(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Amedeo Pace (vocals and guitar) was the leader of Blonde Redhead, a band that many in the 1990s hailed as one of the most intriguing new acts in cutting-edge noise rock. With his twin brother Simone (drums), he grew up in Canada before moving to the United States to study jazz in Boston. After earning their degrees, they began performing in New York, and in 1993 they formed Blonde Redhead with a Japanese friend, Kazu Makino (vocals and guitar). Over time, several bassists joined and left the lineup, starting with Maki Takahashi (bass), who departed after the first album.
Their discography began with the singles Amescream (Oxo, 1993) and Vague (Smells Like, 1994), both experimental but not particularly gripping pieces.
Following these singles and their self-titled mini-album of 1994 (Smells Like, 1994), which included I Don't Want You, critics recognized them as brilliant disciples of Sonic Youth. The singles 10 Feet High (Smells Like, 1994) and Flying Douglas (Rough Trade, 1995) refined this formula.
La Mia Vita Violenta (Smells Like, 1996) was dedicated to Italian writer Pier Paolo Pasolini.
The eccentric tunings and mechanical syncopations of Fake Can Be Just As Good (Touch And Go, 1997) serve as the framework for a truly avant-garde sound — a dazzling display of technique that never loses sight of the goal of writing actual rock songs. Tracks like Kazuality, with its hiccuping, limping, dissonant rock and roll, recall the harsher side of the Breeders, as if Steve Albini were playing guitar.
The band, however, shines brightest when Makino’s shrill falsetto takes center stage. Symphony Of Treble exemplifies their style, wedged between Simone’s soft tribal rhythms and Amedeo’s offbeat metronomic guitar, while Ego Maniac Kid reaches an emotional peak — a sad lullaby whispered over percussive, Japan-inspired tunings and layers of distortion. The psychodramatic tone continues with Bipolar, where Makino’s increasingly terrified wailing heightens the tension. In this theater of neurosis, the group finds its true calling.
Blonde Redhead could have been the quintessential trio of the New Wave — both their strength and their limitation. Their eccentricity reaches new heights on In An Expression Of The Inexpressible (Touch & Go, 1998). The protagonists of their psychodramas are Makino’s shrill voice, the inventive guitar work of both Makino and Amedeo Pace, and Simone Pace’s skewed rhythms. This is their most self-ironic and softest album to date, intentionally or not. Many tracks verge on novelty, though arranged with refined and unusual sophistication: parodies of 1960s soundtracks (Luv Machine), of sensual lounge soul (Missile ++), circus music refracted through the free-rock sensibility of Canterbury (10, one of their most angular yet adventurous compositions), and western or surf themes filtered through a progressive-rock mindset (Futurism vs Passeism Part 2, featuring French narration over a driving cadence). These are high-class performances, where the trio showcases its ability to build music on entirely atypical, often atonal foundations.
They are equally at home in a dramatic register. With their signature harmonic anomalies, Blonde Redhead sculpt the claustrophobic British dark-punk of Distilled, the surreal pantomime of the title track (driven by heavy industrial guitar riffs and Makino’s convulsive shrieks), and the agonizing lament of Led Zep. The most conventional song, the lively This Is For Me And I Know Everyone Knows, returns to their early Sonic Youth roots. With this record, Blonde Redhead pushed far beyond their original premises. The musicians’ maturity is palpable — they integrate their ideas effortlessly, and even their most challenging solutions end up sounding oddly musical.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Blonde Redhead seemed to have found their true voice on
Expression Of The Inexpressible, but the sequel,
Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons (Touch & Go, 2000),
is a completely different work, certainly
their most accessible yet.
The tuneful, funky novelty In Particular (vaguely reminiscent of
Brian Setzer's Bloodless Pharaoh's ) is a light divertissment
that draws inspiration from Stereolab, Cibo Matto, Pizzicato Five.
