Stories
Reports, reviews, interviews, essays, and opinions about music and its connection to business and society.
New Flavours of Gemina
The Trio+ is a special configuration of The Beauty of Gemina—and it calls for an equally unusual review of their concert at Plaza Club in Zurich.
With the so-called «Trio+», Michael Sele takes a more experimental approach to his work with The Beauty of Gemina. As it was also the first time for me experiencing this different sound, I tried an experiment myself with a recorded review instead of a written one.
Let me know what you think of this approach to a concert review. I'm curious about your feedback in the comments.
Dive Deeper
Janosch Troehler
Janosch Troehler
December 2024. It‘s late in the year and late in life to finally close a glaring and shameful knowledge gap. Leech is a prestigious name; well-known in the post-rock community. No wonder: This Swiss band has been making waves for almost 30 years.
Then again, I‘m not that into post-rock, and frankly, the reason why I find myself in the concert room of Zurich‘s youth centre Dynamo is not the christening of their new album, Sapperlot but mainly the support act. That‘s also a rather rare occasion. But ever since I heard Hugo Trist‘s Say It, Mean It earlier this year, I‘ve been obsessed with his future garage sound.
Hugo Trist is the brainchild of Leech’s founding member, Urs Meyer. Influenced by the sombre sounds of the 80s, Trist‘s music features a certain sadness, soulful vocals, and atmospheric synth compositions.
Janosch Troehler
How will it work on stage? And will I fall in love with Leech, too? Those questions lingered in my mind as I nipped on my small beer.
Hugo Trist did not play Say It, Mean It, and that’s one of two disappointments. The other: the gig was way too short. But well, what are you going to do with just a handful of songs out yet?
Apart from these minor complaints, Hugo Trist delivered a stunning show with a full lineup: drums, guitar, synth, and the mystical qualities of Nin Lil. The singer already contributed her stunning vocals in several recorded songs on Hugo Trist’s debut, Ready For the Fix, like Rest A While. Even De-Identify received her treatment—and it worked perfectly.
And these tracks, Rest A While and De-Identify, were definitely the highlights; the pressure and the spherical flow met and created the perfect dream-dance soundtrack.
With the live instruments, the soulful and clean sound evolved to something grittier and dirtier on stage—getting a more handcrafted rock-like vibe but neither losing the melancholic ambience nor the danceable groove. And with the disco-ball outfits and a seethrough, LED-lighted guitar, Hugo Trist was equally attractive for the eyes and ears.
Conclusion: I can’t wait to see Hugo Trist live again.
Now, it’s hard to put onto the page what Leech delivered after a convincing show by Hugo Trist. Of course, with decades of experience, you’ll expect a certain tightness, but man, nothing and no one could have prepared me for this.
The dynamics, the precision, the complexity in their purely instrumental post-rock were beyond. Time became like rubber, meaningless really, and melted away like the clocks in Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory.
I’ve seen a lot of artists without vocals perform on stage. However, it has never felt like with Leech. Maybe because there was still a quintet on stage, maybe because rock music traditionally comes with a singer and a frontman. But the musicians faded, and the music took the spotlight.
And the music became an elemental force, a wave building up in slow motion, towering higher and higher until it violently crashed over you—stripping away every thought.
The constant build-up of anticipation has a strange familiarity with electronic music—you’re awaiting the drop, trying to prepare for a shattering coming down. It was a mind-altering frenzy, archaic, dystopian and utopian.
Conclusion: Better late than never, and hopefully again.
Songs Of A Lost World, Indeed
The Cure’s new album, «Songs Of A Lost World», resonates around the world. Let’s take a closer look.
What else can I write that hasn’t been put down on paper? Yes, Songs Of A Lost World, the new album by The Cure, the first in 16 years, is a masterpiece. And one wonders what diabolical pact this Robert Smith must have made to still sound 25 at 65.
The album has since climbed to number one in the album charts in both the USA and the UK. Comparisons were drawn with the band's undisputed opus magnum: Disintegration from 1989. As ever, The Cure sounded dripping with melancholy and full of world-weariness. And in general, no one disagrees with this conclusion.
Transience is a constant companion throughout the album. In I Can Never Say Goodbye, Smith heartbreakingly deals with the death of his brother. «As a memory of the first time, in the stillness of a teardrop / As you hold me for the last time in the dying of the light,» laments Smith in And Nothing Is Forever.
Songs Of A Lost World is a desperate beacon, written by an ageing man in an ever faster-changing world. What is actually the perfect template for something cringeworthy works because Smith laments but doesn’t point fingers. It has always been that way with The Cure: profoundly personal but with a way of finding yourself in the songs.
When I asked on the Threads platform why the album resonates with people, Alex Storer replied: «I’ve experienced a lot of loss, so the lyrics speak to me personally on that level, but it seems to go further than that; it’s about the passing of time, the sudden feeling of being old(er) and the realisation that the world you've grown up in and been shaped by has changed for the worse.»
And Chris Jakins added: «The message may be bleak, but there's hope in the fact that they’re still saying it and sounding so good.»
And my personal favourites among the answers were provided by these two users:
I remember walking the streets of Zurich at the age of 18 with the album Bloodflowers playing on endless repeat. The soul bathed in adolescent despair, accompanied by The Cure.
Even more than Disintegration, I see a direct kinship between Songs Of A Lost World and 2000’s Bloodflowers. Both have this meandering quality; both take their time in the sprawling compositions and celebrate a warming sadness.
The success of Songs Of A Lost World is both surprising and natural. The Cure have almost prophetically chosen the perfect time for the release: at the turn of an era, while dreams and hopes were shattered in the US elections and a shock wave of bewilderment was sent to Europe. Instead of anger, discouragement and disorientation are on the agenda today. And this album is the perfect soundtrack to the question: What is happening to us right now?
At the same time, The Cure deliver the perfect anachronism, at least musically. In a music industry in which algorithms increasingly influence songwriting, the band creates a bastion of escapist, writhing anthems. It often takes minutes for Smith’s voice to ring out. Hooks in the first three seconds? Not a chance!
The ultimate pinnacle of despair and escapade remains the overwhelming Endsong, the album’s closing track.
It’s all gone, it’s all gone
Nothing left of all I loved
It all feels wrong
It’s all gone, it’s all gone, it’s all gone
No hopes, no dreams, no world
No, I, I don’t belong
No, I don't belong here
Songs Of A Lost World is unwieldy, wants you to take your time. It’s a stew album: the longer it simmers, the more often you stir it, the tastier it becomes.
This is anything but a matter of course today, especially for younger generations. And yet, the album also resonates with them. Characterised by a drastic pandemic and fears about the future, a new wave of melancholy and thoughtfulness has emerged in music, inspired by post-punk and dark wave.
Society and young people today are too fragmented to make generalised statements. And generalisations are always dangerous. But the days of escaping into hedonism seem to be over. Hangover mood. The challenges are too great to simply ignore.
The Cure and their Songs Of A Lost World create catharsis not through ignorance of the world but through empathy. Robert Smith knows how to say with his songs: I see you and feel your pain. It’s okay to feel desperate.
