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"The loose collection
of sinister sophisticates in Botanica... share a similar aesthetic, (as
well as actual members), with such colorful local bands as Firewater,
Congo Norvell & Gogol Bordello. Fluctuating between energetic numbers
and smokey ballads, Botanica provides the perfect soundtrack to the after-hours
urban experience. Botanica traffics in sonic noir with an undercurrent
of sinewy menace."
~The New Yorker
see below for new from europe...
Choice pick:
Botanica – Botanica vs. the Truth Fish
~Alan Young, Trifecta Newsletter
The third and best cd by these ferociously powerful, macabre,
keyboard-driven, punk-influenced noir art-rockers. Imagine Procol Harum
updated for the zeros, with much better lyrics and without the dopey stoner
esthetic. Their second album, With All Seven Fingers, captured the raw,
white-knuckle intensity of their live shows, utilizing strings, horns,
accordion and all kinds of acoustic and electronic keyboards in addition
to their eerie, trademark reverb guitar, and this new cd continues in
that vein. In the purest punk rock sense, nothing is sacred to this band.
Nothing is off limits lyric-wise or topic-wise: nothing is spared from
frontman/keyboardist Paul Wallfisch’s spot-on, gallows humor. In
the purest art-rock sense, the band seizes every opportunity to be inventive:
nothing is off-limits musically or stylistically. The album’s title
track – a bizarrely brutal 9/11 reflection – is foreshadowed
by a darkly frenetic string section playing what sounds like a Ukrainian
funeral dance and builds to a torchy blues over which Wallfisch examines
the commingled ashes of the "soldiers from Jeddah and our boys from
Tribeca." The album’s second song, The Flag, is a heartfelt
eulogy for the civil liberties ripped from us by John Ashcroft and his
bootboys on that fateful day.
The uncharacteristically sunny but characteristically passionate Love
Is the Difference evokes 80s hits by the Psychedelic Furs or the Church,
the stuff that people used to call "good top 40." Another love
song, You, turns the heat up all the way: "I would…kill a cop
or rape a nun for you…every day I almost die for you."
The album’s centerpiece, simply titled Good, is an instant classic,
a song that by all rights every angst-ridden 16-year-old should hear before
they – god forbid – reach for the blade or the pills or the
gun. The tune begins ominously as usual with a minor-key keyboard riff
transposed to bass, producing an eerie, muffled effect. Piano, guitar
and organ make their entrance in stately 6/8 time, slowly building to
a scorchingly catchy, anguished chorus: "I need a respite/Just a
moment of respite/I could keep walking, not stepping on a dime/Hiding
that hole, yeah, chasing my tail/I thought I caught it but now it is gone,"
Wallfisch roars. This song could speak for a generation of zeros kids
just as Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb became the theme for every
alienated burnout who graduated in the 80s. It’ll go right over the
head of those who for whatever luck of the draw have never needed a moment
of respite. But for those of us who have, who would do anything to get
just a few seconds to step outside of ourselves and this ever-more-twisted,
fascist world, this song just might do the trick. Works for me, anyway.
Other standout tracks on the cd include the quietly riveting post-9/11
reflection Closed (that’s how we kept our windows), the equally portentous
Swimming in the Ocean at Night, the punkish broadside Billboard Jesus
and the ragingly thoughtful child abuse survivor’s anthem Shy or
Stupid. Through it all, Wallfisch’s baritone carries an ominous quality,
sometimes desperate and despairing, otherwise vengefully gleeful. In this
band’s music, doom and destruction are never far away. Maybe that’s
why their commitment to it is so passionate. They’ll turn it up to
10 again tonight and play their asses off because they just might not
get a chance to do it again.
While Botanica are connected musically and socially with the current crop
of underground NY noir bands (Big Lazy, Gogol Bordello, Firewater, Kid
Congo Powers, et al.), fans of artists as diverse as Nick Cave, Jon Spencer,
Pink Floyd, Ninth House, ELO, Johann Sebastian Bach (the old German guy
who wrote Toccata in D), Melomane, the Ramones and Randi Russo will enjoy
them. In a year of great albums, this ranks as the best
or at least one of the top two or three.
RECENT REVIEWS
AND INTERVIEWS FROM EUROPE:
(scroll down for links to originals)
“Without a doubt magnificent…Few other albums
in 2006 will so consistently make the case for independent music. Proof
once again of Botanica’s exceptional status.”
~Visions Magazine, May, ’06
CRITIC’S POLL #4; “BEAUTY” of the MONTH
“Good records are social seismographs. They describe the state of
a society at a specific moment in time. That’s why it doesn’t
matter in what genre you place such an album or how you label it, because
albums like that transcend all classification. Such an album is Botanica’s
“Berlin Hi-Fi.”
~Jazzthetik, May, ‘06
“My personal hit here is the title track, “Berlin
Hi-Fi,” a wonderfully opulent and optimistic number with a hymn-like
quality and a Stereolab touch. Loungy and poppy at the same time. All
in all, a thoroughly successful and wonderful album that grows even greater
with every spin.”
