Novo Combo 2024
Veteran new-wavers waive their age to revisit past and bring it to the present to secure their future along the way.
45th West 55th
Largely remembered as an ensemble where famous musicians came to rest their case, to roost or simply to rest, NOVO COMBO’s legacy, numbering merely two full-length platters, might be meager, yet it’s impressive despite the fact that no one expected new wave from players whose pedigree included stints with SANTANA and HALL & OATES. Still, as opposed to what many of their pop-contemporaries did, the pieces this quartet preserved for posterity between 1980 and 1982 not only resulted in a few minor hits but have also stood the test of time, with even the recently discovered demos and outtakes not sounding outdated. The tapes the foursome found in their archives felt fresh enough to augment a few cuts and compose a couple of new ones, so the record which emerged under the title referring to the address bassist Stephen Dees and drummer Michael Shrieve met at aeons ago deserves the status of the group’s third album.
That’s why, while the original run-through of “Please Don’t Do That” which bears the melodic figure first invented during their meeting and the crisply scintillating upgrade of “City Bound (‘E’ Train)” – co-penned with Desmond Child and appearing now as the extremely groovy “E-Train Revisited” – are brilliant, the life-affirming, if poignant, “It’s Only Temporary” and sleek opener “Don’t Throw Your Love Away” – which, respectively, go for a two-tone sax-spiced ska and wrap heavy riffs in heavenly vocal harmonies – cast a different light on classic material. In such a light, Pete Hewlett’s voice and six-string licks on “Hard To Say Goodbye” and “Long Long Road” shine most alluringly, unsealing the dub sheen lost in translation to the collective’s debut offering, and “Another Slow Fade” reveals a latter-day, significantly warmer arrangement elevating this song from “The Animation Generation” to previously obscured heights. The otherwise rocking “What’s Been Happening With You” remains the product of its time, though, but the same can’t be said of the punchy “Everything It Takes To Be Happy” that languished on the shelf for no reason, so the reason for the likes of “Sorry For The Delay” – extremely catchy in embryonic form, with a verse left out of the final vinyl – not to challenge THE POLICE at the top of the charts is difficult to understand now.
With Shrieve’s onstage solo “Sirocco” heating up the atmosphere, and a live take on “Axis Will Turn” exposing the ensemble’s fusion leanings, additional facets of the veterans’ past come to the fore, yet it’s the electric bossa nova cover of The Fabs’ “And I Love Her” that taps into the Americans’ sensual vein. The rich vein which begged to be mined for treasures and which, eventually worked on, will keep on giving.
****4/5
