Alienation And Black Magic: A Brief Review Of The New Album From Soundwalk Collective And Patti Smith

The new album from Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith is exactly the kind of thing that Patti should have been doing for the last twenty years. A bold record inspired by playwright Antonin Artaud's visit to Mexico City in 1936, The Peyote Dance, out via Bella Union this Friday, is the soundtrack to a trip made by the listener, and the sort of realized vision that's bolder than virtually any other new release this week. More significantly, Patti Smith's performance here marks a return to the kind of material she once crafted some decades ago, with Artaud's words sounding naturally mystic, and the whole journey on this record one that seems a perfect fit for Patti's whole well-earned punk priestess vibe.

Following a spoken-word introduction by Gael Garcia Bernal, the music and sounds on The Peyote Dance recreate the Mexican pilgrimage of Artaud. The writer had been attracted to the stories of the Rarámuri: Native Indians in the Norogachi region of Mexico’s Copper Canyon, the Sierra Tarahumara. The lengthy "Indian Dance" finds Patti Smith reading Artaud's words over a faint soundscape, her vocals our guide into the wilderness. By this point, long-time fans of Smith's will be rejoicing that she is doing material like this again, the record really the riskiest project she's undertaken on vinyl since, perhaps, Easter. The music here from Soundwalk Collective (Stephan Crasneanscki and Simone Merli) is rhythmic and understated, the sounds from a dream made real. Patti commits to this fully, such that the epic "Alienation and Black Magic" feels as much an incantation as it does a "song", Smith venturing entirely into the void here. It is only "Ivry" here that seems like a traditional number, in that sense, the faint folk-y underpinnings of the track keeping things tethered to reality for at least a few minutes.

At its best, this album is less a record of music and more one of poetry and sounds. Perhaps the closest parallel I could find would be that fantastic record from Material, Seven Souls, where William S. Burroughs' spoken word passages were buttressed by the rhythms of Bill Laswell and crew. Soundwalk Collective are more interested in the overall effect though, than anything else like a hook or a riff. And for that overall cumulative effect, The Peyote Dance is a remarkable release, the sort of soundtrack to an imaginary film that transports a listener into another era, another realm and back again, with Smith as the shaman, chanting and purring the magic words that carry us around the fire and back out into the darkness of the desert.

The Peyote Dance is out on Friday via Bella Union.

[Photo: Bella Union]