Another swift, upbeat, mechanic carillon, This Is Not, parodies the
innocent refrains of the Sixties. These two songs are by far their most
lively tracks ever.
Melody rules.
The trippy noir ballad Hated Because Of Great Qualities echoes David
Bowie's Space Oddity.
Loved Despite Of Great Faults is a Beatles song in disguise.
For The Damaged is a piano ballad in a quasi-classical style.
The intellectuals have mellowed down, Kazu Makino has become a primadonna and
the Sonic Youth are a fading memory.
Compared with Inexpressible, this album is even too "expressible".
Where the masterpiece was all cryptic and subtle nuances, this album is
a series of footnotes that explain what is going on for the late comers.
The EP Melodie Citronique (Touch & Go, 2000) contains remixes, a cover
and the new Chi E` E Non E`.
Blonde Redhead kept moving away from their noise-rock roots with
Misery is a Butterfly (4AD, 2004), their most romantic collection yet,
enhanced with a string section,
but also their most derivative. This kind of old-fashioned semi-orchestral
pop music requires
at least good songs (melodies and lyrics). But songwriting never was
Blonde Redhead's forte. Their forte were atmospheric breadth and psychological
depth. The few exceptions (the relatively lively Misery is a Butterfly,
the melancholy baroque aria of
Elephant Woman, the fragile lullaby of Melody, the
surreal fanfare of Pink Love) would justify an EP, not an album.
The world might not need another
Alison Goldfrapp.
As it is, the album ends up being quite annoying and inspiring a few yawns,
and a couple of timid diversions (Falling Man and Maddening Cloud)
are certainly not enough to rescue it.
Boasting the sleek production of a mainstream act,
23 (4AD, 2007) even toys with dream-pop in 23 (reminiscent of vintage Cocteau Twins) and
with dance-pop in album's highlight Top Ranking
(Latin-tinged percussion, tinkling keyboards and a soaring melody).
In general, though, their quiet, well arranged, guitar-driven, alienated
lullabies, such as Silently (a mellow singalong propelled by a
quasi-disco beat), Dr Strangeluv (basically, a syncopated lounge ballad)
and The Dress, manage to fuse the old "middle-of-the-road" rock and the
alternative rock of the 1990s.
The most virulent piece is Spring and by Summer Fall, but hardly a relative of punk vehemence.
Faithful to the aesthetic of indie-rock,
moments of sheer delight such as the
pompous and catchy instrumental chorus of SW
are not fully exploited. They fail to ignite songs.
They remain trapped in the limbo of elegant gestures.
23 is basically Misery is a Butterfly done right.
Instead of being
stuck in an ambiguous and unstable limbo between the alternative and the
mainstream, Blonde Redhead adopted the sound of the mainstream
and turned it upside down in the angular manner of the alternative,
seamlessly bridging the parts instead of merely revealing the gaps between them.
Penny Sparkle (2010) is their most downbeat and mellow work,
far removed from
the noisy interplay and jarring atmospheres usually associated with the band.
These songs dabble with
power-pop (Not Getting There),
synth-pop (Here Sometimes) and
trip-hop (Love or Prison) for the purpose of relaxing the ambience
and hypnotizing the audience.
Blonde Redhead have always been a case of "the sum is way less than the sum of
its parts": extremely talented musicians who seems to have a bad influence on
each other. In this album one senses that they don't even play
together anymore: brainstorming is not a substitute for counterpoint.
After scoring the soundtrack for the documentary The Dungeon Masters (2011), the band released
Barragan (2014), a further descent into pop-soul mediocrity with
somnolent songs like
Lady M (some
robotic Rolling Stones
singing a pop ballad),
and Dripping (languid spineless disco-soul).
The four-song EP 3 O'Clock (2017) then delved into
chamber pop, notably with the singsong
3 O'Clock, worthy of the French ye-ye girls of the 1960s, one of their
melodic peaks, and with the ethereal Golden Light.
After a long hiatus, they reformed and released Sit Down for Dinner (2023).
