DANAVA FINALLY LAUNCHES THEIR DEBUT

Danava - Danava (Kemado)

Danava is still, as it was at the time of NY Press' ridiculous “Return Of The Real Rock” piece, one of the most interesting bands in underground hard rock, though the Press didn't bother to mention them. Judging from last night’s show at Mercury Lounge, Danava's only gotten sharper since then. The sound is clearly in place: a dense, semi-progressive, semi-spacey hard rock with myriad arpeggiated riffs, a frenetic rhythm section, high, dark-gnome vocals, and synth swirls and swooshes for texture. HAWKWIND plays a big role in the way the bass and guitar layer on top of each other, the way the synths swirl, and the overall momentum of most of the band's pieces. But while Hawkwind would often be content to riff on one or two notes, Danava likes to race up and down their scales, creating a proggy effect that doesn’t really resemble anyone from the 70s (maybe a downer IRON MAIDEN gets closer, if we're allowed to move into the 80s). The vocals are high and pinched, recalling BANG recalling OZZY, but sometimes with a deformed glam and sometimes with a robotic hobbit vibe that, again, makes it not quite like anyone. The guitar takes on all sorts of sounds, from a distorted fuzz, to a soaring chorus, chugging to wailing.

Funny thing is, at Mercury, all of this stuff kind of went out the window. Or, under the wheels might be a more apt analogy. That is, under the wheels of the steaming freight train of their rhythm section. The bass was all over the place, essentially bridging the hyper boogie jamming TEN YEARS AFTER's Leo Lyons to the prog-punk-metal innovations of METALLICA’s Cliff Burton. This bass player may very well be the engine of the Danava machine (Kemado should just get this guy a Rickenbacker). Meanwhile, the drummer’s two hands did not stop for the entire set, as if beats were better understood as a nonstop raging river of fills. Awesome energy and hyper-percussive (“thumpy,” as an old friend used to say), though I could have personally used a little Mitch Mitchell and John Bonham heavy-funky beat mastery every now and then to go with his Keith Moon abandon. Regardless, this rhythm section’s as good as you’re going to see in this kind of rock, even considering that the guitar, vocals, and synths were pretty much obliterated unless they were in their highest registers. The result was crisp and punchy, if lacking a little in dynamics, vocals, and guitar.

The band’s just-released, self-titled disc on Kemado minimizes some of these issues, but brings up others. The drum-thumping is lowered in the mix, though far from buried, while the lead guitar and vocals are pushed up, providing some high end to counter the busily churning, but relatively difficult to discern bass. The synths blow into and around the pieces like some intergalactic winds accompanied by shooting stars and comets.

The album launches with “By the Mark,” probably the most well-circulated track by the band, and deservedly so. Based around a mournful opening guitar line, pitting a high guitar against a low bass in tasty harmony, the track soon launches into its Hawkwind hard space rock, with riff sequence after riff sequence. It pretty much encapsulates the band’s sound. The next track “Eyes In Disguise” starts by giving us a breather with a couple of minutes of an organically repeating, electronic, minimalist/krautrock figure that gets jarred to attention by some hard, muted cymbal hits that recall the beginning of “Eye of the Tiger” before blasting into a riff that takes up most of the next six minutes. "Quiet Babies In A Manger" is the shortest and one of the most satisfying tracks on the album. The opening features a short movement of baroque counterpoint (recalling, but not quite equalling, the FUCKING CHAMPS' take on Bach's "Air in G". Honestly, I'd love to hear Danava put their expert guitar and bass skills to even more counter-point and polyphony in their writing, if applied sagely, of course). This passage gracefully cedes the stage to a basic cock rock riff which, in turn, opens up into a rare opening of space as the guitar plays some patient, graceful, sustained notes, taking its time, building tension and energy, before launching into a hyper-busy prog-arpeggio section, complete with harmonized flashes that finally comes to a tight, definitive conclusion. The album finishes up with a witches tale of sorts called “Maudie Snook,” whose main riff is more than reminiscent of THIN LIZZY’s “Black Rose.” But while the Lizzy track is triumphant and anthemic, this Danava riff seems more gnarled and malevolent…more witchlike. With a piano coda, no less.

My major complaint with the recording is that it feels under-recorded. I understand that budgets are always a concern, but a couple of choices are curious. A major choice was to put fuzz on almost every instrument. Rather than making things sound richer, warmer, and Vertigo-vintage, the fuzzy tone makes certain things (such as the vocals) sound thin, choked, and even shrill. Also, a decision seems to have been made to balance all of the instruments to each other. But this flattening in recording levels has tended to make the melodic lines muddy-together, making it difficult to separate the guitar and bass (and keyboards?, if they're playing the riffs. I can't really tell). Considering the musicians' skills (especially the bassist's), it's a shame to lose them to the mix (or is he just under-playing?). The guitar player's got chops, too. Why muffle him? More space and separation, I think, would have allowed each highly active member to stand in clearer relief without necessarily upsetting the intended band-based balance and greater-than-the-sum-of-their-parts power.

It's one thing to get all fuzzed-out with a band that can't play very well, in order to minimize their technical shortcomings and emphasize their energy, or whatever. But it's another thing to fuzz-out on a band who is not only technically accomplished but also relatively adventurous with its compositions. Danava plays astral sci-fi existential fantasy hard rock. The spaceship should be constructed of some outer-nebula, extra-terrestrial alloy. And it is, but the production makes that alloy feel a bit frayed and rusty, rather than highlighting its potential for space and time travel.

Danava is a musically ambitious band. "Retro" only half-fits since the band's aims are clearly beyond mere idolization. Nor can they be said to be derivative since any similarity they might have to any earlier band is countered by five dissimilarities. "Hipster" doesn't really apply since their pieces are vigorous enough and built from a kind of commitment to their form that would preclude most casual fans or fans of "progressive hard rock for people who don't like progressive hard rock." On the downside, their riffs can step on each other's toes, their arrangements can get muddy and their pieces (which average nine minutes) could benefit from wider and deeper dynamics. On the plus side, they have all the chops they need, a deep well of imagination, independence of vision, and idiosyncrasy of expression. On top of that, they know the history of hard rock and what made the best the best. That means, while they are very good now, even one of the best in the US hard rock underground, it seems very likely that they're going to get even better.