Madrguada - Live at Tralfamadore CD / Live at Oslo Spektrum DVD (EMI Norway)
2005 was quite the year for Norway's Madrugada. Their 4th record, "The deep end", outsold their others and swept every Norwegian award there was to be won. Proving that they know how to make hay while the sun shines, they've released not one, but two, follow-ups in less than a year's time. "Live at Tralfamadore" is a live record based primarily on their December, 2005 concert at the Oslo Spektrum, and "Live at Oslo Spektrum" is a DVD of that show. Both are more like top notch souveniers than new additions to their catalogue (they themselves referred to the live record as #4.5 rather than #5), but both feature excellent songs performed with stellar musicianship and passion. "Majesty" on "Tralfamadore" outshines the studio version from "Grit", and old gems like "Vocal" sound better than ever. "Tralfamadore"'s rendition of "Only when you're gone," with an orchestral backing that owes more to modernism than schmaltz is downright breathtaking. Both feature one new song, "You better leave," which is darker than most of "The deep end," and a moving rendition of "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child," an old spiritual that makes it easy to imagine ever-amazing singer Sivert Høyem working the cotton fields of the old south, despite his arctic pallor. There are a few missteps - the cd inexplicably features the studio version of their duet with Ane Brun ("Lift Me"), rather than the live version on the DVD, and two versions of "Black Mambo," seriously disrupting the sense of a concert. The DVD relegates old favorite "Electric" to the credits, leaves some of the fan-favorites performed that night off entirely, and spends a bit too much time on Høyem when one might want to see more of what those playing instruments were up to. Having been filmed at their biggest concert ever, the DVD also creates more of an atmosphere of stardom than the intimacy that characterizes them at their best. But both are strong releases from one of Scandinavia's finest, and further demonstrate how much they deserve a wider international audience than they've found to date.
- Nancy Baym