viernes, 8 de abril de 2016

THE BACKWARDS - Eerie Thoughts Collection pt. 3 Plus [ITA psychedelic 1989-1993] 2013 Area Pirata


The Backwards are one of the best kept secrets of the '80s Italian underground. They were from Genoa, a large city but not close to the major centers of underground music in Italy at the time such as Torino, Florence and Rome. The band was the brainchild of a young medical student by the name of Pierpaolo Rizzo. The sound was a combination of Syd Barrett fronting Pink Floyd, the Electric Prunes and the Church all at the same time.
In other words, catchy songs with tremolo-laden fuzz guitars and trippy vocals.

Eerie Thoughts Collection Pt 3 was their first album released in 1990, which makes up the first 16 tracks of this CD. Their first demo tape, released in 1989, a year before their first LP, was known as Real Life Permanent Dream and included songs originally recorded by some of their idols such as the Creation, the Byrds, Chocolate Watchband and Robyn Hitchcock. 


They make up tracks 17-26, and are a great mix of originals and cover tunes by the above mentioned bands. The final four tracks are taken from their 1992 Delerium Records cassette album Or So It Seems, and their unreleased 1993 LP The Ocean Inside


Backwards

lunes, 4 de abril de 2016

Liars - Mindscrewer 1988 [Italy garage psychedelic]


'Mindscrewer' Lp recorded at Magic Frog Studio (Brescia) from 18 th April to 4 th May 1988. Released by Tramite, a small indie-label from Brescia run by Jean Luc Stote and Guido Biagi, the album contains a handful of inspired and brilliant songs. It's a record of acid and visionary psychedelia, full of dreamy and sometimes dynamic sonic solutions with the three musicians taking turns at the microphone, thus enriching its musical spectrum.

The whole Sixties universe is explored in this incredible journey of a thousand colors: from the light and shade of Tulips Of Harlem to the imaginative energy that flows in She's Crumblin'Down; from the garage-psychedelic mixture of Dumb Generation to the rock'n'roll driving of You Shock My Heart through the kaleidoscope of lysergic numbers such as It Gets Wasted and Fire Illusion . 


In between there are three great covers: Nazz's Wildwood Blooze, Kim Fowley's Bubblegum , and the Frantics' Her And Her Mountain.


Liars

viernes, 1 de abril de 2016

NO STRANGE - Cristalli Sognanti [ITA psychedelic 2011]


No Strange is an Italian rock group influenced by psychedelic music that combined elements of rock and cosmic music. It was formed in Turin in 1980 by Salvatore Ursus D'Urso and Alberto Ezzu.
At the beginning they play a kind of comedy Punk and they are called NoStrani, but soon they turn to a psych sound and release a demo called 'Rainbow' in 1983 and another one in 1984 called 'Lisergic tomahawk' attached to the Roller Coaster 's fanzine.


At this point the band start their collaboration with Giulio Tedeschi, boss of the Toast Records.
In 1985 No Strange release with his label, their great debut album simply called 'No Strange' (known as 'Trasparenze e Suoni' as well). Their sound is something absolutely original and they take part in the Neo psychedelic Italian scene whose interest was in the sound but also in the air-cut and clothes of British and American bands of 60s and 70s. No Strange benchmarks included the first Pink Floyd, Brainticket, Soft Machine and Third Ear Band but mainly the early works of Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel and Popol Vuh, with whom they shared a common musical and spiritual quest.


One year later they release a single "White bird"/"Fiori risplendenti" and then in 1987 they record their second album 'L'Universo' and in the meantime they give a song for the historical compilation 'Eighties Colours' made by Electric Eye Records and are involved in a double Lp compilation called 'Oracolo' recording an entire live side!
Away from any kind of 'revival' they prefer to create a new original sound even inspired from the late 60s and the early 70s. This will be confirmed again from their third album 'Flora di romi' released in 1991.
No Strange start to work on this album from 1988 with a different line up made from Laura Tommasi (winds), Paolo Avataneo (bass guitar), Sandro Becchis (guitar), Pino Molinari (keyboards), Lucio Molinari (percussions) and Ursus (vocals). Artistic production and arranging will be made by Alberto Ezzu.

In 1992 the band has a long break, except for a mini album released in 1998 called 'Medusa' and played from Ursus,Tony D'Urso (Ursus brother's) and Fabio Maffia at the keyboards... Until 2008, when Ursus and Alberto Ezzu decide to reform No Strange along with Pino Molinari, Lucio Molinari, Tony D'Urso and Paolo Avataneo. That's a mix of the many line ups the band got in the 80s. Later Rosalba Guastella join them as choralist.
And finally, nowadays, they record this a fresh and dreamy sound, moody original new album!



No Strange