PANNA, POLVERE E VERTIGINE

The second album from this Italian band.

Their first album is an acquired taste and the same can be said about this, their second album. It is like being locked up in a mental hospital by accident and having to endure the regime there, knowing that you are perfectly sane. For the record, that is how I imagine this feels. This band's music is in short manic insane.

The music is based on punk, with a lot of folk rock and children rhymes mixed in together with some jazz and heavy guitars as in avant-garde prog. That and RPI. The vocals are in Italian. I guess this music is best suited as live music, performed in theatres and variety shows. On an album, this music falls flat on it's face. Besides of a couple of good songs, most music here is noisy and bereft of quality. Those of you into avant-garde may check this out. I am into avant-garde myself, but finds little of value here. The vocals is too noisy and too much up in my face. This is a decent album, but nothing more.

2 stars

This is one difficult album to listen to. I have to be in the right mood for it, and even then it usually starts to grate on my nerves.

Il Maniscalco Maldestro plays a peculiar blend of punk, avant-garde and prog. All of it is in an over the top and in your face style. Aside from the obvious punk guitar riffs, the primary impression I get is that the music falls somewhere between later Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart compositions. The guitars have that jerky angular style that both of the above mentioned artists did much better.

The vocals are mostly shouted, and sometimes screamed, which is what I find most unappealing about the album. They say it's an acquired taste. But I'm not acquiring it.