ZED & I BOLIDI LENTI

Zed & I Bolidi Lenti came to life in Naples in 2011, in love with hard rock, progressive and vintage sounds from the seventies. After a long time spent composing their original stuff, some personnel changes and some concerts on the local scene, in 2022 they self-released an interesting eponymous album with a line up featuring Benny Casola (keyboards, backing vocals), Nino Cecchini (guitar, backing vocals), Sergio Misticone (lead vocals), Eugenio Pastore (drums, percussion) and Sergio Schettino (bass, backing vocals). The sound quality might not be perfect, the songwriting might not shine for its originality and the vocals undoubtedly are a far cry from bel canto but, in my opinion, the band managed to convey to the listener all their passion and pleasure to play...

The opener "Filo invisibile" (Invisible thread) paints with deep purple brushstrokes an irrepressible desire to escape from a hypocritical, oppressive society where voracity, greediness and cowardice rule. For the protagonist a road is enough, he looks just for an ordinary place where nothing changes, not even time, and where life flows through your soul, a place where to be free with the people you love...

"A cavallo di un mondo perduto" (Living astride a lost world) is a caustic reflection about Man destiny. Man has chosen his path without humility between clouds of smoke, asphalt, stones, tears, war and thirst. He has lost his future and his stability but keeps on repeating again and again the same mistakes without looking back. He persists in scanning the horizon with his short-sighted gaze, when the abyss is there wide open under his feet. He longs for something that he doesn't even know and he's loosing his freedom to live astride a lost world...

Next two tracks deal with environmental issues. "Non sono Dio" (I'm not God) every now and again could recall The Doors and is an ironic piece where the music and words draw bitter reflections about a betrayed, suffering world. If Man fails to change his behaviour he would have better start praying before getting lost in a sea of resigned indifference...

Then "Fukushima" conjures up the image of a glacial dawn lighted by the rays of a dying sun where everything changes in the darkness. The protagonist here realizes that he lives among the ruins of a world that has gone in the wrong direction in search for nuclear sources ending up in the hands of hitmen without dignity...

"Kathmandu" is a soft, dreamy piece that brings back the memories of a journey in Nepal. The traveller remembers what he experienced as he crossed villages and ageless woods where even silence becomes sound and where you can try to look into yourself through a broken mirror before picking up your luggage and start walking again...

The closer "No More White Horse (Non basta il sole)" (No More White Horse - Sun isn't enough) is a touching piece dedicated to an albino African girl who only chance saved from horrible witchcraft rites. The music and lyrics evoke here a world that gets drowned into illusion and where there's not enough light for changing. A cry rises, a desperate call for help in a kind of nightmare where reality and hell unite...

On the whole, a work that deserves a try.