ATOMIC WORKERS - Embryonic Suicide

It's inevitable to start talking about Atomic Workers by mentioning that their roots lie in That's All Folks, a great psycho-stoner band from Bari who released a couple of remarkable albums in the '90s. The common thread is above all Michele Rossiello, a powerful bassist who, after the breakup of T.A.F. (who could boast an excellent leader in guitarist Claudio Colaianni), put this band together during his travels between London and Berlin — a sort of "work in progress" carried out by Italian and English musicians.

"Embryonic Suicide", their debut recorded between late 2003 and early 2004, features under this name, besides Rossiello, Angelo Pantaleo, a versatile drummer well known to Apulian aficionados, former member of Skizo, one of the best local punk bands of the '70s, currently also a collaborator with the Dictators, as well as owner of Tom Tom Studios, the most alternative recording studio in Bari. Then there are the two guitarists Daniele Sindaco and Gary Ramon (ex Sun Dial), and the other Englishman, Lawrence O'Toole, on vocals and keyboards.

"Embryonic Suicide", as mentioned, ideally connects back to the That's All Folks experience: just listen to the hallucinated final nearly 10 minutes of "Breakfast On The Ocean (part 1)", an incandescent flow of psychedelic guitar lava that already reveals the remarkable instrumental skills of Sindaco and Ramon.

The album's aesthetic is on one hand fairly straightforward in offering a hard, uncompromising rock sound ("Embryonic Suicide"/ "Down On Earth"/ "Far Away"), but at the same time agile and multifaceted.

"No Reaction" even steals from Stooges's "Raw Power" that glam/perverse streak that many current rock bands no longer have any memory of.

The other side of the coin is a pronounced dreamlike quality that produces a small mutant masterpiece like "White", with jazzy shades, O'Toole's keyboards giving off the glow of a rough diamond, and excellent work from the rhythm section. "Plastic Man", on the other hand, harks back to the acid sixties psychedelia of Texas's 13th Floor Elevators, with a thrilling vocal performance from O'Toole and lethal guitar radiation.

Atomic Workers's eclecticism is confirmed by the tasty cover of "Hurdy Gurdy Man", the late-'60s pop-psychedelic anthem by Donovan, with Ramon on treated vocals.

Rossiello, meanwhile, "raves" on vocals in "Down On Earth" and "Far Away (lacrimae)", two gripping compositions rich in ethnic and Eastern-tinged suggestions.

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22/11/2007