Well, at least the hor d’ oeuvres are ready! Jeremy Nesse and Deane Arnold spent two years creating Through the Wire, a tribute to the “artistry and humanity” of Peter Gabriel. This has all been a labor of love over the pandemic computer communications.
It’s a pretty big deal as 140 world-wide musicians have made contributions. Of course, to whet an appetite (as hor d’ oeuvres tend to do!) there are big names like Tony Levin, Jerry Marotta, Pat Mastelotto, Larry Fast, Jakko Jakszyk, and David Torn, but that’s just the tip of a really decent iceberg that sinks the usual rock-star hubris, and captures the “wanting touch” ethos of Peter Gabriel’s music.
This reimagining of Peter Gabriel’s music was designed for release through a series of EPs on Bandcamp, five songs per month. My review sampling includes “I Don’t Remember,” “The Tower That Ate People,” “Curtains,” “Excuse Me,” and “Slow Marimbas.” The intent is to cover both “big time” tunes and lesser-known tunes.
The first song, “I Don’t Remember,” with Jakszyk on vocals, pretty much connects the original puzzle pieces, and simply enhances the groove – which was an excellent single from the Melt album, a record that served as a Gabriel clarion call of “All change!”
The same is true for “Excuse Me,” which follows the original’s barbershop vibe, but with Don Rauf on vocals and the added Farfisa, calliope, electric guitar, and mellotron, the tune gets a weird carnival ride (with a nice laugh!) that’s in contrast to Gabriel’s first album sort of music hall vibe.
But then, “The Tower That Ate People” (from Ovo) gets a celestial vocal ride from New Yorker Tammy Scheffer on double-tracked dreamy vocals. It’s a delightful spin that evaporates into a pleasant Jungian archetypal memory of Pangea — when the earth was just one big place, which (sort of) conjures the ethos of Peter Gabriel’s label, Real World. And it’s quite different from the original with its (almost) Crimson-like workout with Tony Levin, David Rhodes and Manu Katche.
Ahh — but the best “reimagining” here is “Curtains” (the B-side of “Big Time”) which retains the spacey vibe, but it returns safely to terra firma with the full sound of Gaia-graced Ubiet Nya Ina Raseuki vocals, suling flute (thank you, Saat Syah!), Gust Hendy’s percussion, Dewa Budjana’s warm pulsed electric guitar, and the heartbeat of Rishanda Singgih’s electric stand-up bass. This is sublime stuff that wobbles with (the before-mentioned) Pangea passion.
The final song, “Slow Marimbas” from the Birdy soundtrack, is yet another trip into Jungian psychology that pulses and floats with violin, cello and tribute co-creator Jesse Nesse, who contributes synthesizer, electric bass, and cosmic beats.
As stated, this is simply a nice collection of hor d’ oeuvres, as there are many other songs available like “Exposure,” “D.I.Y.,” “Here Comes the Flood,” and “Red Rain” – but please, “Drink up, dreamers.” This project promises even more cross-pollinated journeys into the “artistry and humanity” of a gifted man’s soul — a soul which has “talked in pictures not in words” of a hogweed’s revenge, a “reverend” who’s “hard to please” (ask “Louise”!), a soulful “Sledgehammer” desire, and with the “perspective” in the final groove of any great record that always spins into “the rhythm of” a very human “heat.”
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