The backward Avantgarde - The Liszt presenting Slaves Current mood: grateful The backward Avantgarde. The Liszt presenting "Slaves" by Stephanie "Without knowing one's past, one cannot move into the future." The Liszts motto charakterizes their music inevitably. These pioneers in rock music draw from the past and romanticism in particular. This line also implies the influences of other musicians like Kyuss, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Sonic Youth. Yet the band has its own sound. On Mai 16th 2008 they presented their new album "Slaves" in Plein 79, Den Bosch. Never seeing them perform live before, one can immediately conclude that the raw sound is a treat and they play life as good as in the studio, maybe even better. The atmosphere was good and the band looked like they had fun playing. As powerful and overwhelming as the music was one could only let go and let the music take oneself away… Each band member showed his talent and love for music. They played convicing and smooth. It's unbelievable how perfectly vocalist Robert-Jan Gruijthuijzen controled his voice. As a little extra every one, who is part of the album, got up on that stage and rocked: RJ, Marcel, Tim, Ro, Duffhuës, Ron, Remco and even Brant Bjork. Well… they used a sample, which is also part of the album. Back home one can only listen to record again and again and recall the good times of the show. Which is also a good thing, because the music and lyrics ask for some extra attention. It gets pretty deep sometimes. "Slaves" is romantic music. Romanticism used in that sense as it was used during the romantic period, roughly in late 18th till mid 19th century Europe. Emotions are very important and the music can be best described as romantic, melancholic, intimite, calm, rythmic, raw, hard and experimental. The band is named after Franz Liszt, the famous Hungarian composer, because they share the same romantic feeling for melancholy. The Liszts romantic search for the true nature of rock music reminds one of Novalis' Heinrich von Ofterdingen. With his "progressive universal poetry" Novalis wanted to unite science and poetry by continually relating political, religious, historical and scientific phenomena to each other. In this novel is the idea reflected that a universal world harmony can only be reached with the help of poetry: Only a poet can comprehend the universe and winn the so called blue flower. The blue flower is the symbol for the unity of the temporary and the eternal and the symbol for the unity of dream and reality. It functioned as a universal symbol of romantic desires and became even a symbol for the whole german romanticism. When listening to "Slaves" one can hear the quest for unifying the temporary and the eternal: the difficulties on the road towards the goal, the existential dualism – one is left, torn between two possibilities – or more concrete: long-distance relationships, "gold that turns into stone", cheap entertainment, paying the price for being famous, duplicity… The search for the true nature of rock music reminds one also of Goethes Faust I and II. The novels are about Fausts strive for unity with the devine resp. the strive for the completeness of the human and the devine. Faust tries to realise the desire for the sensual temporary life and the desire for the eternal devine both at the same time, by taking possession of the completeness. The faustic strive can be found in the contradiction of the human existence; in the union of the male and the female and in the search for a love, that's so deep, that she unites sensuality, lust if you will, and eternity. The Liszts search is this ambivalent too. To capture the true nature of rock music, one has to unite both desires for the wordly and the everlasting. Goethes Faust failed on the straight way however… "Slaves" has also a motto, which is hidden. One can find it by playing the first song and then rewind. The motto consists of Brant Bjorks lines that are also part of the song "Sunny Side". These words capture the entire album: the realisation of both the sensual temporary life and the desire for the eternal devine at the same time, but also the fear that "we're all gonna be slaves some day", slaves of a system. Which is also a strong protest against slavery in today's world. A few lines about the single songs of the album: 7th Spine – The album opens sophisticated. Drums and bas invite you to move on their rhythm, while the guitars play refined. The singing is powerful and bears a lof of emotions. High Road – The sophisticated sound continues with alternate soft and powerful singing. 45 Minutes – Speeds it up from the start. Emotions are expressed in a compelling kind of way. The ending reminds me of Nirvana and the good times listening to "In Utero". Gold Glitters – A calm song with beautiful, intimite lyrics, passionately sung by Duffhuës. Ashes – Starting as what seems a calm ballad, turning into a vivid rock song, a protest, a strong accusation. Guitar plays are brilliant, raw and hard. Snow – My favourite song. It's very ambiguous: calm on one hand and an energetic guitar play on the other hand. Sunny Side – A very rythmic song, also because of Rems performance on cowbell. Typical is the spoken word by no other than Brant Bjork. It just narrows it all down to that one thing that's important. We shouldn't allow others to oppress. Trust – Variable drums, slow and raw singing plus brilliant, hard guitar play. 01-01-2007 – Relaxing instrumental song. The fireworks you hear are the ones on New Years Day in Oss. For more info about the band go to http://www. myspace. com/theliszt and/or http://www. theliszt. com http://blog. myspace. com/index. cfm?fuseaction=blog. view&friendID=203807036&blogID=401909250