Alive albums are so, but so cool! I just love them. There would be a million albums I could write something about them, but there is few space here and the subject of today’s review is Siena Root “Made in KuBa,” a band that recreates the sound of the late 1960s with touches of the great Mountain, and others. I quote Mountain because it is the band that first came to mind listening to the album and the one I think has made the greater impression to Siena Root. Of course, there is Zubaida Solid’s vocals that take us to another different road, but the major feeling is there is a lot of Mountain here. We call it intent. There is a lot of Mountain intent here.
Ok, then, now two curious facts about “Made in KuBa:” first of all, the KuBa is not related to the country, it is the short for Germany’s Kulturbahnhof, the the location of its creation. Second of all, the album is an all-analogue recording which continues the traditional way of capturing the audiophile band’s art. Wow, how dare they? It takes a lot of balls to do so in such a digital era we are living in today. Analogic became a bad word, if you know what I mean.
Unlike their peers which recreate this kind of sound as well, Siena Root varied a lot on the sonancies they wanted to cover. For that reason, “Made in KuBa” showcases a lot of the sonancies that were common in that time. Hence, there is a lot of the Blues in the music as “Mountain II” showcases the fan. I guess that being a double alive CD helps a lot in introducing the more varied face of the band. There is also the Heavy Rock intent as in album warmer “Coincidence & Fate,” the track that gave me the strong impression of Mountain. Other times the band sounds some influence of Black Sabbath’s flute of “Solitude,” one of the ost beautiful tracks the Sabbath ever recorded, with “We (We are them).” By the way, this flute is everywhere in the album. There are other Sabbath’s moments in the album as “The Summer is Old,” for instance, with that famous shoegazed intent and the slow drumming and guitars. “The Summer is Old” is responsable for one the most beautiful plot twists of the album after the introduction with a nice keyboarding and the aforementioned flute. By the way, the keyboarding is just great here. I felt some early Deep Purple as well mostly because of the keyboards.
I have no shadow of doubt to say Siena Root really got the spirit of the 1970s perfectly. The long tracks with long instrumental passages prove that as well – three tracks are more than 10 minutes long. The band did an amazing job in recreating the sonancy of that time. As I said before, I am a great enthusiast of the sounds of the 1970s. They are Metal music’s roots, bloody roots, man. I guess every metalhead in this sad and lonely and pathetic little planet should know a little from this music.
Siena Root “Made in KuBa” was released on October 10th via Reigning Phoenix Music.
Track Listing:
CD 1
01 Coincidence & Fate
02 Ridin’ Slow
03 Wishing for More
04 Mountain II
05 We (We are them)
06 Keeper of the Flame
07 Tales of Independence
CD 2
01 In My Kitchen
02 The Summer is Old
03 Outlander
04 Imaginary Borders
05 Root Rock Pioneers
Watch “Coincidence & Fate” official alive video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!