#alkarpenter

Al Karpenter, If We Can’t Dream, They Won’t Sleep!! (ever/never, 2020)

I like to think of the Stooges as some sort of Eastern gods, and their records as scripture. I say Eastern because the thing isn’t (or isn’t supposed to be) about worship or adoration, but more about teaching, and a sort of ritualistic practice. Through the Stooges, through their mantras, one can achieve bliss and knowledge. Now why am I waxing religious here? Because Al Karpenter’s debut LP, If We Can’t Dream, They Can’t Sleep!!, is a bit of a Stoogesian ritual. A bold, arty, difficult statement and a ritual.

The seven tracks, while forced in a sequence by the physical limitation of the grooves, sound as if they’ve been emptied on the record like the contents of a bag. Lines and verses repeat throughout the album, using the famous Stooges mantra as something between a war cry and a fatalist, numb lament delivered through clenched teeth: “It’s 2019 ok, all across the fucking Spain, all across this fucking pain”. By the end of side A, you’re in deep: glitchy noises attacking you out of the blue, fragmented electronic beats, bursts of silence, ghost guitars and incredibly beautiful (in contrast with all the ugliness) saxophone and drums adding jazzy flourishes.

On side B, things slowly escalate from the bitter and creepy “No Face” to the joyous and angry call for “Riot & Roll”—expanding the musical palette so far as to include trap beats with their distinctive hi-hats and autotune, together with analog synths, melodica, saxophones, tortured bass, banging drums.

It’s not an easy album and it’s comparable to what Karpenter’s fellow Bilbaoan Mattin has done in the past (a similar use of the Stooges’ “practice” can be heard on Billy Bao’s Buildings from Bilbao). Mattin’s role in If we can’t dream… seems in fact crucial, and even if he wasn’t listed among Karpenter’s collaborators I could have guessed that he was involved, especially in the mix. It took me a few listens to really get into it, but now that I got it, I’m gonna shake, riot and roll as much as I can.

Click here to listen to If We Can’t Dream, They Won’t Sleep!! on Bandcamp.