Human Drama - momentos en el tiempo
2002 / 55:14 Minutes / 14 Tracks / Live
Release Date: 2002 - Noise Kontrol/Projekt
Produced by: Michael Ciravolo
Website: www.humandrama.net

Reviewed by Matt Rowe on September 15, 2002

Thanatos' Padraic Ogl was an individual performer with lyrical beauty and philosophical depth that captured your attention despite the unfathomable sadness of what he sang of. Johnny Indovino is just such a performer. "momentos en el tiempos", which, translated, means "Moments in Time" , is an accumulation of several acoustic sets performed over time between several small venues and showcases 14 songs that span the length of Human Drama's career thus far.

Some people brood over the complications of life. The inadequacies of love along with the inability of most people to express the simplest feelings of human emotion. They are either afraid of that ocean of pent up disillusionment or are unable to eloquently give voice to it, afraid and impossibly alone. Everybody feels the chasm of insecurity, that gulf between God and man, between understanding and despair. No one escapes but most secure it into a little lockbox and tuck it away under the most central part of the bed of their soul, pulling it out for inspection in the darkest of the hours of their lives.

Johnny Indovino has that gift of introspection and discussion. He can create and form words that explore even the most intricate of thought, fears, despair, and the unknowable. He is able to translate the mix of those components into poetic, heart rending disclosure that allow the rest of us to absorb and to fuse into the one of humanity that we all need to incorporate into our lives.

Because these are Human Drama songs, written by Indovina and originally performed by that band collectively, their stripped down renditions here are all the more striking in that they take away the distractions of the music and heighten the import of the word using only an acoustic guitar to carry the words along. And it works big time here.

From "Mr Storyteller" and its sad look at love as a story only, a 'stranglehold of lies' to the point of getting only what you can grab hold of in life no matter how high a plane you strive for in "Death of an Angel". The fear of death and the pain of remembrance to a happier time that knew no threat of mortality is forlornly sung in "My Skin". The realizations that love is an inescapable miasma, a vortex of disllusionment is echoed in many of the songs on this set. You hear the fear of it in "Fascination and Fear"; you feel the inability to understand even though the pain is easily expressed in "As Love Comes Tumbling Down" which, incidentally, is the most beautifully sung tune on the album.

Indovina's stark expression of life and its seemingly illusory afterlife is just 'four walls', easily seen but most feared for its absolute finality is relayed in "The Silent Dance". He also makes no secret of his fear of everything in the simply titled "It is Fear".

Indovina's skillful use of the guitar as a medium of accompaniment is pleasant and gives shape and life to the reality of the words as he expels them like the soft breath of a sleeping child or the diminishing gentle exhalations of a dying person. Altogether, it is incredibly affecting.

Whatever Johnny Indovina sings is an echoed foreboding that we all share. His knowledge and ability to enunciate what we all feel is both a beauty and a chain. The talent of Indovina and Human Drama is immeasureable and is beautifully poignant.

For memory take a knife it's quicker
Plunge it deep into my soul
Go ahead make me a weaker man
And cry, cry little angel forever, because
You can't wrap your arms around the wind
Within lie the reasons for
This tangled web we weave
This tangled web we weave
This tangled web

DISC

There is nothing special here as this is just a man, a stool, and his acoustic guitar, not much to mix. However, the mix is clean and beautifully presented with the voice and guitar given equal levels. The quality here is very, very good.

PACKAGING

An interesting package. The CD is retrieved from the case, which is a small,innovative box much like a digipack without a gatefold. You pull on the insert, which is affixed and cannot be removed, to extract the disc, much like an envelope. On one side is credits and thanks, the other, track listing. Also included is a set of four cardboard photos of Johnny Indovina. While this is not my preference, it is a unique and acceptable mode of packaging. There is no booklet.

THE FINAL SAY

A very good release, in fact, an excellent one. This set of heartaches and looks into our lives is not for everyone. But if your love is deep introspective meandering and trying to form meaning to life's many swings, I highly recommend Johnny Indovina's interpretations and expressions.

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