Communion

July 16, 2006... There is a classic series of Saturday Night Live sketches wherein Tarzan (Kevin Nealon), Tonto (Jon Lovitz) and Frankenstein (Phil Hartman) mumble--or, in the case of Frankenstein, growl--the lyrics to well-known songs in broken English. The Christmas standard "Joy to the World," for example, is rendered thusly: "Joy to world/Lord is come/Earth receive king."

Today's featured recording, Communion, the debut long player by the long-running Dutch band, Funeral Oration, is a bit like one of those aforementioned Saturday Night Live sketches. For one thing, Peter Zirschky, the band's vocalist, insists on writing his lyrics in English, even though it isn't his first language. As a result, there are some odd, awkward snippets of lyric throughout the proceedings--like "Down/Way, way deep in ground/'Cause I can't hide around," from the song "Deep in Ground," for example.

Still, though his grammar may be awkward here and there, Zirschky's are very thoughtful, very personal lyrics about struggle, loss and emptiness. ("Emptyness" is the name of one of the best songs on the album.) In fact, one could make a strong case that Funeral Oration, whose debut LP was recorded in April 1985, was one of the first "emo" bands, with songs about feelings and all that shit.

That aside, the similarities to Tarzan, Tonto and Frankenstein on Communion stretch beyond simple fractured English...

Funeral Oration - Without Name

Peter Zirschky can sing. Bits and pieces of "Without Name" are sung, I'm sure you'll agree. Sometimes his vocals are double tracked so that he can harmonize with his bad self--and when he does it's as sweet as en stroopwafel. But, plainly, Zirschky can also bark. And when he double tracks the barking ... it ends up sounding like a tag-team of Tarzan and Tonto.

Anyway, enough about Peter Zirschky... The real star of Communion is Thomas Nieuwenhuizen, aka "Tos N.," the guitarist. I believe that this is the only Funeral Oration record Mr. N. played on, and the difference between it and the band's many, many other records is like night and day.

Funeral Oration - Dayfall

I'm not sure exactly how Nieuwenhuizen--formerly of Jesus & The Gospelfuckers--got his guitar to sound the way it does on Communion, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't by tuning it. As a rhythm player, he's no great shakes. His parts fade into the background and become part of the dull roar that is the rhythm section. As a lead player, though, he shreds.

You might not think there'd be room in a minute-and-a-half-long song for a guitar solo, but Nieuwenhuizen manages to find room again and again on Communion, and it is a pleasure to listen to every time. His other, more "textural" overdubs are also a treat. On the mournful, midtempo "Motherlode," he adds a track consisting of a single guitar chord ringing out and decaying, then slowly building into a curtain of shimmering feedback. It'd be a great song even without it, but with Nieuwenhuizen's inspired clangor panned from channel to channel, it's a really great song.

Funeral Oration - Communion

I don't need to tell you to go back and listen to the squeal of feedback at the 1:24 mark of "Communion" again. I know you heard it the first time because it's perfect. Ain't no-body can sculpt with feedback like my man. It's a shame I haven't heard anything he's done since. (Has anyone posted any of his later stuff with God, Harlingtox A.D., Beaver or 35007? Does it suck total ass?)

Anyhoo... Funeral Oration continued touring and recording throughout the 1980s and 1990s, slowing down the tempos of their songs and cutting out the guitar pyrotechnics and neanderthal growling. While a few of their records are available through Hopeless Records, Communion is not among them. Tellingly, only four tracks from the record, all of them mid-tempo, made it onto the band's career retrospective double CD.

Myself, I've always wanted to re-record Communion with a rhythm guitar track that doesn't sound like a belt sander, drums that don't sound like shoe boxes and vocals that don't sound like Tarzan and Tonto. The songs certainly warrant being re-recorded. I doubt that I could ever equal the squeals of feedback and solos of Tos N., though.

Permadink | |

Top

Home