AMIGO THE DEVIL - Born Against

Reinventing tradition is hardly a rare feat; in fact, it's by now well-worn territory, and digging through recent releases it's hard to find anything truly original. Yet among the many balladeers crowding the packed scene of American country-folk contamination, one particularly singular and magnetic name is making a mark: Amigo The Devil – the controversial alias of San Francisco's Danny Kiranos.

Thrust into the spotlight with 2018's "Everything Is Fine", the heavily tattooed gothic-country and murder-folk troubadour – as he himself likes to categorize his ballads – confirms with "Born Against" his bizarre and fascinating personality, throwing a great deal of new material into the pot.

To his theatrical register as a cursed troubadour, halfway between Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, Kiranos adds on his sophomore effort numerous and multifaceted new influences, plus a few special effects.

Truth be told, there's little that's properly classic about this new Amigo The Devil record. Certainly the ironic country sketch for harmonica and acoustic guitar "Better Ways To Fry A Fish" qualifies, as does the heartfelt "Quiet As A Rat", in which Kiranos, marching amid horns and drunken choirs in the style of Tom Waits (think "God's Away On Business"), belts out the album's titular mantra at the top of his lungs. But little, very little else does. A banjo-driven "24K Casket" later stirred up by piano played like in a saloon, and then only fleeting moments within the record's otherwise intricate architecture.

The opener "Small Stone" is as epic as one could imagine, with romantic electric guitars and a chest-swelling crooning worthy of Elvis and Roy Orbison. Meanwhile, "Murder At The Bingo Hall" undergoes the playful onslaught of a progressive-style keyboard, and "Different Anymore" lulls the listener with its loving chorus and airy, cinematic-soundtrack strings.

The dark "Shadow" even undergoes electronic interference, wrapping busker-style violins in sinister synthetic mist. In "Another Man's Grave", sung in the first person, what strikes most is the intensity with which Amigo The Devil inhabits a twilight character doomed to unhappiness.

Original, strangely poetic, respectful of tradition yet iconoclastic at the same time, "Born Against" confirms Amigo The Devil's talent and leaves us hoping not only for a swift sequel, but also for the chance to soon witness one of his much-talked-about, wild live shows.

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31/12/2021