Ten Little Italians

MOONDRIVE – Moondrive (2017, self-released)

psych-rock

Tuscan singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Emanuele Cicerchia debuts under the name Moondrive in 2017, after three years in the making, with the tour-de-force of elaborate lysergic arrangements that is the self-titled "Moondrive". The record opens with the lean, solemn guitar march of "Swallowing a Toad", a mini-suite built around a psychedelic hymn to shooting stars: a thread picked up again by the pure vowel singing and zen laments of "Old Dark Wild Beast" and by the avant-electronic set piece "Bear", practically a track out of the Paisley Underground, only rowdier and more overexcited. Rather than a psych-pop revival, these songs feel much closer to pure meditation. The balance achieved is often remarkable. In just three minutes, "Last Minute Of The Last Day" builds an epic cauldron of voices and interwoven instruments. A heartbeat-like breath kicks off a grand serenade in "Not Anymore", and the same symphonic quality runs through the toxic repeated cadence and fleeting whisper of "Particular". It all culminates in the celestial ecstasy (almost Enigma-like) contained in "Samurai", a chant-like chorus carried by piano and feedback notes. "The Elephants Are Small" blends shoegaze incantation with psychedelic bolero, and the closing "Two Of Us", the album's final feat, is a soft elegy ticking along like a pendulum clock. The only drawback is the derivative streak, running from late-period Mercury Rev through Sparklehorse to early MGMT. Still, this is without doubt a collection of skillfully crafted and performed ballads (almost entirely Cicerchia's own work, with contributions from two drummers, a bassist and a keyboardist), full of sonic virtuosity delivered with clarity, power and contagious energy, quick to ignite emotionally, often loose in form, and here and there bold in its language. Overseen by Stefano Amerigo Santoni (Sycamore Age, Ant Lion), it once again confirms the superiority of 2010s Tuscan neo-psychedelia (Michele Saran 7/10)

RICHIE RAVELLO – Richie Ravello (2017, Locale Internazionale)

synth-pop

It's hard to pin down exactly what "Mediterranean sound" means, even though Daft Punk and Metronomy have occasionally drawn plenty of ideas from it; what's clear, though, is that the southern European synth-pop of the '80s carried a warmth capable of pulling a certain strain of electronic music to the opposite end of the spectrum from the cold, Kraftwerk-derived Teutonic melodies. Richie Ravello wasn't born Italian, but years of living in Italy and a musical background spanning nu-funk and IDM have inexplicably led him to sound as if he were. His self-titled debut is an implicit nod to the sun-drenched synthetic atmospheres of peak-era Matia Bazar, where electronic beats underpin acoustic guitar accompaniments, Silke's ethereal voice, sprawling pads and distinctly eighties keyboards. In the murkier passages of "Cold Juice" and "La Nuit" you can feel the neon-lit atmospheres of Chromatics. "Intro" and the more varied "Cold Hearted Turn" and "Dirty Arp" nod to Junior Boys, leaning into a more hypnagogic strain of chillwave. The meeting of electronic contemporaneity and the warm Mediterranean coastal sun certainly makes Richie Ravello a small but notable artist worth keeping an eye on (Gabriele Senatore 7/10)

LA METRALLI – Lanimante (2017, A Buzz Supreme)

alt-pop

The Modena-based folk-pop quintet La Metralli expand their songbook on their third full-length, "Lanimante". The South American touches are a particular joy: from the elegant, decadent chamber folktronica of the title track, which morphs into a mournful tango, to the Cuban-flavored "Un altro spritz" (electronic winds, gospel choirs) and "Il posto della rabbia" (with a ska-core pulse). Bringing things back home, the fractured ballad "Capovolto" mixes Radiohead and Ella Fitzgerald in a doomsday atmosphere, before returning and expanding at the very end in the jazz-scat jam that closes "Tigri e serpenti". Aside from the Portishead-esque "Ellittica" (the single and video), turned here into a neurotic invocation, the album's real highlights are the fairy-tale epitaph set to a waltz tempo "L'onda bianca" and the cubist vaudeville number "Urlando i muri", with its near hardcore-techno flare-ups. The ensemble confirms the class shown on their predecessors "Del mondo che vi lascio" (2011) and "Qualche grammo di gravità" (2013), with persuasive performances and intelligent songwriting that still finds room to showcase carefully rationed instrumental acrobatics. The two founders and creative minds, singer-guitarist Meike Clarelli and multi-instrumentalist Davide Fasulo, call all the shots: the lyrics sparkle with a psychoanalytic undercurrent, echoed in the arrangements through sophisticated production techniques, with mixed results. Kudos too for the well-judged graphic concept by Bologna-based art director Sara Garagnani (Michele Saran 6.5/10)

