Restavrant : Returns to the Tomb of Guiliano Medidici

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/restavrantreturnstothetomb.jpg" alt=" " />Restavrant serves up a hearty if relatively unvaried serving of dirty-blues procession on their debut, <em>Returns to the Tomb of Guiliano Medidici</em>....
7.2 Narnack
2008 

Restavrant : Returns to the Tomb of Guiliano MedidiciRestavrant serves up a hearty if relatively unvaried serving of dirty-blues procession on their debut, Returns to the Tomb of Guiliano Medidici.  The Los Angeles-by-way-of-Texas duo of Jonathan Case & Troy Murrah look to bring up-tempo blues march into the twenty-first century on Returns.  While on the record they basically run the same tune through different grinders, it’s a great tune.

Returns starts with “Step Down”, and its dirty-blues up-tempo procession is strong, plus serving as a solid indicator of what is to come.  Actually, too solid: the same down-home rhythm number serves as the base for everything that is to come on the record.  It’s a very winning number, but is played too much by the finish, leaving the album stronger in its beginning than its end.  Of course, Restavrant did put single “Joe D” second, and its twang and rough-country feel – with drum machine base beat – would be the stand out wherever it was on the track list.

Whereas “Step Down” played the blues relatively straightforward, “Joe D” introduces Restavrant’s two new spins to the old tune: country-twang and techtronic backbeat.  In general, it is the former which is stronger, as it is more fitting, though the modern elements aren’t as ill-fitting as one might guess, such as on “Saved By a Female Indian” or “Homeless Architect”.  Still, they can’t quite match the party-time-twang of “Home” or sexy-sly “Silver $ Surprise”.

As the end of the record comes, the Returns have started diminishing, with “Natural History” feeling like it plays on too long, and the twang-echo “War Dream” coming off too restrained, until it gets bigger at its end.  And finisher “We Return to the Tomb of Guiliano Medidici” really is an extended piece, though the echo-fuzz gives a good grand jam (but closes out with strange synth & story).  But in the middle of the album, Restavrant wisely change things up a bit, as they go sadder and softer with “Lionman” and “Nadia”.  Case & Murrah could have served themselves better had they mixed up those two numbers on the track list, rather than place them back-to-back.

Both post-modern and very old-school, Returns to the Tomb of Guiliano Medidici employs a different approach than most records: instead of finding a genre and making different songs, Restavrant found a dirty-blues tune and plopped it in different eras.  While not all takes work equally well, it’s a singularly original idea.  And while the song can really start to sound the same, track after track, it all certainly stands out from all the other records out there.

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