Category: Italy

Lee Van Cleef – Holy Smoke (2016)

“Clearly influenced by bands like Earthless, Black Bombaim, and Electric Moon the three musician have clearly clicked in a serious way to have produced an album that is worthy of comparison to these three terrific bands. The music has that marvellous balance of tightness and improvisation that mark out bands who stand out in the stoner/ space rock bandlands; an area that can be littered with all sorts of debris that often means you cannot see the planets from the asteroids. Fee Lee Van Cleef, however, come through like a gas giant…heavy, fluid and impossible to overlook.”

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Insider – …Vibrations From The Tapes… (2012)

“The album features five fully improvised instrumental songs, which have been recorded live with two microphones on analog tape deck in the band’s rehearsel room. Hence it comes as no surprise that the song length varies mostly between 12 and almost 28 minutes. The tunes are dominated by extensive, excessive guitar jams, which will allow listeners to immerse themselves in psychedelic worlds. There is still the Hawkwind vibe, but INSIDER make also use of elements which we know from bands like Can or Guru Guru.”

E.X.P. – Tricocereus Peruvianis Sessions (2006)

“E.X.P. formed in 1997. The band received considerable critical acclaim on the heavy psych scene throughout Europe, USA and Latin America. The sound of the band is characterised by raw compositions, the typically r’n’r explosive potential of which is taken to an extreme before being blasted apart by heavy doses of electricity (fuzzzzz!) and analogical electronics (synthesisers, theremin, etc.). The sound wall produced by the incredible volume of the amplifiers and the impact of Luca Tanzini’s video work which pulsates behind the band during performances, make the concerts by E.X.P. a truly on the edge experience for all those who still believe that r’n’r is simply a question of stereotypes.”

Squadra Omega – Tenebroso (2008)

“Squadra Omega is an Italian psychedelic free-form jam band that knows how to bend your ears. It is The Grateful Dead, Sun Ra and Coltrane all rolled together in one night of all joy and dread abandoned. This is some of the best free improvisation you will find in avant jazz and rock. There’s a lot of 70s jam rock influence but they interact and mix their influences together totally 21st century.”

The Psycheground Group – Psycheground (1970)

“A sweet psychedelic set, but one with very mysterious origins — originally recorded as a sound library session, by a group that was really the better-known Nuova Idea! The album’s definitely got a vibe that fits its sound library roots — all instrumental, with a bit less bravado than most psyche albums of this type — almost more of a focus on the rhythms, which stretch out strongly amidst the Hammond and guitar solos on the set.”

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