SAMSA DILEMMA – Wake Up Gregor!!! (2017, Kutmusic)

alt-rock

The cover shows a room in ruins, leaving it unclear whether it will stay abandoned forever or is about to be made new again; the band takes its name from the protagonist of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis", and the guitars never settle down, chasing the kind of dissonances that made Sonic Youth immortal (just listen to "Inside You My Soul Is Free" to hear it). On this debut full-length, Samsa Dilemma channel the best of '90s alternative rock in their more electric moments ("Rotten Underneath", "No Hate"), but there's also plenty of tenderness, surfacing in "Summer's Play" or "Lights Are Changing", built so that piano and violins take the lead. Eight tracks in English, plus "iProgresso" and the political manifesto "Macerie" sung in Italian — always a bold move, and one that pays off perfectly here, especially on the latter, where between spoken-word passages, hip-hop undertones and electro-noise inserts, Samsa Dilemma craft the album's most personal and structurally ambitious track. Vocals, drums, bass and most of the guitars are handled by Riccardo Pro, previously featured in these pages with Pugaciov sulla Luna. The other six-string parts are by Daniel Sartori and Enrico Merlin; Marco Ober handles programming, mixing and mastering, violins are by Vanessa Cremaschi, piano and Celtic harp by Enrico Dal Fovo (Claudio Lancia 6.5/10)

ALTERIA – La vertigine prima di saltare (2017, AlterHead)

songwriter

A former radio host and member of the Rezophonic collective, Stefania "Alteria" Bianchi made her debut with "Encore" (2013), effectively a second and final album (again in English) under the name NoMoreSpeech. "La vertigine prima di saltare" becomes a slightly more personal affair, starting with the choice to sing in Italian, though the band-oriented approach is still very much in place (only one genuinely solo moment, "Diventare chi sei", for voice and twelve-string guitar). Her psychoanalytic session, which opens with something like a small mission statement in "Premessa", unfolds with anger and raised voice, from "Sacro e profano" (with keyboards flirting with the symphonic and the industrial), to "Peccato" (almost punk), to "In controluce" (torrential, building into a techno progression), to "Insieme e soli" (the most reckless, breathless track), all the way to "Santa Pace" (the most solemn refrain, almost Soundgarden-like). Written with Max Zanotti and Fernando De Luca, it's a record about life's defeats, the capacity to love, and the difficulty of relationships. The rock'n'roll backbone, aside from a few understandable wobbles, is spot on, and the voice has more than a thing or two to teach Irene Grandi. The best antidote of the year to Italy's singing talent shows (Michele Saran 6/10)

DAVYS – This Is Where I Leave You (2017, autoproduzione)

classic rock, country-rock

A solo project from Jacopo Cislaghi, formerly frontman of Red Roosters, a rock'n'roll band from the Milan area, Davys makes its album debut with "This Is Where I Leave You" — on first listen, a record built to introduce itself, a solid calling card, essentially. That's the impression conveyed by the Americana groove of the opener "Down South", in the vein of Dawes, with its lovely major-key openings laid over the "crumbling" notes of a wurlitzer and a rhythm section that's always on point — but it's really the whole album that gives at least the illusion of a top-tier work. Credit goes to the excellent production of first-timer (at least as a producer) Gabriele Prada, whose sound comes through the speakers and headphones with real force, with a Creedence-like punch that highlights the simplicity of the band's music without ever sounding crude — on the contrary, with taste we could call international in level. It's a production that manages to push into the background a songwriting that isn't always up to par, especially when it falls back on cliché (already by the second track, "Landing", you can sense the huge imbalance between arrangement and writing). That said, "This Is Where I Leave You" still manages to stay pleasant throughout, for instance with the funk of the verses in "Lungs" and the Band Of Horses-style guitar strumming of closer "In Spite Of Me". But you can still sense too strongly the artistic deference underlying the Davys project, for now still just a pale counterpart to its American models, despite the record's commendable "intent", expressed above all through Cislaghi's heartfelt performances (Lorenzo Righetto 6/10)

