Madeira Press, Articles, & Reviews

The following is a translated transcript of The Vault, Program 9, a Spanish language radio show. They recently picked Carpe Noctem as album of the week. Great thanks to Nikolai Wenzel for the translation.

Nocturnal greetings. This is Diego RJ. You have just entered the Vault on Radio Three. Our album of the week is a new instrumental recording. Its creators are a band from Indianapolis known as “The Madeira.” The title of its most recent work is a phrase we often use to close this program: enjoy the night, Carpe Noctem.

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Once again, this is the song “Carpe Noctem”, from the “Madeirans”, off their latest album, Carpe Noctem, “enjoy the night”. We are enjoying the third album from this group out of Indianapolis, Indiana, led by the sublime lead guitar of Ivan Pongracic. This album seems to us to be one of THE instrumental works of the year, par excellence. Ivan, a former member of the Space Cossacks, has Croatian roots, which is why it is not surprising that throughout the 13 songs on the album, we find melodies with a Mediterranean flavor, evocations of the sounds of Eastern Europe, and a touch of flamenco and gypsy music. His companions in the Madeira are Todd Fortier on bass, Patrick O’Connor on rhythm guitar, and Dane Carter on drums. But it is Ivan Pongracic who carries on his shoulders the main weight when it comes to composing.

Careful arrangements, crystalline melodies, elaborate structures, nobody matches them. And of course it is not all mystery and drama like this song we just heard, entitled, like the record, Carpe Noctem. There is also room for authentic explosions of energy, like this sonic tsunami, ridden like a demonic horse, of which Dick Dale would be very proud. The name of the song is “Wreak Havoc.”

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Tremendous, that guitar from Ivan Pongracic. The Madeira; “Carpe Noctem” is the title of our album of the week. The album from these Americans was released by Double Crown Records label, with headquarters in Bellingham, Washington and a bastion of defense of instrumental sounds for quite a while now. Make sure to check out their website, www.dblcrown.com, for great offerings from their fantastic catalog, indispensable for lovers of the genre. Well, now we are going to say goodbye to this stupendous album of the week, “Carpe Noctem” by the Madeira, and we do so with one of two covers on the album, a modernized version of a song by the Australian band, The Atlantics, “SOS (Stomp on Stomp)”.

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