I gomila, gurajući se da vidi
čovekovu dušu
Ogoljenu do krajnjeg srama
Ugleda osmeh taj
Iz korena iščupanog kako se diže
Kako mu dira usne,
menja mu oči
I na jedan tren
Kako popravlja sve
I zatim odlazi da preplavi
čitav svet
(Ted Hjuz, Osmeh)
Friday night after a beautiful June day. As you approach the Hangar, located in the Port of Belgrade, you are overtaken by columns of international aficionados, which is probably a good sign. Good for Belgrade, good for this country, for your soul, for the overall hopelessness and despair that you occasionally think you will be surrounded by forever. But if one rock band like The Smile can attract such a flock of sincere fans, then there is still some hope for us.
Standing in line, patiently waiting to show your concert ticket, listening to various languages around you - Russian and English most often - hmm, how long has it been since we felt this way... normal? After all, approaching the dark core of the Hangar, which are already starting to cut through the flames of laser lines and an interesting collage of live band members - which will mark the visual dimension of this event - also encourages some forgotten anticipation in our solar plexus. It's like we're teenagers again and we're frolicking excitedly in front of the entrance to some tempting counterculture den. Well, in short - rock and roll!
Because The Smile have arrived, sir.
Maybe you've never been a fan of Radiohead, maybe you didn't even care much for the super-group Atoms for Peace - by the way, they were at EXIT Festival 2013, absolutely mesmerizing - but, in front of the physiognomy, format, fabulousness, fantasy and whatever else you want at letter "f" of the band The Smile, you simply stop and are instantly transported from the frivolity of everyday life. If you were religious - you would probably cross yourself and fall on your face. If you were possessed by dark forces - you would surely start rolling in the biblical mud screaming for help. But a special smile would surely adorn your face even then.
And how was it actually on The Smile?
photo: nikola doroslovački...
Like stepping into a river, into that colossal current into whose pulsating heart the whirlpool Reverend Jeff Buckley plunged forever. Like voluntarily floating through intoxicating fumes kosmische music some Can - and indeed, Tom York almost looks like the eternally smiling Damo Suzuki on stage, and his subtle dance almost instantly revives the lovely being of this shaman krautrock. Like continuing the career of The Velvet Underground through other means. Kind of like The Beatles jerking off after Revolver and went in the direction of experimental electronic jazz. Like Nick Drake who suddenly decided to live and become grandiosely social. Or Chet Baker before all addictions. Young and healthy as a rose. Enigmatic like a sphinx. As the quintessence of the English sound, from virginalists to supermodern electronics. And all this at the same time, exhilaratingly serious.
Imam munjevite provodnike
svuda po telu,
Bilo da prolazim ili stojim,
Oni hvataju sve pojave i neškodljivo ih vode kroz mene.
Ja se samo mičem, potiskujem,
osećam svojim prstima i srećan sam.
Da svojim bićem dotaknem neko
drugo biće, to je otprilike sve što mogu da podnesem.
(Volt Vitman, Pesma o sebi)
photo: nikola doroslovački...
Many thousands of people in the Hangar will testify the same - Tom York is a modern day seraphim art rock. His voice, which stretches from the infernal depths to the hottest heights, is simply mesmerizing without equal and is a native musical device in itself. Multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood from the brother band Radiohead creates a sonic honeycomb through which Yorke's inspiration seems to gain its supersonic wings and mystical acceleration. Perfect drummer Tom Skinner, from London jazz of the Sons of Kemet attraction, raises the tension of the fantasy here afrobeat high up. And the truly dedicated saxophonist and artist of every musical tool he can get his hands on - Robert Stillman - virtuoso builds his pneumatic ornaments, as muted as touching, with respect and a perfect dose of taste, which a delicate musician can possess.
The Smile captivates us from the first hour as a hypersensitive listening experience, in which the band unmistakably addresses each of us individually in the audience. This composition really passionately wants to reach our most secret emotional vibrations and instantly bring them to consciousness. But, what connects all their musical streams into one is the exposure of pain, which is evoked by each of their songs. As they move in their majestic procession, you slowly become aware of how this solemn attitude towards the end of the world - as we have known it - has its ideological roots in the work of the group Joy Division. The Smile actually created the essence of their creativity on that sacred inspiration, that lofty tragic feeling of Ian Curtis's personal existence, and then innovatively upgraded it for the XXI century, in which horrors that we could not even imagine await us.
And yet, you don't feel at all paralyzed before the opened gates of that cataclysm of life, which hangs over each of us. Rather wise, calm and resolutely determined to persevere until the end of the universe. And - survive.
That's why Tom York, with every movement on stage and the vibration of his voice, proves this evening how he achieved what great artists strive for - in his own way, he preserved purity and innocence for all of us against the abyss of civilization that surrounds us, publicly accepted immorality and other filth. everyday life. Regardless of all the aforementioned layers of the rocker's unconscious, which this band brings to light, one conclusion is inevitable: The Smile are above all original.
It's good to know that not all stories have been told yet rock and roll-u.
Postoji osmeh ljubavi,
I osmeh laži postoji,
Kao i osmeh osmeha,
Što osmeha ta dva spoji.
(Vilijam Blejk, Osmeh)
