Daringer — Baker's Dozen

Made for the Baker's Dozen label series, here Daringer proves he's capable of making a good instrumental tape. It's a great noir effort, it recalls the NY boom bap of the mid-nineties, with jazzy and dark samples and a dusty drum. I think he managed to create an excellent soundscape for a noir journey, so the following will not be a "typical" review, but a sort of cinematic narrative of what I felt while listening to this tape, with some scattered hints to the songs.

Squeaky sax sample, midtempo drum, not Daringer's best production, the rhythm is annoying. Something isn't working: it's as if you were arrested, you're now in the cell, but no one has told you for what crime or what you did exactly. But they know you did it and just that, it's all weird here and you have a big headache. Little or no memories, you had been escorted somewhere but they didn't even look like agents, then darkness. Male soul sample, then elegant piano and midtempo drum accompanied by Christmas bells slowed down slightly. It was all a dream, thankfully, just a bad nightmare. You wake up, you're in a train car, headed for where? Ah, it doesn't matter, does it? It goes perfectly, smooth, unstoppable in its slow and ethereal ride, relaxing. You just have to look out the window at these green landscapes and enjoy the ride while it lasts. The first Italian title (translated: "mind") marks the end of the ride: you get off the wagon and find yourself in a semi-abandoned station in what looks like a ghost town, at night, in the middle of the fog; the train conductor whistles again, the locomotive leaves the station and you're there, alone. You don't know which way to go, so you decide to stay and sleep there, on one of those damp benches in the cold. But there's someone, footsteps and sinister noises echo in the dark. You aren't calm, you aren't calm at all, you don't want to stay on that bench, but you can't even go and check, you get up, but the steps are approaching you; around, still fog, you can see a light that comes out slowly from the fog, perhaps another train, but instead it's not a train...

Strange and slippery samples pervade the environment, hard and severe midtempo drum, hard and rough piano, a bad piano; it's no more reassuring than the previous rhythm. Somehow you got out of that damned station, but someone chases you, at night, in the dark, you think it's almost dawn, but it's not dawn yet; you try to go faster, with shorter and faster steps, can't run, not with that suitcase; arrive in the square of this ghost town, the sound of the footsteps of those who follow you can still be heard, then suddenly stops; there's a lighted tavern open in front of the square, two elderly people play cards at a table outside, a child chases a cloth ball, you go to the tavern, looking around, still the sound of footsteps, but don't see anyone, enter the tavern: «Excuse me, where ...», but there's nobody inside. Then go out again in the square, but the elderly have disappeared and there's no trace of the child... you leave the square and continue through the dark alleys of this village, still the noise of the footsteps, you don't notice, you are looking for a small hotel or at least a place where you can rest, but there's nothing, only alleys and other alleys; at a certain point, at the bottom of one of these tight streets, you see a girl, with a long light blue dress: there is no time to even wave a hand, and the girl is already gone, you try to follow her, but she seems to have disappeared in the middle of other alleys; you start running, and she appears again at the end of another alley. You stop and join her, the girl turns around, but she doesn't seem to understand your language, then immediately afterwards, the girl falls to the ground and the pebbles are covered with the color of roses; you turn behind to understand what happened and who hit her, shoes turn the corner, you run in an attempt to reach this person, but when you reach the corner it has now disappeared into the fog. You turn around, but the girl has disappeared into the darkness too... Oh, you're scared, all right if you're scared. Scared, tired and sad. Sad for that young girl, tired from the long train ride and scared from these strange people who don't want to leave you alone and maybe want to hurt you. Or maybe he's one person, but who? Why isn't there a police station around here? You start shouting «POLICE, HELP, HELLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPP», but nobody hears you. Or better, no one who can and wants to help you. The echo of your shouts for help makes you even more afraid of the fog, darkness and evil that pervades this ghost town. The cold stings, the wind stings, the hissing in the air that hit your jacket, hurt the soul. You seem to be going crazy, you leave your suitcase and at that point you start running, in the dark, in the fog, at breakneck speed, in an attempt to sow your possible assailants...

The lively and vibrant boom bap is a sign that you're capitulating, you have no strength left, exhausted, I don't blame you. You are almost about to fall, take a few more steps, then stop. Maybe you sowed them, you keep your knees, out of breath, you think, that's it: «it's over, now they will kill me». But no, there's none. The fog is clearing and in front of you, a small dilapidated hotel. But where was it until now? At this point it doesn't matter anymore, take the last steps and enter this hotel... you look at the clock, it's two in the morning, the landlord is still standing at that time. Don't ask yourself, it seemed dawn would break any moment, five dollars per hour, the guy took the money and lies down on a sofa in the filthy hall; go up the few stairs, your instinct tells you that something is wrong, you don't listen to it, but you feel it too, the whole story is strange and dark. You enter the room, single bed, on the bedside table an abat-jour and a half-full glass of water, a few pictures and a small window. You try to fall asleep, still fully dressed, but an alarm clock you hadn't seen on the bedside table suddenly starts trilling, scaring the hell out of you: "who sets the alarm at 3:30? Nobody does." laughing to yourself. You get up, but someone is approaching outside the door, perhaps the landlord, you want to warn him that you are already awake and that there's no need to knock, but your instinct tells you to shut up. In fact, the guy doesn't knock and immediately tries to enter, open the window and get out of there, it's an easy jump, just over six feet... you avoid this omicidio (translated: murder) attempt, you're out again, again in the street, again in the dark, in the cold, pervaded by that dystopian and midtempo fog that has only pretended to leave and joked at you, deceived you; you keep running, you have had time to rest enough, but you feel more tired than before and you feel like crying: «Who's trying to do all this to me and why? What did I do?». You don't know. You don't remember it, or maybe you don't want to remember it. In any case, you just can't remember it now. You think about surviving, about escaping, the road seems wide but there are no clues of any kind on the direction to take or where you are. You stop, in the dark, in the middle of the road, in the middle of the roadway: the steps are returning and this time they're many more than before, it seems a world manhunt and you're the public enemy number one, hunted, pressed, you can't escape. You decide to give up, your brain wants to stop, but your legs want to keep running...