~Ox, April/May, ‘06
“Berlin Hi-Fi is an artful melting-pot exuding
the aroma of good, red wine. Luxuriating nostalgia without neglecting
the modern, “Berlin Hi Fi” is an homage to The Fine Art of Living.”
~Eclipsed, May, ’06
“Ingenious songwriting, smart lyrics and an intellectual rigor missing
in most rock productions…this is also clearly a more commercial and
accessible album than Botanica’s previous “…vs. the Truth
Fish.” Berlin Hi Fi will definitely be way up front in my year-end
best-of list. With A Freestyle Kiss to Hedy Lamarr, they’ve already
delivered my personal song of the year.”
~Schallplattenmann.de
“Paul Wallfisch is simply a phenomenon. A jawdropping performer solo
at the piano, or celebrating pop with his band Botanica, it’s always
a unique experience.“
~Westzeit, March, ’05
“Everything we like about bands like Firewater
and Gogol Bordello reach a new peak with Botanica. Above all, Wallfisch’s
keyboard excesses and Christian Bongers’ rolling basslines give the
songs a special flair. Art-rock for a new generation. A global road-movie
that doesn’t play on endless highways, but in the multicultural,
witches cauldrons of New York’s lower east side.”
~Jazzthetik, March, ’05
“Paul Wallfisch is a master of grit. Of smoke-filled, Brecht style,
bohemian rock. Elegant and melancholy, but neither bitter nor depressive.“
~Intro, May, ‘06
new praise at: audiogalaxy.com...(+ a feature and other good stuff)
"The bittersweet, woozy melody of "Beauty", with its cloying essence of doomed romance mingling with the subtle ache of intangible loss, should redefine what passes for lounge music. Even the titles...suggest misguided passions and minds haunted by things left unsaid. These are the songs meant to be the soundtrack to late nights spent drinking scotch in dark clubs while smoking too many cigarettes. The album's best cut, "Fresher Hell", ...the perfect song for grieving after unhappy endings. Botanica aims to cast a powerful spell, if you promise to go under it." ~Gail Worley, CDNow, Ink-19
"...a
sonic pornography of wit and lounge that prowls through the red-light
district of rock...Botanica contemplates the agony and irony of it all
in a catalog of tabloid narratives about dysfunction, dementia and doom,
but dresses them up in dreamy melodies and langurous vocals that amuse
and seduce with a sardonic slant and erotic sound...lush beauty you can
sink your teeth into...Records this dark and wily just don't come along
that often" ~L.A. Weekly
"Grandeur, sweep, romance and edge" ~Boston Globe
DISCOVER, Germany The "Zeit, Gelt und Freunde" interview. (Time, money and friends)
IN NOMINE, Germany (live review w/pics) look up "musik-archives"
INTERVIEW AND REVIEW IN GODDEAU, Belgium
"Wallfisch came across like an absurd mixture of a male Lydia Lunch and Rocko Schamoni. Musically, one heard in botanica elements of Die Haut and Crime & the City Solution. Definitely a band to remember."~Ton Um Ton, Vienna,Austria
"Largely unkown
to the audience, Botanica amazed the crowd with their dark and mystical
music. What a great band."~De Mittag, Brussels, Belgium
"...Malediction contains an unexplainable mysticism and a feel hitting
the soul and lurking long after the CD ends" ~Rockpile
"Like a slow burning candle dripping wax on your torso, Botanica is a dark, shadowy, but still rocking treat." ~Philadelphia City Paper
"Layered with eerie, dusty instruments, arcane religious epithets, and sinister sexual impulses, Malediction sounds like a darkened storefront hung with cryptic incantatons and moon-dried viscera, but behind all the pungent strata are doorways that open onto bright, noisy penny arcades covered in neon, tinsel and chrome...Wallfisch...is a highly gifted multi-instrumentalist, a wry lyricist and a helluva performer" ~San Francisco Weekly
"Macabre, intelligent Nick-Cavish type lyrics and vocals set to some strange combination of jazzy piano blues and tribal rock, Botanica is tongue-in-cheek dark and angry fun. Expertly rendered, it's hard to tell if these people are actually trying to hit a niche audience or just wanted to get together and make a kick-ass record." ~The Big Takeover
"Botanica buffed
and shined The Spot with elegiac cabaret rock. The bass player wore a
beguiling devi- horned knit cap and the lead singer crooned dark songs
of hope and redemption. Botanica got the place all kinds of sweaty with
a writhing pop quiz on gothic literacy that would've made Nick Cave hot.
As the brainteasing evening wore on, I saw some note taking going on.
Whether or not these barside scribblers were shorhanding the name of the
would be next big thing or just preparing records of their own Friday
rampages, I couldn't tell." ~Willamette Week, Portland
"...conspires to make your head spin. Disturbing and intriguing"
~Magnet
"...If the words
"super group" make you cringe, their [Botanica's] music is sure
to change
your mind" ~The Rocket
"...a sweping
trip of styles and moods..on some songs he sounds like the reincarnated
Jim Morrison" ~Salt Lake Tribune
"...masive riffs
and cycling choruses...dazzling displays of compositional prowess..."
~L.A. New Times
"A truly fine modern cabaret for rockers" ~Washington Post
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