Madrugada’s ’Grit’ is the most congenial listening

Sun can shine anytime, regardless of the climatic calamity outdoors: Madrugada provide brightness in my indoor living currently with their new album, ‘Grit’. This Norwegian lot continue to make intriguing, hypnotic and delightful music that warms up hearts, soul and selected limbs. It is music that takes you outside of the everydayness by its variety of sounds without breaking the mould really but definitely adding to the sonic tapestry.

While American and Brit markets are leaning more and more toward unified sounding albums (with rare exceptions, granted), Madrugada sail on the seas of i-deas. Such as ‘Try Try Try’ being a blue-eyed-boy’s funk of such magnitude not heard since Robert Palmer’s glory (mid-1980s) days, or the recent (criminally) Brit-neglected single, ‘I’m Ready’, a pankoid mini-drama of an arrangement guaranteeing uninterrupted painting for Captain Beefheart. ‘I Don’t Fit’ can be sided with (another underrated, this time British, band) Cousteau, it is that evergreen, alas an ‘outlaw’ quality these days.

“‘Grit’ signals a major growth advancement in Madrugada’s evocative sound. Having been based in Berlin recently led to the band writing and recording there as well. The edgier atmosphere that exudes all-that’s-Berlin has certainly made its way onto a record... a stunning one,” the record company informs us without a trace of hype.

Madrugada’s ‘Grit’ is a dark record that recalls glorious predecessors such as Joy Division, Nick Cave, Pink Floyd, Scott Walker, The Clash, Velvet Underground, The Doors, Tom Waits, psychedelia, jazz, minimalism, singer-songwriters… one of the rare sonic styles they bypass is country. Oh, yeah – they are not hot on club-culture, thank Eeyore. Still, the above list of disparate artists is just for guidance, no obvious copying going on here, it is simply the spirits of these greats crisscrossing on the existentialist’s turnpike.

The most mesmerising moment occurs during the track No. 8, ‘Get Back In Line’, a mutated-reggae that is like The Police-cum-The Clash on super-skunk; it is astonishing that so few songs are made in this genre/crossover because it is so enthralling, far beyond the common beat of general pop. The concluding track, ‘(Ghost) Loves Institution’, is a slice of Americana-desert ‘blues’, almost spoken, that hovers like heat over asphalt; it truly and easily could fit onto the ‘Paris, Texas’ soundtrack, if the flick were to be remade.

Particular tonality permeates these songs, somewhat grandiose, and you can get lost as if you were in an emotional forest. ‘Girt’, a diverse collection of songs for people who can see past the Made-by-TV ‘stars’, is one of the year’s most congenial listening.

8/10