Malcolm meets Scarpa is released on vinyl + cd, with a meticulous graphic design and a careful selection of songs that detail much of the author’s multiple stages. From the beginning with “Le Vals Hot” and its psychedelic pop, the intimacy of “There’s a story going on” and the darkness of “Frank the butler did it”, the album moves calmly towards the surrealism of “Eva”, sung in Spanish, and the beautiful and melancholy “I’m ready for the things to come”. “No Place for Jolie” returns to psychedelia before the unmistakable Ray Davies vocal influence of “Baby Jane”, while Brian Wilson’s tortured spirit hovers over “Pedal Point”. Malcolm shows his already legendary heterodoxy on “Closing down a chapter”, then returns to pop with the undeniable “Why should I be sad” and the instrumental “The Bells”. Although it was never released, “A Little Castilian town” is part of the group of songs that Malcolm had chosen to be released: pure pop full of beautiful vocal harmonies. “Northern Sea” takes us to the sounds of California. Malcolm experiments with unlikely rhythms and harmony in ‘Getting Used to Losing’, only to turn up his emotional intensity in ‘Keep in Mind’. Always searching for unique sounds, Malcolm gives us “Bachelors of Gold”, reinventing himself in jazz with the instrumental “A Rose for J. Montrerose”. “Resume Speed” plays with the influence of a primitive The Kinks, only to delight us again with his unmistakable stamp in “There’s a Candy Store”, searching for unforeseen forms. The instrumental “The eternal funeral” is a leap into the unknown, while “A garden on the spirit”, in the key of psychedelic pop, is another of the cuts that Malcolm himself chose at the time and that were never released. Under the influence of his guitars, the Madrilenian gently rocks us in “A quiet lullaby”. He hums “Ezozi’s home” in our ears. “Asomado al patio o a la luna” opens new landscapes under the sonority of the Spanish guitar and the voice as a simple accompaniment element, while the cinematographic piano of “Days gone by” shows Malcolm’s love for the seventh art. Halfway between The Byrds and The Beach Boys is the exquisite “I’ll never find a girl like you”. Dissonant and delicate “Lady Algidol” sounds while “Boy comes around” captures the best spirit of sixties music. This magnificent and extensive selection of songs concludes with Malcolm at his most creative; the atmospheric “Three Little Flowers” and the instrumental and dreamlike “Sound Wave”.
Malcolm meets Scarpa is not just a work for the initiated, on the contrary, besides offering the opportunity to discover the figure of this composer, singer, and guitarist from Madrid to all those who do not know him, it proposes to get close to music with capital letters, to the artist to himself and to the honesty of his art, free, without barriers. An album that perpetuates the legacy of a unique and unrepeatable artist.
Perhaps the best description of a musician as important as the great Malcolm Scarpa is the most unclassifiable. An artist who embodies a time that no longer exists, a time when almost anything was possible. Pioneer of unpredictable sounds, genre painter, introverted and ironic. Far from all fashions and fashions, with the principle of staying true to oneself, to one’s music, to one’s art and, most importantly, to one’s worldview.
