Issue #24                          Nov/Dec ’00

    The "Song of the Week" for 11-20-00 is Drive by Gargantua Soul.

    Thanksgiving: A 400-year-old modern tradition that dates back 1000’s of years. A time set aside when each tribe would gather together to feast and enjoy the company of their fellow man as they praised the generosity of the earth and gave thanks to a higher power for blessing them with a bountiful harvest so that they might survive another year.

    Do you believe in family? Do you have faith in humanity? Do you believe in ultimate good? Can you understand the purpose of unconditional love? Gargantua Soul is a Heavy Metal/Hard Core band that believes in the good of humanity as a gift bestowed upon us by God, and recognizes this fact through the ancient customs of unconditional love of Earth, Man, and God as practiced in the culture of the Native Indian tribes.

    G.Soul understands the significance of the Tribe: A community of people who take care of each other. A community where each person’s least concern is of themselves for they themselves have a higher being watching over them and that higher being will care for each individual as they care for others. Tribes were born of humanity and survival. G.Soul believes that humanity still thrives amongst us; therefore it is time to once again connect it all together, for if we are to survive we need to re-establish (as well as understand the significance of) the Tribe.

    Gargantua Soul brings tribal religion (beliefs, customs, and ideals) to us in a form that’s hard to ignore – A wall of Heavy Metal Rock with a Hard Core/Rap Core edge. Headbanging at it’s best. Using top shelf production this disc absolutely explodes in your ears, along with subtle touches that simmer through the intros, outros, and bodies of almost every song. Sporting the 7 man "New Haven Crew" G.Soul starts with vocalist Kris Keyes. The power in Keyes voice is unexplainable. Casting a vocal range that can be deep and guttural with urgency, then controlling with a firm solid grip on mid-range melody and harmony, as well as climbing to falsetto heights that are pure, powerful, and mesmerizing, Keyes has the ability to create art from the vocal so that it becomes another major player besides the other instruments.

    Speaking of the other instruments, where do I start? The most impressive thing here is: What makes each instrument – and this includes Keyes vocals – a major component in the music of Gargantua Soul is the individual production given each by Marc Amendola & Joe Delaney behind the boards. They prove themselves to be just as professional, adept, and imaginable in the control room as G.Soul is at playing.

    Opus is on drums and drives each song in that; where the accent is needed, the tempo changed, the power boosted, the mood forced - it's all there. This man is a monster on the skins with the touch of a white gloved aristocrat, couple him with the Bass of Brendan Kane Duff; which holds down the fort as everyone is taking off into their own musical sojourns, and brings it all together when they return, and you’ve got a rhythm section that is unstoppable, a good thing when matched up with the duel attack of Marc Amendola’s and Jason Bozzi’s Guitars; that keep your ears delighted with interchangeable riffs, hooks, leads, runs, and joined-at-the-hip rhythmic transgressions as Tommy Hetz on Keyboards and Percussion, and Budzy on Turntables keep the pace by injecting an exciting mix of musical textures that blend into the power in such a way that when you reach over to turn it up to 9, to 10, to 11 – it might be just as much for them as for all the rest.

    Expressing their message at times with a whack, hip-hop, street rap slang using modern pop culture icons for tribal culture ideals (I got the force ya’ll and like Vader do not know/The Jedi that I be…that you be…we all be…is so fancy free/Like Obi Won Kanobi/Just want some place to thrive) that comes through as both humorous and deftly artistic; Gargantua Soul gives us 11 songs of life affirming, spiritually uplifting power (Drive, Hands Of Life, God My, Electrified) with a back hand to the evils that plague the greed filled, self centered, egotistical society that we all must endure (No Oasis, SOS, Rat Pack, Cover Me).

    The song "A.O.A." shows G.Soul’s worry about the fate of humanity as it decries the state of today’s world where children hate to the point of killing. Using film noir sax that leads to an air raid style high alert single note progression and the smoothness of Keyes vocals we are tugged along by the drums, turntables, bass, keyboards, and guitars until several newscasts of child violence (including the Columbine tragedy, as well as a prominent headline from G.Soul’s hometown of New Haven, CT) are mixed in to drive home the message: "Love is like a secret vibe/Back and forth it comes and goes/It’s special like your deepest wish/It’s glue between me and my tribe." Fading out with an ancient tribal chant leading back to the film noir sax, the song ends. The imagery of the Angels Of Apocalypse casting the wrath of God upon us through our children is chilling and frightening in its assumption, but accurate to the point of the necessity of love.

    "Prophet Of The Fire" tells the story of a man who believes his mission in life is so pure, so strong, that all evil cannot defeat him. His fire is the flame of passion, the heat of love - overcoming all, even in death. A gusting wind blows in, the low bass throbs, as the drums and guitars skate along the groove before everything explodes as the defiance of evil slams into a mortal wall, but rises and prevails.

    In an effort to dissuade questions of the religious ramifications produced by The First – The Last – The Tribe (while acknowledging the influence of "The Book of Revelations" throughout), Gargantua Soul’s marriage of tribal customs and beliefs with their concern for the humanity of modern day man shows that no matter where one’s own personal spirit is evolved from, we can get more from life through unconditional love of Earth, Man and God. And for that we should give thanks.

    Everyone who orders The First - The Last - The Tribe between now and Dec. 15th, 2000 will be automatically entered in our contest to win a FREE VHS copy of the VH-1 movie "At Any Cost" in which Gargantua Soul plays the part of the band called Strange Divas and performs "Drive."