Nomaden

Ströer Bros. & Howard Fine

Orchestrated Punk-Jazz-Pop Bildungsroman, Stage 1 of 3:

The Red Knight

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.

—Heraclitus

Strap in for wisdom, Pilgrim! The text of this vision has been culled from all the best thought of thousands of years of Western bon mots and all the East that has seeped into the West since Marco Polo. Howard Fine's reading list is evidence of a desperately Fine search for meaning shot through with pressured speech and a Post Punk edge that smacks of an episode. I swear any competetent psychiatrist would take out his proscription tablet and start some frantic scribbling this kind of narrative comes from the patient of the morning. I have been that guy, so don't you dare say I am speculating. The "cocktail" would include Depakote and fateful Risperdal née Risperidone (Risperidona) C23H27FN4O2.

"I’m remembering this while reading your review. You reflect all the overshooting energy, the wild determination and the rush of the new that was driving us back then. And you let the readers feel (not: know), what kind of an album this is."

—Ernst Ströer

Remember we have travelled back in time to the year 1985, when Howard, Ernst & Hans were full of pith and vinegar and so were we then whoever is old enough to pitch that pith and hug that hubris. Story goes Ernst & Hans went out art shopping one day and heard Howard in a shop spitting wisdom frenetic and empathic like some Isaiah Berlin on an overdose of speed. They liked that, as one does in youth, so they brought him back to the studio and let him rip!

"NOMADEN, which came out on MOOD RECORDS Germany in 1985 (vinyl only). It won the Prize of German Music Critics, together with Lester Bowie's "I Only Have Eyes for You" and Herbie Hancock's "Foday Musa Suso: Village Life." We recently remastered it and released it on CD on our own Label, Ilusion Records. It is available now on iTunes and amazon Germany."

—Ernst Ströer

Let me tell you this! I believe the Ströer Bros. have created modern jazzy post punk art song out of Howard Fine's search for meaning in the soup of Western ante bellum philosophy, absurdity and despair. For all his 'tude and fast-talking incessant call outs of all the wisdom that's fit to print, Howard reveals a good soul and a beating heart that make this Pilgrim's Progress a worthy journey even now, some big number of years later. It helps to remember when you too were cock sure the world was waiting for YOU to change it. We shouted wisdom back then at the top of our metaphorical lungs, and surely did expect the world to change right there before our eyes.

I am tired of reading about history. I want to make it.

—Mario Savio*

Three very talented boys got together in 1985 and nobody bothered to tell them that you can't sum up all of Western Civilization and set the world afire on a path to its own incendiary improvement on one damn disc! That path leads lesser men to madness, but lookey here! They did it! Not only that, this is only one disc in only one time. There are two more to come and the boys grow up before our eyes and find a simpler truth and a deeper wisdom in a sweeter style. But that won't save me from this album. I have avoided this one for more than a decade because it is big and that is hard, but watch me fail because HERE WE GO!

* Footnote: Mario Savio became a history teacher soon after that statement and taught until the day he died in Central California. There will be irony, so buckle up for safety, dear reader!

WARNING

This is the first of a trilogy of reviews for:

1. Nomaden (YOU ARE HERE)

THE RED KNIGHT

"The red knight is symbolic of all the feelings of a typical teenage boy – uninhibited passion, rebellion, self-gratification, aggression, lust, desire for power. The red knight is out of control and dangerous, yet he is a source of great vitality and power that only needs a channel of greater maturity to hone himself."
—from “David Deida and the three knights of Iron John” by Eivind Figenschau Skjellum

2. Voodoo Travel

THE WHITE KNIGHT

[Description to follow in Voodoo Travel]

3. Homeward

THE BLACK KNIGHT

[Description to follow in Homeward]

Taken together, they are an unintentional BIldungsroman of the three amigos: Hans Ströer, Ernst Ströer & Howard Fine. Like that "7 Up" movie series, they maybe didn't intend to make the story of growing up, but they made three albums over a long expanse of time and each fits a stage in development or an "age" of mankind. So when these three albums are taken together, their voices illustrate the Heraclytus observation that the same men can't make the same album twice, for the studio has changed, and they are not the same men. The story of The Red Knight, The White Knight, and The Black Knight are taken from Robert Bly's "Iron John.

THE SOUND

"When we recorded Nomaden, we never thought about a fictitious „listener“, what he might think about it. We just followed our instincts. One day, an old friend of Hans showed up in the studio when we were mixing „Running for my life“. He looked at us as if we were gone mad, he really was in a kind of shock state."