The mood is tense and dark. You're still alive, awake, more lucid than usual, the fog has disappeared several kilometers before and so are the people who were chasing you; you walk empty for another hundred meters, then you hear in the middle of the darkness a sound that seems like that of the police sirens, finally! Now they can help you solve this whole obscure situation: you stop them, two agents get out of the car a little asleep, you tell them everything calmly. The nearby city is a ghost town, there are people who tried to murder you, a girl was killed, the elderly, the children, the hotel. The agents find it hard to believe your bizarre rides and decide to take you back to the ghost town to check the situation: get on the wheel, the car travels at twelve miles an hour, constant, slow and inexorable, the road seen from the inside of the car seems a whole other thing, safe and warm at last. It's still late at night, the fog returns denser every mile that the steering wheel approaches the village, until it's completely immersed. There are figures passing by the car, you see them, perhaps not the agents: «Have you seen them too, do you see them?» «We see them, what?» «The people, the figures out there around the car in the fog» «I don't see anything» «Me neither». That false confidence that had pervaded you for a few minutes is disappearing, fear returns, strong anxiety returns, you return to shiver and sweat cold. After a few more minutes in the fog, the steering wheel stops. Hey! You have already been here! You know. Do you recognize him. The two agents get out of the car, in the middle of the fog, this time you don't want to be fooled, you get out too, damn it. It's much colder than before, the high beams tear the fog with their piercing headlights on, while a voice emerges from the darkness, very loud, suddenly: it's the engine of the train, which is leaving again, fleeing from the station, again, you still hear it in the distance. He's gone, you not... the agents look towards the station, they want to go and check the station, you don't. They have to leave the car in the middle of the road, try to dissuade them, nothing to do. They go ahead, the station is about two hundred meters from the car, you're halfway there, you turn around, the car seems to have disappeared. Try to warn the agents, they don't turn around. You arrive at the station, perpetually shrouded in the fog and filth of some homeless who plays hide and seek. Dark hisses chase each other among you, but there's nothing and nobody there: glued to the cops, you go back to the car, which is still there, where it was left, maybe ten yards ahead? Not sure. Everyone goes up, the agents want to accompany you to their police district in the nearby city and arrive in the morning, same street as before, same dark shadows to accompany you on the street. It's all going well, you're still afraid but it's a calm fear if you know what I mean. The car goes slow, but it goes on, until you all hear a noise, the car slows down, hops and stops: everyone gets out, again, go and look, the front wheels are punctured. The agents look in the sky, the full moon shows itself after hiding all the time in the clouds...

A dark and sad plan falls from the sky, do you look up at the moon, a good sign or a ill omen? Yet another question in a dark and gloomy night, it looks like a noir movie. Look down, there are no spare tires, the agents will have to leave the car and walk back, you too, if you want to try to stay alive. The street is clear, you walk calmly, the policemen are armed but they haven't pulled out their guns, there's no need, to protect yourself from whom, from owls? Let's not joke. You go ahead quickly, you look around, you walk backwards for a few seconds every now and then, to calm your soul and take a few moments to breathe. The heart is in the throat from the beginning and doesn't want to go down, the adrenaline burns in the veins, but doesn't remove the cold from the body, after many minutes of walking behind the officers, you feel even calm. You turn around once again, breathe again, you won, they know it, you did it. You turn back satisfied, towards the agents in front of you. They are no longer there: what? Where... how is it possible, what happened? You don't want to call them; you don't even want to try. Maybe they're in the fields beside the roadway over there hundreds of yards away, but how could they get there in so few seconds and why they would, maybe it's a joke... maybe not. You want to scream again, you want to run again, you want to cry again, you can't. You want to give up again. It's a little late now. You keep walking inertia, you don't turn around anymore, it wouldn't make sense, you think. It's still long to get to the city, but the sun is starting to show itself, it's over now. Reach the other city, this one, populated with faces that appear family and friends. You still don't know, but you've seen them all night. Ask for help: «Where is the police station located?» «It's near here, we'll take you there if you want». They decide to accompany you, you have no more thoughts, you are safe and by now you are in front of the police district, there are a few meters left, you pass everyone and do a few steps in front of them, when you feel a strong pain in the head, bring a hand where you felt the pain, but you can't look at it before you lose consciousness...

Rating: 8/10.