Bigelf - Money Machine (2000)

I've never been much of a fan of music described as "progressive" - actually, I've avoided it like the plague (what, me narrow-minded?)! But then, something happened. I was standing at the festival area of this year's Sweden Rock Festival, enjoying a beer, talking to some people on my way to the exit and back to the tent. But something made me stop. Something made me stop and think to myself: "what the hell is this"? What I heard was some heavy guitars sliding away into long, down-tuned Sabbath-reminding solos backed up by an even heavier Hammond organ. I felt drawn towards this weird yet compelling sound and suddenly I found myself standing in the crowd, shaking my head to these hypnotic rhythms and on the stage there were three men, all wearing long hair and beards, looking like black-dressed mad prophets. Jesus on acid. Sadly, I had to return to the tent to conduct some personal business (don't ask) so I didn't get to catch the whole concert, but I was impressed with what I had heard. Bigelf, I thought to myself, I gotta remember that name. And I did and when the opportunity came to get my hands on their latest album, "Money Machine", I didn't hesitate. The press release describes the music as "the way The Beatles would have sounded with Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath on guitar and Jon Lord from Deep Purple on organ", and I gotta admit, they really hit the spot with that one! Imagine Beatles during their cannabis-back-to-India era and with a little bit of desperation thrown into their sound, mixed with fat guitars and a corresponding organ. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking: don't mix this and don't mix that, it'll all get too chaotic, but trust me: it doesn't! Bigelf are very talented musicians, performing a music that could be described as very technical, still the melodies are clean and very catchy! It takes a certain amount of creativity and genius to make these parts blend together well and these guys are not only pulling it off, but also they do it terrific! The lyrics are pretty simple, yet effective when put to the music. The two first tracks, "Money Machine" and "Sellout" are, for those of you who didn't get that from the titles, a big black boot in the face of the entire music industry - well, the greedy, money-rule part of it, anyway! Corporate assholes, beware! "Neuropsychopathic Eye" (which kicks off with some distorted Ozzy-like vocals) could easily have passed as a song from any Beatles album during their rawer period and has some great baby grand handling from keyboardist Damon Fox. "Side effects" begins with some really down-tuned guitars and turns out to be the most outstanding track of the album - the chorus is so simple, yet it's remarkable! Even your parents will appreciate this! Or at least they should. "Death Walks Behind You" is creepy and atmospheric (once again with some brilliant organ usage and groovy guitars) and the closing track "The Bitter End" is slow-paced with calm vocals, soothing keyboards and long, spiraling guitar solos. Really laid-back and relaxing - a great completion of a great album. If you haven't heard of LA band Bigelf yet, I urge you to check 'em out! It didn't actually convert me to start liking progressive music, but it made me love a band within a genre I had earlier tried to keep away from and that, my friends, requires a certain quality!
(The Damnator, Sweet Suffering)


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