—Ernst Ströer

This trio of wunderkind knew what they were after, or near enough. The flow of this music is stunning in its scope and the settings are absolutely Fine (pun intended). It is as though Howard Fine's love of the dramatic reading of poetry had driven him to create a post punk character study with electronic shifting and added grit to make his voice a cross between Mario Savio and Woody Woodpecker. It may be a bit grating at first, so strap in for this flight of fancy and philosophy. It is going to be a grumpy flight! I have done a lot of reading because I am manic and I worked Night Shift doing nothing as a security guard but listening to world literature, philosophy and history for a decade. I am familiar with several forms of poetry and various ways to present the verse. Howard Fine is not a declamatory poet like Yevgeny Yevtushenko or even Allen Ginsberg as evidenced on this album, or this trilogy of albums. He is closer to a character actor delivering his words as the personal statement of a created persona. On this Nomaden, his wisdom is thoughtful but the presentation is wild and the feel is confrontational.

Howard's text sent me looking up little tidbits like "Taliesin" who wrote poetry in Middle Welsh. So don't feel bad if you miss a reference. They are worth looking up. And every philosopher or deep thinker you know will likely have a cameo in this hour of soul searching and wisdom. Howard has done his reading, and he knows how to rock the story as an actor creates a character. (This poet Howard Fine is NOT the acting teacher of the same name.) Howard is his own creation certainly, but as Marlon Brando put it, "First you become the actor. Then you become the character." In "Voodoo Travel" and "Homeward" Howard's unreliable narrator becomes a very different story teller, and eventually the literary device employed is no longer "unreliable" but direct and wise. But this is 1985 when Danny Elfman (Oingo Boingo) and Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo) were presenting themselves as coyote tricksters and character studies to sell the song. Howard Fine is indestinguishable from his persona in Nomaden.

"Well, 1985, that were different times. The arms of Mood Records were only reaching as far as Austria and Switzerland. There was no Youtube, no streaming, no internet."

—Ernst Ströer

I will not be listing the credits of these Ströer Bros. because I already know this review is going to be too long (as usual) and these boys have done EVERYTHING! They compose soundtracks, tour in support of top shelf musicians, and do anything musical with more craft and heart than a room full of Berklee graduates in a mandatory orientation in the multi-purpose room in Boston.

Case in Point: I told Ernst Ströer about Matthew Montfort's “Ancient Traditions Future Possibilities: Rhythmic Training Through the Traditions of Africa, Bali and India” (144 pages) with exercises to learn the rhythms. Matthew invented the term "World Fusion." So a few years later, I forgot I mentioned that book and I mentioned it again. Ernst said that he had bought the book and played through every exercise in it over the missing years of our friendship. So that is the sort of guys these Ströer Bros. are and that is how they roll. Hans is the other half, and I will let you go read for half an hour their collective credits, but let's just say their expertise and heart has been establish and move the hell on, because there is a lotta real estate to cover in this album.

Three Post Punk Pioneers Poking Power Pop

THE SONGS

“In case of „Nomaden“, the lyrics have a song by song history. For some pieces, they were taken out of Howards previously existing writings just like they were. Others grew out of a single line or paragraph that had jumped at us, often by their sound or rhythm, so that we asked Howard to grow a new text out of it.”

—Ernst Ströer

Gonna listen and type. Start with the first song, end when the music stops. God help me! Here we go. Typing fast and loud enough to disturb the neighbors!

SIDE A — DEPARTURE

(I know. In the 21st C we don't take sides, but this is 1985 remember?)

A1 Waiting To Be Carried Out 3:12

Blasting brass and brash voiced Howard is "Waiting to be carried out" like an order from the policia! "Human android" is noticed and described in his three-piece suit with a business deduction for his cocktail on his plastic credit card. "The stewardess is a friend of mine" sticks out somehow in the din of the song. Oh my! The sax solo is Gato Barbrieri loud and screaming sweet good jazz thrown hard like a pie in the face of the listener, over a thick deep Gibson (maybe) walking bass. Howard talks about a round trip to the bardo, which is not likely, on the cycle of birth and death. We are apparently in the airport, and Howard shouts at the end a callout to the "potted palm" Whew!

A2 Arecibo Rag 4:38

"Germ worm fish amphibian reptile mammal man oblivion." Yep, he went there. We are unpacking the evolutionary truth and sounds like musing to devolution if possible to the earlier wetter aquatic lives we all left behind when we surfed the birth canal. Synth orchestra and damn fine percussion! Yousa! The groove is the truth. The story goes about The Honeymooners travelling into space as an emmisary to the alien. Beyond that, we are a "radio dark object." Then the recitation of a declension of our species ancestors.

