that, time and again, play with times and intensities at will. Specific passages certified by the alternation behind the microphone of Goswell and Halstead, traveling on the back of the siren songs of one and through the sober feeling of the other, in a tessitura of connected contrasts and happy ending.
A concert in which everyone –Christian Savill on guitar, Nick Chaplin on bass and Simon Scott on drums– contribute with their own weight and in the same direction, motivating the satisfaction of an audience drugged by the influences that emerge from the stage, enhanced by projections that are as functional as they are actually not very ostentatious and impeccable lights when it comes to enhancing one’s own sensations. Since the mentioned “Shanty” at the end in the form of a version of the “Golden Hair” by Syd Barret, going through moments already etched in memory as “Catch The Breeze”, “Souvlaki Space Station”, “Chained To A Cloud”, “Slomo”, “Kisses” the consecutive trio of aces formed by “Alison”, “When The Sun Hits” y “40 Days”.
A layout with overtones of a religious and saving epiphany, in which Slowdive He made his own an audience surrendered to the beauty of his songbook and redeemed from the cold outside world, after having gathered that type of heat that only music seems to be capable of emanating. Programmers, artists, staff from record labels and communication agencies, press, and, of course, faithful of the old guard sharing space with new generations already trapped under the influence of the band. They all swarmed around La Riviera last night. It’s where you had to be. Not for posturing or modernism, as on other occasions, but as devotional and infinite gratitude to the group and its nuanced vaporous magic.