Distinctive and deep bass guitar rhythms and visionary lyrics turn the Beast’s second studio album, Bardo into a South African gem, writes David Cornwell.
It takes exactly 36 seconds for Beast’s new album, Bardo, to announce itself as one of the most exciting South African releases in years. After some intricate riffing and urgent, declamatory vocals from front woman Inge Beckmann, the music suddenly falls away – the first beat of the next bar passes in silence – before the gates of hell blow open and the gut-clenching force of two fuzzed-out bass guitars is unleashed full throttle.
Two bass guitars?
Yes.
And Inge Beckmann?
Uh huh.
It’s an unusual set-up, and one that might not work if its vision wasn’t so consummate. Beast is an interstitial animal – a glorious metal, grunge and biker rock gumbo – and one that trades in contrasts and contradictions. Indeed, the next time we’re treated to the ridiculously heavy chorus of opening track Healer, Beckmann’s vocals soar above the fathomless bass attack, demanding “Are you witch, or are you a healer?” It’s a brilliant, wild and satisfying moment – a beautifully recorded testament to what, some say, is this country’s finest live rock act.
Beast was formed as an experiment of Taxi Violence’s Rian Zietsman and Louis Nel. The two bought themselves bass guitars and began a side project in the basement of the house they were sharing – driven, as Zietsman puts it, by the incredulity that “no one had tried [the two-bass set-up] before”. The duo’s suboctave sound found its natural complement in Beckmann’s piercing vocal style and she was also instrumental in providing a “recipe” for Beast’s early songwriting exploits. Werner von Waltsleben, a sensitive and powerful drummer who has been with the band for two years, completes Bardo’s musical line-up.
The album is a sumptuously produced and faithful rendering of the band’s immense stage power – an achievement underscored by the fact that Zietsman mixed the tracks himself. He revelled in this “double responsibility that I owed to both the band and the record” – and Bardo certainly continues the trend of improving production standards in South African rock albums. Von Waltsleben’s drumming is crisp and rich throughout, the bass is concussive on every track and Beckmann’s vocals have the searing clarity of midday sun.
Bardo’s industrial, pneumatic sound and morbid subject matter might not be everyone’s default but there is enough palpable quality on display here to earn the album crossover appeal. Beast has been gestating and sure, Bardo is a dark birth – under a constellation of bad signs – but it’s one the South African music scene should nevertheless welcome with pride and gratitude.
See full review in Mail & Guardian
PHOTO CREDIT: ‘Untamed sense of control’: The vocal range and skill of Inge Beckmann is one the factors that has made Beast’s album ‘Bardo’ a huge success. (Photo: smallglory.tumblr.com).