A3 Are We Really Going? 3:00

"Are we really going?" I don't know. Apparently, is my answer. Brass and brash! We are the witness to this musical assault as well as its friendly target. Can't dance to this, but I have the urge to move. This is Funk Jazz with an R&B Guitbox like a ringing a bell. Gato the sax analog soars over the attack like Sonny Rollins playing alone under the bridge while the bombs of brass and percussion explode in this Dresden of a soundscape.

A4 Shaman Dances 3:34

This could be a Peter Gabriel construction from Security in its way. The percussion is perfect! Howard has gone a bit more transcendental with his nature descriptions largely taking to the skies. Birdy language and observations out of both sides of her perch. Great big bassy synth bass creates some platforms floating in space. Howard speaks, "We are born to thirst and die!" Yikes! "Embrace!" I think that is what he said. Typing to fast to look it up. The high brass or synth sings on one side then the other.

A5 Same River Twice 4:18

This one flows like a Stevie Wonder high concept percussion "very superstitious" kind of groove. God I love it! Accents in percussion include hand drumming like a tabla but not. Howard speaks but I can be forgiven for grooving. "Until the earth again upheaves." Now we got some brass I recognize but I don't know from whence. "Everybody moves. Everybody rocks. Talk about a real rolling stone! Same river twice." Here is that reference to Heraclytus who said the quote above. No time to type it here. Go up and read it. It is important. "He is not the same man" is the important phrase, but Howard doesn't say that part. We are in geological even territory now. "Everybody moves, even the rocks." Heraclitus was asked to sing this one, but he declined being dead. "Same river twice." End Scene.

A6 Triptych

Howard is a little paranoid in this song. This is the obligatory film school running from an invisible menace sequence. It sounds like it might be a nod to Kafka, but everything is a nod to Kafka, isn't it? Ovid pokes his pointed head into the mix, and it ends.

SIDE B — ARRIVAL

B1 Running For My Life 4:10

Part 2 is a paranoid continuation of our Joseph K running naked across a golf course "I am running for my life." All percussion all the time this song. Some subconcious shouting fear and loathing, then a set of chimes shuts down the drums. Howard is hallucinating. "It's no monkey, It's Walt Whitman!" So Whitman naturally offers to sacrifice his life to save Howard, and Howard accepts the offer. What?! "Yes, and he does. And just keeps walking without turning his head to the left or the right." He walks into the woods and disappears from sight. Huh oh! I should not have done them drugs in college!

B2 Nomad Song 4:44

A cold electronic wind blows through my mind and something like Toots Thielemans plays a lovely tune on his amazing harmonica. Feels good to be back to some sweeter music, and a break from the break dancing. "Sounds like any other day. Lord Lord." Now we have a little keyboard figure and some high hat rappy tappy. Howard has a little echo on his rant and he talks about cutting things with Occam’s Razor "Did we piece it together wrong?" Toots harps his way back tomake it all feel homey and sweet. Love that guy, or whoever is impersonating him. "Did we paste the piece back together wrong?" I hope not. "Are you our waitress?" I don't know where we are, do you? "Looks like a dusty oasis. This place is a new place, just like the old place. Looks like any other place, like any old place." Cold wind and Toots Thielemans takes us out like a harmonica concert on Mt. Everest.

B3 When You Stopped Sleeping 3:27

This has some splash symbols and Howard talks about his position sleeping. "In the morning I found stars scattered around my ears." Howard is clearly tripping cosmic and clear. "Brontosaurus!" He is gone back in Prehistoric time again. Howard!!!! Now the soundscape is stunning, and makes me feel like I will weather this time travel just to hear the bassy sweet tune really takes me there you know what I mean? Time travel has a lovely sound. I recommend it. "Mix me another Tom Collins Captain!" I think Howard dislikes that character he mocks. He reference "Pink Flamingos" and then offers to sleep on the table. Yeah, he's trippin' balls.

B4 A Point In Motion 2:00

Finally some math! Yay! "A line in motion creates a plane." Good God! Geometry! "A cube in motino makes a tesseract. A to the 4th Power Enlightenment. Don't turn back. You no longer have a back to turn." Whoops! I thought Howard maybe sobered up, now I don't know so sure. The Rhodes Fender is playing a disjoined lovely expansive figure surprising in its character. Howard is going off about geometry and enlightenment. Done.

