Onda rock

The prelude to fear, that antechamber of almost surreal serenity, dilated to the point of being hyperbolically anxious: this is where the fascination of so much filmography of terror originates, and it is from here that we can start to better understand the magnetism released by an album like "Be Glad You Are Only Human", where a pop smelling of cotton candy climbs to take a ride on the crazy rides of psychedelia and comes back cloaked in a dark and disturbing aura worthy of the best horror OSTs.



S. Herbert and M.A. Welsh are an eclectic English duo that responds to the name of Misophone: S. is a composer of classical extraction capable of playing more than twenty different instruments (and, according to rumors, the number is constantly growing) while MA, voice and banjo of Misophone, he is an artist-writer to whom we owe the incursions of the most disparate noises as well as the dark lyrics of the songs, which at times seem to come from the pen of Jeff Mangum. In just five years of activity, Misophone have collected hundreds of songs and released twelve albums (a thirteenth is already on the way, not even six months after the release of "Be Glad You Are Only Human"), demonstrating a creative streak fervent and tireless.

Like the previous album “Where Has It Gone, All The Beautiful Music Of Our Grandparents? It Died With Them, That's Where It Went ... "(a splendid title, by the way), the twelfth effort by Misophone has been licensed in a limited edition by Kning Disk, a small Swedish label that pays extraordinary attention to every detail of the his albums (including works by Erik Enocksson, Peter Broderick and Library Tapes), starting from the extreme refinement of the coverart up to the thanks by the artist on each of the copies sold, all numbered by hand.


"Be Glad You Are Only Human" opens on the thread of a vinyl needle, which rests on a heartfelt lament coming from a distant time and place and which immediately tinges the atmosphere of the album with sepia tones. This overture is followed by a series of songs with airy pop melodies, veiled by a shadowy restlessness that thanks to the skilful use of music box, organ, glockenspiel and honky tonk manages to evoke an almost irrational fear and for this more than ever attractive ( "The Motherless Moth Headed Bread Boy", "As She Walked Out Of The Door", "Spisske Nova Ves"), reaching unexpected peaks of emotional tension on several occasions, as in the funereal calm of the instrumental title track, in the Balkan crescendo (by stoker-iana memoria) of “Homeward, Gone”, or in the waltz cadence of the horrors of “I Sleep Like The Dead”.

BUT. Welsh haunts the songs of bewitched sounds, which flutter lightly like ghosts giving a touch of psychedelia and referring to the “lighter” side of Olivia Tremor Control's experimentalism.



Perhaps it is precisely in the combination between attraction and disturbance, feelings that arise when listening in an almost symbiotic way, that this little gem of psychedelic pop resides, and it is precisely here that the main difference lies with the previous "Where Has It Gone ... ", which undoubtedly shares pastel pop, melancholy melodies and psychedelic hints with" Be Glad You Are Only Human ", but which completely lacks the latter's ability to hypnotize the listener between the colors of its frightening, amazing carousel.

The album ends with "Life Is Good", where the gently muffled voice of M.A. Welsh seems to give way to that dark one of evil Oompa Loompa hunted from Mr. Wonka's chocolate paradise. The (apparent) closure of the piece is followed by a whisper of piano and strings, which slip away in a sort of vaporous “to be continued”. Is it a promise or a threat? Hard to say, but one thing is certain: luckily for us, it didn't end there