We’ve been blessed with lots of Jeff Beck music of late, but few studio recordings. In fact, the forthcoming Live+ marks Beck’s fifth concert release since 2008 — a period that only seen a lone original album, 2010’s Emotion and Commotion.
As such, the news that this pending project will include new songs, including “Tribal,” came as no small amount of news. Hearing Jeff Beck tear into decades-old favorites like “Going Down,” finding new wrinkles, goosing them to new greatness, has its obvious allures. “Tribal” has the opportunity, however, to tell us something new about one of rock’s true instrumental visionaries, to open new places in our imagination and perhaps new ears from a different generation.
OK, that’s a lot of expectation. But it’s what naturally follows such a lengthy period without something new to chew over. The good news is, “Tribal” — this scroungy, all-edge update of the familiar Jeff Beck blues rocker — delivers in a big way. We find Beck roaming around in the wide-open spaces of a furiously grinding power trio, skittering and then barking as Veronica Bellino and Rhonda Smith create this relentless pulse on drums and bass, respectively. Ruth Lorenzo’s come-hither exclamations only add to the track’s sense of doomed abandon.
In keeping with this new music’s extended gestation period, “Tribal” apparently went through more than one iteration — including, strangely enough, a dance version — before Beck stripped it all the way back again to his knife-edge guitar and Bellino’s thunderous cadence. Building outward from there with Smith’s bass and Lorenzo’s vocal, “Tribal” became far more intriguing: Something new which grew out of his old sound. These are the same horizons where Jeff Beck once roamed with the Yardbirds, amped up on Jeff Beck Live+ (due May 19, 2015 via Atco) for a new generation.
- How Deep Cuts on ‘Music From Big Pink’ Underscore the Band’s Triumph - July 31, 2023
- How ‘Islands’ Signaled the Sad End of the Band’s Five-Man Edition - March 15, 2022
- The Band’s ‘Christmas Must Be Tonight’ Remains an Unjustly Overlooked Holiday Classic - December 25, 2016
