Konkord 138
It’s All Going South
The Base
Songs for a world on the brink of extinction.
”Everything is out of control / from melting pots to melting poles” - the 2024 album by Graz-based rock trio The Base gives our maltreated world a worn and ugly shine. It starts with the crude intensity of a dark, earthy field holler. In a field holler, slaves, prisoners or forced labourers shout and repeat words and sentences to each other, setting the rhythm for work - and for survival. Sing or die! “Everything falls apart / and everyone is acting smart” Norbert Wally and his two henchmen start their torture de force in the deep south, in the primordial soup of rock'n'roll, in the deep swampland of the Delta blues. But The Base are far from digging a blues record out of the mud and the muck. "It's All Going South" is more inspired by bands like Fun Lovin' Criminals, The Clash or Pixies.
The Base see blues as an accelerant: the stories, the statements, the visions - hardly ever have Norbert Wally (voice/guitars), Albrecht Klinger (bass) and Karlheinz Miklin Jr. (drums) been so political, so critical, so angry. And they have never been as sarcastic as in 2024. Blues means dancing on a volcano. Laughing at your own funeral. And clenching your fists when vile tricksters blemish the good and beautiful things in order to turn truth into cheap merchandise.
The opener "High Time For Panicking" is a masterpiece in its own right: within a minute and a half, it shoots us from the pre-war blues of old Lomax shellacs into the noisy groove of a new wave combo playing for their lives. The title track "It's All Going South" glimmers in the distance like a desert cactus that's about to be crushed by Mr. Tarantino in a 1967 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan. A massively challenged guitar and dunes of reverb that wander through the story in slow-mo. A bass that tips its hat to Clint Eastwood. The atmosphere: Calexico deluxe.
"Everything is going down the drain" is what the title phrase actually means. "Chemically Speaking Alcohol Is Still A Solution" could be heard as an answer to all well-intentioned attempts to save a world full of dictators, war machines and madness with vinyasa yoga and yoghurt supplemented with lactobacillus bulgaricus. While the previous albums were intentionally reduced and purist, on "It's All Going South" The Base indulge in background choirs, a full blown vintage sound and extensive studio effects. However, it appears to be a perfect match and demonstrates the quality of the songs, which sound just as good in tight-fitting diving suits as they do in glittering bespoke costumes. Nobody draws as much melancholy from the word "happy" as Norbert Wally does, and consequently the single release "Waiting For June" is a love song that is not a love song at all.
But the most compelling reason to listen to the album is "No One's Safe". A song that works its way through the inner ear to the cerebral cortex like a drill. Sound collages, voice-overs, strange noise - the song drills deeper and deeper until it reaches the earth's core. Norbert Wally displays an elegant vulnerability reminiscent of David Bowie in the 1970s. The intensity of Radiohead’s “OK Computer” appears on stage. No one is safe. Game over! "It's All Going South" is The Base's most painful, most political record to date. What a shame, we're all going down - but at least that can sound damn sexy.