LEITMOTIV - L’ audace bianco sporca il resto

It is at a crossroads of sounds and cultures that Salento's Leitmotiv find the deepest inspiration for “L'audace bianco sporca il resto”, an intriguing debut that wins you over from the very first listen thanks to a handful of well-crafted tracks, forever poised between bitterness and hope.

Lively, all in all, but thoughtful, as in “Tango fluvial (triste, ordinario y final)”, which circles airily and almost mockingly, or the sturdier “Magno gaudio populi”, where a whiff of dissent hangs in the air. They navigate with considerable nonchalance between post-rock dreams that stagger somewhere near Massimo Volume and neo-classical enchantments (“Balocchi”), a solid chansonnier bearing (“Le Flute Magique”) and adventurous psychedelia (“Puerto Nuevo”).

Naturally, given the premise, alongside celebrating the evocative power of dialect (the Taranto dialect of the driving “Donca”, and the Neapolitan of “Acqua di luna”, which turns back the clock, idealising eras and sensations that modernity dissolves day after day), the quartet also reaches toward the nearer East (“Nuhar (I)”), whose magic is reflected, utterly transfigured, in piano ballads with a savoury, romantic breath (“Talita Kum” and the second variation of “Nuhar”).

And yet this is a band that does not disown the radiant charm of happiness (the honky-tonk of “24h”), even when it is disguised within the folds of a languid surrender (“Le bonheur”).

For now, things are more than fine, though we reserve the right to check their consistency with the next test.

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09/12/2008