I must confess I bought Lightning Prevails (2014), Arno
Carstens’ latest album, mostly because the back sleeve indicated that he was
doing versions of “Highway to Hell” (AC/DC) and “Hold On. I’m Coming” (egregiously
erroneously credited to Sam & Dave who sang the tune that was written by
Isaac Hayes and Dave Porter), as well as acoustic versions of “Bubblegum On My
Boots” and “Another Universe” and I was intrigued to hear these renditions.
The album cover painting is
by Carstens who has a website dedicated to his fine art. Perhaps he is aiming
to follow in the footsteps of Captain Beefheart one day when his career in music has run its course.
This is only the third
Carstens album I own, having bought the first tow and then skipping the rest.
Carstens has one of the best voices in South African rock and his role in
Springbok Nude Girls was to be that rock god front man who could really sing
and this must have been a major factor in their success and pre-eminent status
in their lifetime as the best SA rock band, possibly ever. They were strutting
on the big stage when just about everyone else was still a tad provincial.
Carstens’ debut solo album is allegedly
the best selling local rock album ever and I can believe it. Back in October
2004 I was in Wellington ad some kind of cultural festival where a number of
the then big Afrikaans rock acts were playing and Carstens and his New Porn
collective were the headliners. They almost quite literally blew the opening
acts away with an awesomely loud, monolithic
big rock sound that was hugely impressive and made the point that
Carstens was big league indeed.
The next time I caught his
act was when het played the last of the De Waal Park summer concert series in
January 2013. Carstens attracted a very large audience, easily the larges of
the series and was backed by a crack
band. He played acoustic guitar and did a number of songs as solo performer.
The music was anthemic rock and not entirely my cup of tea but it went down a treat
with the audience. The rock band show was a big and powerful but nothing like
the roaring performance in 2004, partly because the sound could not quite carry
as well in the park and partly because the sound was no longer designed like
that.
Arno Carstens is a senior
statesman of South African rock who has played all over the world, has had a
media celebrity lifestyle and now seems to have settle down in his role as
serious, sensitive rock guy. He still has one of the coolest voices in local
music.
Lightning
Prevails
does sound like a serious piece of work by a mature artist whose audience
probably grew up with him and, though they do not mind rocking, also understand
a mellower, but nonetheless intense approach. Supposedly the album celebrates the “unstoppable
power of love and creation.”
The essence of the sound on
the album is that of amplified acoustic music with big arrangements. The cover
of “Highway to Hell” is kind of Carstens homage, I guess, to Johnny Cash doing
an acoustic, solo version of
Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage.”
This seems to be the approach
to “Bubblegum on my Boots,” the first
Springbok Nude Girls hit, which sounds nothing like the sprightly, insouciant
rock version of the song, now done as resigned, weary acoustic ballad with
brooding strings. You would never say it’s the same song.
Ditto for “Highway to Hell.” I don’t know the AC/DC version well but I
would bet it doesn’t have this kind of introspective air to it. It is doubly
disturbing given the recent news of founder member Malcolm Young’s retirement
form the band, at age 60, because of dementia. This deeply bathetic
interpretation could be his epitaph.
Perhaps Carstens is trying to
do a neo-soul take on “Hold On, (I’m Coming)” with trumpet and all but it does
not work nearly as well as the other reinterpretations. This just sounds like a failed
experiment.
The new songs do not suffer
by comparison to previous versions and
are the more enjoyable for it. The arrangements and the tunes compliment
each other perfectly and all the bits of business one puts into this kind of
adult record add to a rewarding listening experience. It is not heavy rock, it
is not dance pop, it is not EDM; it is a good record full of worthy good music
that bears repeat listening. The musicians who play on the album are obviously
among the best this country has to offer and with this kind of record the
proficiency and technical chops are an enhancement because each note is as it
should be and the high production values lift sometimes ordinary songs into a
higher plane simply because they sound so good. The other important factor is
that Arno Carstens can write a decent tune. Arrangements can disguise the lack
of tune to a point, until you start listening carefully and realise that there
is merely a showroom dummy underneath the finery and not a living, breathing
voluptuous body. On this album the
arrangements complement and enhance the strong hooks. It
is an extremely engaging, pleasurable
album to listen to.
There is quite a bit of solo
trumpet by Marcus Wyatt, which is an echo of the SNG sound too.
The album closes with a
remake of “Another Universe” a big solo hit for Carstens and it charms even in
this version because it is such a damn fine tune. Johnny Clegg plays mouth bow to give it that African vibe; it is not completely another universe.
It is our continent.
Arno Carstens continues to
make albums that are very satisfactory indeed amidst the simplistic dross so
many other local acts offer us. I hate to use the cliché “class act” but it is a very
appropriate description. If Carstens is rock royalty, Lightning Prevails is a
commanding performance
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