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By: Dennis Cook
 Soulsavers |
"There's so much crap being made nowadays. It's just trying to be current for the sake of it. But, you can still take all the reference points and influences of the great music of the last 50 years and try to do something original with it," observes Rich Machin, one half of English production team Soulsavers with Ian Glover. Like troubled ghosts rising from the mist of a newly broken levee, their new release, It's not how far you fall, it's the way you land (hitting shelves October 16 through Columbia Records) takes the well worn grooves of early American music and uses them to create a thoughtful and quietly uplifting update of roots sounds.
"I hope so, it's definitely the intention to take gospel, blues, country, all that kind of original, rootsy, heartfelt music that I love and put it into a new context rather than making a retro sounding record," says Machin.
For many, these genres are locked in time, frozen in the amber of memory, an artifact. But, with the right ears, the right heart, this music is very much alive and capable of thrilling and inspiring much as it did when it first emerged. Soulsavers leave the banjos and saws in the shed and come at it with samplers and tape loops, stuttering keyboards and liquid Indian subtleties, visceral proof that the medium actually does affect the output.
"It's been done better than I could ever attempt to do with traditional instruments. We're just trying to put our own stamp on it somehow," Machin says. "Electronica is one of those genres that people tend to be quite snobby about. I find it so fashion oriented. You have to sound like the latest thing that everyone else sounds like. A lot of people just follow trends instead of having their own direction. To be honest, the thing I'm frustrated about at the moment is how people are more interested in what trainers [sneakers] a certain producer is wearing than the beats they're making."
Theirs is a very organic, very musical sound, which it's fair to say most electronically oriented productions just aren't. Despite being pushed as a downtempo U.K. electronica band, Soulsavers have deeper roots than most of their "Just Push Play" peers.
 Soulsavers featuring Mark Lanegan |
"I certainly don't consider us to be an electronica band. Our first record was a lot more electronic," says Machin. "This time the whole point was to not have it be in any kind of genre anyone could pigeonhole it in, which is incredibly difficult."
It doesn't hurt that much of the new album turns its gaze towards Heaven or downwards to the grave. God and death are pretty compelling subjects, for good or bad reasons. This collection stares down subjects like mortality and the divine with a clear, unflinching eye.
"Besides music, literature is a huge influence on me. I grew up reading a lot of authors like Faulkner who did that kind of Southern Gothic. I found them such an engrossing read that when I write it's a big influence. I always found it incredibly powerful and it sucked me in," says Machin. "Mortality is something we all have to deal with because at the end of the day every last one of us is going to die. Your friends are gonna die, your mama is gonna die, and I don't mean that in a negative way. It's an incredibly difficult subject but it's the one thing that's inevitable. There's a lot of bad things in the world you can avoid, one way or another, but you can't avoid death. It's the only certainty in life."
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To be honest, the thing I'm frustrated about at the moment is how people are more interested in what trainers [sneakers] a certain producer is wearing than the beats they're making. -Rich Machin |
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One touchstone for It's not how far is Nick Cave's brilliant 2004 studio effort, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. The albums share a similar lack of sentimentality, despite the subject matter, combined with zero nostalgia for genre norms.
 Soulsavers |
"I take that as a compliment. That album was an absolutely awesome album, and maybe subconsciously there was some influence to what we were doing. I certainly listened to it a lot while making our record," recalls Machin. "With Cave, he's one of the finest lyricists of our generation, perhaps the finest since [Bob] Dylan. He's one of the few musician-lyricists that's actually up there with Dylan Thomas. You don't need to buy the album. You could buy the book of the lyrics and it would be as fine as listening to the record."
Standing in for Cave's blessed croaking bark is former Screaming Trees leader Mark Lanegan, who sings lead on the majority of the set, sounding like nothing so much as a more well preserved Leonard Cohen channeling fallen spirits. Additional vocal help was provided by Will Oldham and P.W. Long, with live instrumental accents from Sanjukta Sen (tabla, bass, tanpura) and Oscar Martinez (lap steel).
"I saw Mark play with the Screaming Trees in '92 and I've been a fan of pretty much everything he's done, particularly his solo records. Whiskey For The Holy Ghost [Lanegan's wonderfully harrowing 1994 release] was the very first album I bought on CD when I finally got 'round to buying a CD player. Come 2003 we discovered we had a mutual friend and hooked up. [Mark] was into our first record," recounts Machin. "He sounds pretty good on everything he does. The only thing you have to do with Mark is give his voice space rather than be an egotistical producer trying to throw on a thousand gimmicks. Mark has a great voice and it needs to be allowed the space to really hit you. The only thing I wanted to do was let it breathe."
Besides their excellent originals the album includes a trio of brilliantly chosen cover tunes – Spain's "Spiritual," Neil Young's "Through My Sails" from 1975's Zuma and powerhouse closer, "No Expectations" from the Rolling Stones. "I love the Stones but even Keith would probably admit that huge bites of that song are from Robert Johnson. It just fit in pretty nicely," says Machin.
With crosses being nailed to the wall and moaning entreaties to Jesus, it's easy to see where less careful listeners might file this in the Christian Rock section, a thought that sends a chill up Machin's back.
"I've gotten a few scary MySpace messages from people who haven't quite figured it out. Weak-minded fools hear what they want to hear. Definitely, Creed is not an influence in any way, shape or form [laughs]. To be honest, if I actually thought anybody had our album and Creed in the same record collection I'd probably get a bit despondent."
JamBase | Spirit World
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