"Rose From The East" by Alchemista
Review
I think pretty much everyone will, however reluctantly, admit that to make it in music talent's a great asset but unfortunately luck is part of many people's stories. For many, thankfully that is positive and we get to hear of moments when fortune smiled on them.
Follow music, especially local music long enough though and you get to hear some pretty depressing stories. You get your Specials but you also get your Gods Toys: also much tipped for stardom but brought down by ill chance.
I hope you like the music of Alchemista? If so, you are probably frustrated by the obstacles they have had to deal with. If you are a band whose music demands five members & generally members are of an age when other demands on their time are likely to be greater, then losing people is more probable: and so the core trio of Caroline White (lead & harmony vocals and occasional keyboards) Colin Halliwell (drums) and Paul Jayes (piano, keyboards and occasional guitar) have found. Then when every piece seemed in place and recording could be recommenced & gigs scheduled.. well if you were there for our November ‘Hot Music Live Presents' fundraiser for The Tin, and expected to hear them, you'd be aware that three members made it though the floods but two could not. Not exactly great for any band but for one trying to get going again after a long layoff…
The next issue thankfully has been a nicer one as bassist/engineer Aaron Clews who'd finally nailed that role down for the band, became a father & understandably took time off. He'd already done some recording on "Rose From The East", (which is out on all digital platforms on 5th June) and the multi talented Emmy McKissock came in to hold the fort alongside Caroline, Paul, Colin and new guitarist Jerry Foss.
It only gets a little more frustrating when you hear just how good the song is: one sincerely hopes this will kickstart new momentum (though in fairness they are deliberately prioritising recording this year to catch up with what's been written and taking into account the personal demands on members).
Initiated musically by Paul as far back as lockdown, Caroline seized on what he'd come up, heard an "eastern" element within it and decided to use it to channel aspects of part of Philip Pullman's ‘Book of Dust' trilogy ('The Secret Commonwealth') to describe a "journey across the Desert of Karamakan to find the mysterious red building and rare roses rumoured to be there, and maybe some kind of portal where Lyra might meet again with ‘someone she used to know' (her soul-mate and best friend, Will), or at least find her daemon, Pan, who has gone off on his own travels and is also heading that way."
No wonder nearly eight minutes are required for this epic: but then given the association of "eastern" with "timelessness", I think songs which go down that route sound better when longer ("Kashmir" after all is even longer and that doesn't outstay its welcome either). Emmy also stripped the existing recording back to what Caroline described to me as a more "analogue" feel and which I'd call more organic: which suits the song but also Alchemista too. People probably do consider them to be a traditional melodic rock band in several ways & that's fair, but given their penchant for songs which either obviously describe historical settings or at least allude towards them, it seems more natural.
"Rose From The East" is of course very melodic but it's also very hypnotic: a stately and majestic voyage with plenty of space for a proper narrative (and Alchemista's songs are mostly narratives) at a pace you can process.
What the band do is to take the more obvious elements such as the melody & words and (as their name implies), blend in senses of place, time & mood and come up with very strong & individual songs: it helps ensure that whatever general influences & experiences the musicians bring to Alchemista, you don't get a trademark sound which makes their tracks sound similar: each has the right feel and arrangement for what it is and this is really helpful for building a variety of material. This band really do serve the song.
One option for "Rose From The East" might have been an Arabic pastiche with overdubs of instruments to match, but they have gone for something more subtle: a allusive rock song. It brought to mind Squeeze's (admittedly very different) "Take Me I'm Yours" where their own song of a journey across a desert hints at the setting without descending into cultural appropriation.
Check out too the evocative video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGdAnU9C9E4 as well as the excellent cover which was designed by another very talented local musician, Laurel McIntosh.
