Julie's Haircut

In the new early-evening live format at Monk Club, at around 7:40pm on a finally calm Roman Sunday, the Emilian band Julie's Haircut take the stage - a band that by now belongs to the history of Italian alternative rock. Fresh off their new album “Radiance Opposition”, arriving a full six years after their last studio work in 2019, Luca Giovanardi and co. thank the crowd at the Roman venue for “not going to the stadium,” prematurely announcing (and quite recklessly, for the more superstitious among us) Roma's win over Cremonese.

Amid warm-coloured lights, the show opens with the techno-pop of “I Can See The Light,” the first live preview from the new album, featuring the captivating voice of Nigerian-born singer Anna Bassy. The performance is immediately entrancing, hypnotic, as on the dark tribalism of the psych-rock track “Unit Circle.” From the long, Eastern-tinged dirge “Pharaoh’s Dream” to the sinister uptempo of “The Earth Knows,” the Sassuolo band unleashes all their live talent, chiselling every note with extreme elegance.

“Spring Moon” veers toward a minimalism halfway between trip-hop and electronica, while “Emerald Kiss” unleashes an obsessive, dark rhythm section, with a chorus repeated like a mantra between noise and beat-jazz.

Tempering the momentum is the new “Wounds,” which unfolds like an amniotic spiritual over Bassy's siren-like vocals, warmly received by a crowd that breaks into thunderous applause. The band weaves refined psychedelia into “Gathering Light,” followed by the post-punk pulse of “Until The Lights Go Out” and, above all, the gorgeous “Sorcerer,” in clear Suicide style.

As the show draws to a close it's a triumph of psychedelia, from the shadowy, measured textures of “6 AM Carpet Candlelight” to the Floyd-esque ride of “Extinction Of The Sun.”

The band quickly leaves the stage before the encore, opened by the atmospheric litany “To The Sacred Mantle” and closed by “Fountain,” poised between psych-rock vibes and touches of acid-folk. Meanwhile Roma are beating Cremonese, the prophecy comes true, and Julie's Haircut bring their seductive sonic magic to its fulfilment.

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