3rd OF JANUARY – First Attempt (2017, WhiteRockRoma)

indie rock

Debut EP from a very young Rome-based outfit, born in the school classroom at the initiative of five students who preferred spending their afternoons in the rehearsal room rather than over their books, stubbornly working their way to recording their first single, "It's All Inside" / "Raptus". Now that high school is over, the guys are starting to get serious: hence these six new tracks put to record, aiming squarely at the best of British indie rock. 3rd Of January (which, incidentally, is my own birthdate, and that struck me quite a bit) try to replicate the sound of Arctic Monkeys, and they succeed right from the opener "From The Side Behind". But along the way they also know how to veer in other directions, as in the chorus development of the more personal "Destroy The Kingdom", where at times they recall Editors. That's just to give a couple of musical reference points, even though they like to file themselves under neo-psychedelia. The lyrics are steeped in social themes and reflections on the music business and, aside from a few forgivable naiveties, inevitable given their age, show good potential. "First Attempt" is also the first release from the newborn label WhiteRockRoma, a sign that the capital's independent scene continues to buzz with activity, and that there's still room for new, interesting projects to come to life (Claudio Lancia 6/10)

ELLIS CLOUD – Born In The 20’s (2017, GPA Produzioni Audio)

alt-pop

Riccardo Lo Faso (Palermo) resolutely steers his creature Ellis Cloud into a meeting with producer Gabriele Plescia. The result is the debut album of what is, in almost every respect, a duo, "Born In The 20's", with Lo Faso handling the songwriting and Plescia the electronic production, backed by a sizeable supporting band (rhythm section, sax, additional electronics). The heart of the record is made up of reggae tracks ranging from ordinary to sparkling ("So Young", "Walk On Water", a more infectious "Tangled Wires"), rounded out by a Madness-style ska-pop number, "Moody Movie", and a title track that imperceptibly leans toward techno-pop, complete with a little Chipmunks-style vocal skit. Closer "Play" opens up a new stylistic front of mottled, calm trip-hop instead. There are a few unresolved arrangements ("Street Star" with a Brill Building-style wall of sound, "New Flying Socks" overloaded with reverb), and an undefined party-like vibe, but in the end it's Lo Faso's vocal performances that stick in your head and save the day: modulated, powerful, both frigid and passionate, tender and rasping at once (Michele Saran 6/10)

DOLLARO D'ONORE – Il lungo addio (2017, self-released)

noir-western, soundtrack

A work of deep philological care from the Dollaro D'Onore collective, able to replicate in the Spaghetti Western field what Calibro 35 so excellently achieved with the poliziottesco genre. Amid dust and bullets, "Il lungo addio" brings together ten tracks that update the sounds that made Sergio Leone's films immortal, following in the footsteps of what Sacri Cuori have already done. Six original compositions and four covers, borrowed from the immortal repertoire of Ennio Morricone and Riz Ortolani. The genre's classic mood is strongly personalized through the addition of electric guitars (which in "Un'oncia di piombo nel cuore" even brush up against metal) and horns that at times push the mood towards jazzy territory. Simone Salvatori of Spiritual Front provides vocals on the only sung track, "The Buried Gun", while Davide Arnetoli of La Band del Brasiliano takes on the unprecedented role of "whistler". The closing "La mano sinistra del diavolo" is dedicated to the memory of the unforgettable Bud Spencer. "Il lungo addio" is a striking, evocative debut and, to bring things full circle, it will be released on the 89th birthday of the two-time Oscar-winning Maestro Morricone (Claudio Lancia 6/10)

ALBERTO NEMO – 6x0 Live (vol. I) (2017, Dimora)

gothic

Singer and pianist Alberto Nemo, from Rovigo, dispenses tragic arias that veer into the heavy and melodramatic on this first volume of "6x0 Live" ("Anthropomorphos", "Vortici"). His voice is as stubborn as it is limited, forced into the most classic of operatic vibratos of a castrato countertenor (the expressionist versatility of Claudio Milano is quite another matter). The sacred soundscapes that accompany him paradoxically steal the show, in a continuous dark chiaroscuro of lump-in-the-throat symphonic keyboards. These too, however, carry the baggage of repetition: hear one, or even just a portion of one, and you've heard them all, so interchangeable do they sound (both the merit and the flaw of the golden-ratio tuning used systematically throughout). Were it not for Guido Frezzato's almost Gaelic-sounding viola, this would tip over into musical-theatre overkill. Recorded live — no post-production — in late 2016 at the base of his commune, Dimora, from which Dimora Records subsequently sprang, alongside Andrea "Are You Real?" Liuzza, of whom this is the first legacy. A follow-up and appendix to the debut "6x0" (2016), just slightly more experimental (Michele Saran 5/10)

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17/01/2025