BOLO

Dick Hudson is a group of longtime friends from Messina, and Bolo is their debut recording. They describe the concept as follows: "Every track is a soundtrack to a trip. The title track BOLO is a three-part suite were we follow a piece of bread in its fantastic journey through the human body." So they do have a sense of humor. Musically this is definitely heavy and dense math rock instrumental music. It rarely lets up from a frantic pace that pushes hard, exploring different nooks and crannies. The mood of the music is slightly to the darker side, aggressive, industrial, gritty, at times even Crimsonesque. One of their main goals when they began recording was to make a very live-sounding album, so they self-produced to have total sound control, and they recorded always in the same room with no headphones and very few overdubs. All of the attention to detail worked swimmingly because this is one ferociously live-sounding album. Bolo is impressive, and yet the music is something that I appreciate occasionally more than I enjoy frequently. Still, it's certainly one to check out if you enjoy heavy math rock or instrumental rock with plenty of gutpunch. Since this album, three more singles were released through their Bandcamp page in 2018 and 2019. Hopefully this points to a forthcoming second album as these singles sound even more diverse and gonzo than Bolo. Cool band!