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VERDANGO
“Hypersane” kicks off the new Mood Vertigo adventure, Verdango, with a sexy, slow and hot as late July groove, with a chorus that lifts us up on an air-conditioned cloud bank, bringing a bright shining vista of the state of the pop song, that features an exotic Indio/psycho-delicious lead from German guitarist Julian Schur in lieu of our dearly departed Mike Hoffmann, who left us this tune before suddenly disappearing for new horizons… Om ah hum… where the humbuckers feedback like the sweet squall of celestial seagulls… and a warm wind blows off the that Great Lake, down the tracks of the album, with “Train Song Bleu,” urging us to “Take It All,” with a percolating electronic valentine from Badfinger’s back catalog. “Whippoorwill” offers a slice of sonic cinema, with Loey Norquist coaxing us through a strange sparkling starlit meadow, down the noir fuzztone tinged alleys of “Driving Rain,” “holding onto something that means nothing” until we sink headfirst into (another fine MV cover of) David Bowie’s “Quicksand.” This is luscious stuff… a lackadaisical daydream with just the right balance of passion and ease. Ever drive down a street lined with trees around sunset, with the light streaming through the leaves and branches, painting the inside of your eyelids with late summer light? Now you don’t have to wonder what that experience is, (or stare, hypnotized by Brion Gysin’s Dream Machine) as the Vertigos have captured the essence of that experience for us with “Ten Bars…” Then dig the slippery funk feel of “My Queen” from Captain Kirk McFarlin’s barrage of batterie that makes the skeleton slip and slide as Ms. Norquist showers praise upon her royal subject. What an honor it was to blow some fuzz-laden harmonica on MV’s second Shocking Blue tribute, (their first album featured a sultry reading of their suggestive “Inkpot”). And once again that special “Verteophonic” sauce of fat drums and blinking carnival light synths create the majestic mood of “Mighty Joe,” trailed by “Heart Is A River,” weary as The Band “pulling into Nazereth,” with Kirk’s fine rasp and Loey’s scratchin’ a bit of back country fiddle. This “Tiny Concerto” the Vertigos have whipped up takes us on some strange, splendid detours. And you might find yourself returning again and again to listen – driven by some unseen force or desire like Mary Henry, the wide-eyed blonde church organist of the classic cult film, Carnival of Souls. (Hey, weren’t a few of these folks once in a band called Carnival Strippers? Maybe I’m onto something here…) Keep driving into the unknown and ye shall be delivered to “the embers of the night” with MV’s beautiful bubbling version of ELO’s lonely fanfare “Turn to Stone.” We say goodbye on the sweet poppy crunch of “Karen,” as Loey blows us a kiss with a lovely ah oooh….. Dangalang Verdango!
Truly, John Kruth
On a hot July afternoon in LA
2023
credits
released August 22, 2023