c. 2002 · An invented review of an album that does not exist.
My sister is real. Her name has been changed.
I would like to dedicate today’s Say to my sister Claire. Her first CD was produced today, after her band, Seliquini, was signed by Mercury Records three months ago. The band’s music is a lively but surreal casserole of The Scorpions and Rush, with a little Joe Satriani on the side. No one can accuse Seliquini of attacking soft, sappy issues on their self-titled debut album. Just listen to drummer and lyricist Harris North explain one of the ten songs on the fifty minute album, most of which are scheduled to be heard in concert tonight at the Capital Center.
“I started out thinking of an overall theme,” said Mr. North, 25, in a lengthy telephone interview earlier this month. “I broke that down in sub themes–instinct or temperament–or a combination of the two.” For example, he cites his song “Nailed Down,” which pleads, “So far from right, I ended up left, alone/Carry on into this night, is there no end to this fight/Nailed down like the son, only here I am his father/I give you my hand, so that you may give me yours.” “We,” he explains, “should be facing life in an instinctive sort of way. The approach to life should be in harmony with the world, the way people behave. This song attempts to draw a line between my native sense of idealism and a growing sense of realism.” The song, he said, attempts to “reconcile my idealism with the real world.”
This explanation is representative of the various inner conflicts that permeate the songs on “Seliquini” a moody, introspective work that certainly will puzzle most people for the first ten or twenty times they listen to the album. Claire Seliquini, who modestly avoids the limelight by allowing Julian Rivitz (vocals) to take center stage. His shrieking high but, at times, melodiously tranquil, falsetto singing ability takes the songs to a transcendent level. Ms. Seliquini’s virtuoso and often flashy guitar playing sounds good on record and looks even better on stage.
Matty Briggs plays rhythm guitars and also plays the Mellotron on the songs “Abacus” and “Medallion. Meanwhile, the 6'4 260 pound gorilla George Sinela (who played in Grassy Umbrella) hammers out steady bass punches and tricky chops that seem impossible to perform, especially as played on “Don Seliquini,” the first track on the album. The band makes a point of expressing their gratitude to Scorpions band members Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker, to whom Claire Seliquini claims were idols and mentors.
“Seliquini” is a welcome album and fresh take on a music genre that seemed to be running out of gas…until now.
Composed 2002 · part of the Short Stories collection · authorship documented on the Provenance page.