B5 Safe Distances

"Burning cigarette at 70 miles an hour out of the car window. Meteor trail is skims along the pavement til its lost in the rear view mirror." Road trip! Like maybe into the subconscious. A little Twilight Zone style music tips me off this isn't safe. We explore an abandoned house, which is always a bad idea. Why are we doing that? Coyote is present. Also a tricky sign. Now we have some New Age bumpy ride music. Interlude mood music. "Somebody is going to get hurt." I hope he is wrong. Then a wonderful break. Sounds like a ukulele single-note duet with Howard going on about something. The weather over the ocean. Stuff like that. I love the Uke playing like improvising to match Howard's voice and rhythm in the story. No other instrumentation. Third section: keyboard synth. "And damn witty when he ain't too drunk." And a reference to viewing the Alhambra, which is one of those things worth looking up. We are at a railroad station waiting for the train. He describes the station and different rooms. The music keeps the time, and then maybe some call to prayer kind of thing. Big fat bass accents give this scene a bigger sound. A call back to "germ worm fish amphibian" and "same river twice." Repetition ensures closure. Are we coming to the end? Music ticking and talking. Otherwordly din and then the end.

SIDE C — DEPARTURE

C1 Fred Wohain's Whafo Diner 4:08

This one has a bold bass romp illustrating the rant from Howard this time about a party at Fred's house best I can tell. The horns may be borrowed from The Temptations "Ball of Confusion" or Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke.” Wow! This feels sparse but good. Friends come from far and near. Some voices joint Howard, and then that sax sings my heart into ecstasy. This swings low and takes us on as passengers to the stratosphere. What is Howard carping about? I don't know. I will figure it out next time. It is dramatic. Something about "Rest in fear." Will that isn't very nice. Then a very unexpected "studio ending" with everybody blasting the "Oh yeah!" like a whole band imitating Satchmo Louis Armstrong in his famous final phrase.

C2 Danger Zone 4:34

There is the science fiction sound that usually depicts a descending blip on an ominous oscilloscope. "The red needle's in the danger zone." Yeah, well we figured that out from the sound. Sax heaven adds is sweet sound. "The red needle's in the danger zone. (repeat)"

C3 Death Don't Jive 3:23

"Death don't dabble. Death don't jive." Break down sound false death then back to the tune. "If you don't dance, you are only half alive." Okay, I can swing with that. "You gotta dance now. It's your chance now." I think we have philosophy to dance, but then Howard gives a little advice about life and death and we are back to the seeking meaning stuff. We have a chorus of women singing backup, and this one needs that sweetener all about death and all. Death. Guess we knew he was going there. The jazz here and arrangement is stunning. Sex and death here, with something about a hand going there on a skeleton. Ah well!

C4 Celebration 1:56

"Yeah yeah! Celebration!" Yay! Finally some encore stuff. The crowd-pleasing song of the album comes late but not too late. After death, we get the celebration. I'll take what I can get. "Happy holiday. Happy Apple™ Day!" I bet Howard got a computer for that line, just guessing. This one makes Cool and the Gang sound a little gloomy. That high trumpet scream is the sort of thing that blew out the embouchure of horn players in the Stan Kenton Orchestra. "Happy Apple™ Day!" Two computers. One for Howard's nephew, I guess. The shout-singing women bring the joy to this one, and I was ready for it, how's by you? "Normal is so nice!" Then something about a "tooth-fairy jaw" with a hilarious call back from the women "tooth fairy." Sounds like a vague ask to get rid of the gun rack in the pickup truch. "Peace and love! Love and madness! Dancing in the street!" Lotsa stuff like that with the women singing it straight to the one.

C5 Three Worlds 6:53

"Three words!" the women sing. Yay! The guitar now sounds like Bill fFrizzel on guitar this time kinda swimmy like he does so well. "Three worlds on one planet, making each other bleed!" Something about "organized unions." We are in the political zone with quotes from Mary Antoinette "Let them eat cake!" She is not the hero but the bad girl in this playground. Listen carefully and there is an economic analysis and a dissertation on the Buddhist concept of the "Hungry Ghost" who is not mentioned by name. Howard's heart is in the right place. The music makes the commentary go down sweet like a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. "Three worlds (repeat)" The women can sing all day you ask me. The final twang is swimmy sweet.

This album could be the perfect gift to a philosophy Ph.D. student! It would be like dumping a bucket full of pennies on the floor in front of an obsessive compulsive.

A-Departure

A1	Waiting To Be Carried Out	3:12
A2	Arecibo Rag	4:38
A3	Are We Really Going?	3:00
A4	Shaman Dances	3:34
A5	Same River Twice	4:18
A6	Triptych	1:20
	B-Arrival
B1	Running For My Life	4:10
B2	Nomad Song	4:44
B3	When You Stopped Sleeping	3:27
B4	A Point In Motion	2:00
B5	Safe Distances	7:05