Review of The Guild of Temporal Adventurers

by Pierluigi Bella
issued on Rockerilla #143/144 (July/August 1992)

Kendra Smith is one of those persons who have the qualities to be considered artists, with that further stylish touch which made mythical a few little rock-geniuses in the past. She marked with the Dream Syndicate that main point of rock-music in the eighties, which was The Days of Wine and Roses; with Clay Allison before and with Opal later on, she delighted us with melancholy psychedelic ballads and with her beautiful voice above all.
Today Kendra returns with another phonographic jewel (between Opal and this record, only one 7inch with Keith Levene passed over in silence) in which Velvet Underground's influences, that made great her past, revive. The atmosphere is very sad, no photo given to her audience to prove the absolute concentration on the artistic content of the product, but a very nice package for a 10inch that reveals itself to be a gem from the esthetical point of view too. The Guild of Temporal Adventurers presents six splendid acoustic songs, from the starting one, the gentle Stars Are in Your Eyes to the harmonium of Earth Same Breath in which it seems to hear again Nico's magic style; in Waiting in the Rain and Wheel of the Law we relive Opal's early times and in She Brings the Rain, Kendra plays a wonderful Can's song with intense class. The whole accompanied by an ethereal atmosphere, by trips and by mystic interludes such as bell's sounds from Himalayas or from Tibet.
She could become more famous, sell her records very well and travel all over the world with her music but, after all, she wouldn't be the same person and we prefer her so simple and great just like she is…

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