Posted in Whathaveyou on January 31st, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Anybody remember November? Yeah, me neither. It’s the end of January, the start of February this week, so November might as well have been 1922 it was so long ago. That said, there was something distinctly familiar about the list of tour dates from L’Ira del Baccano as the Italian Subsound Records denizens set forth to promote their ’23 LP, Cosmic Evoked Potentials (review here), and indeed, some of them were announced last Fall. I didn’t figure anybody would be yelling at me for getting them up again — some of the TBD dates have filled in, which is nice to see — and perhaps snag an ear or two who missed the album when that came through because, well, it might make your day better. Ain’t no mystery to what we’re doing here these days.
Maybe they’ll announce a summer tour next week and I can post that and then do it again in June, just keep a thread going. Would you notice? Of course not.
Dates from social media:
L’IRA DEL BACCANO official artworks for our Tour created by Michele Carnielli a.k.a. @visione444 . See you on the road!!
(SEARCHING 4TH BETWEEN WÜRZBURG & WEIMAR,HELP US!!)
L’IRA DEL BACCANO Feb/March Tour 2024 17-02 Rome Defrag 27-02 Verona Fine Di Mondo 28-02 Bolzano @pippostage 29-02 Altotting Plattenzimmer e.V. 01-03 Nuremberg Kunstverein Hintere-Cramergasse e.V. with @j.ø.t.u. 02.03 Schmalkalden Kulturverein Villa K with GODDYS 03-03 Würzburg Immerhin Würzburg 04-03 NEED..BOOK US!! 05-03 Weimar C.Keller & Galerie Markt 21 e. V. 06-03 Dresden Chemiefabrik Dresden (Chemo) with Methadone Skies 07-03 Prague @klubmodravopice Těžká psychedelika 08-03 Bayreuth Glashaus Bayreuth 09-03 Heidelberg Yolo Hof 10-03 Salzburg Rockhouse Bar with Humulus
L’IRA DEL BACCANO “COSMIC EVOKED POTENTIALS” order:
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 9th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Supporting their 2023 album, Cosmic Evoked Potentials (review here), on Subsound Records, Italian heavy psychedelic rockers L’Ira del Baccano will head out on a round of European touring starting at the end of February. There are dates to be filled in — I also don’t have venue info, so I guess there’s that as well — here and there as the band courses mostly through Germany, with some shows in Italy and a date in Prague for good measure. They’re hoping to tag a couple more shows onto the end as well, and I’d assume there’s some flex there geographically, since they can head in whatever direction might make sense and then just turn back home after. If all comes together as planned, it’ll be a solid two weeks of shows without a day off. Not insignificant.
The following was posted on socials. If you can help out, do. If you missed the record, you’re never too late no matter what internet fomo tells you. Good music is never irrelevant, especially not for having been out for several months already.
Dig:
Doomdelic Instrumental Space Prog Rockers @L’IRA DEL BACCANO will be on tour in Germany next March promoting the last album Cosmic Evoked Potential. Few slots are still to be filled. Any suggestion is much appreciated!! (better contacts/names of promoter/booker of course ). Below list of dates, Links. DM the band or Alessandro Drughito Santori for info. Free dates : MARCH 3rd -4th ( 2nd we will be in Schmalkalden and 5th in Weimar)- MARCH 10th & 11th South Germany/Switzerland
L’IRA DEL BACCANO Feb/March Tour 2024
17-02 Rome 27-02 Verona 28-02 Bolzano 29-02 Altotting 01-03 Nuremberg 02.03 Schmalkalden 03-03 NEED..BOOK US!! 04-03 NEED..BOOK US!! 05-03 Weimar 06-03 Dresden 07-03 Prague 08-03 TBA 09-03 Heidelberg 10-03 NEED..BOOK US!! ( South Germany, Switzerland, South France) 11-03 NEED..BOOK US!! ( South Germany, Switzerland, South France
L’IRA DEL BACCANO “COSMIC EVOKED POTENTIALS” order:
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
This week marks both the album release and the launch of the tour to support it for L’Ira del Baccano‘s new LP, Cosmic Evoked Potentials (review here). No, it’s not the longest string of tour dates you’ll ever see, but that’s the point; it’s a band getting out and doing what they can to spread the word about their new record. Pretty much the ideal of underground heavy in all its forms. The Italian instrumentalists will be out for nine shows in their home country and of course Germany, and whether it’s the only run they do or the beginning of a series of such sojourns, considering the work they’ve done on the album, I think it’s a good time to show up at a gig if you happen to be in their path or adjacent to it.
That’s pretty much the story here. The record is coming out through Subsound, and most of what I have to say about it is in the review linked above — these tour dates were also posted there, but I’m a big believer in supporting independent tours for cool albums — but if this nudge gets a few more ears on it or maybe a body out to a show, that’s enough of an excuse to me to repeat myself. This is the internet. Not like there isn’t room.
The video that was previously premiered for album opener “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” is below. By all means, dive in:
L’IRA DEL BACCANO COSMIC MARCH TOUR 2023 starts this week!
Posted in Radio on February 17th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I was sitting on the couch earlier this week, in the usual spot, putting this playlist together and, knowing that I wanted to start with the title-track of the new Mansion album — something about Alma crooning that second death is upon you felt just right — I was immediately stuck. How on earth do you follow that? I was glad that I remembered Samán and could use them to transition to a kind of riffier take, but yeah, in terms of vibe, the severity of that Mansion record is a tough one to answer immediately with something else. Where do you go from there beyond an actual dungeon?
This show kind of divides in half. The first hour is new music. The second hour is a look at some Polish heavy, which if you’ve been paying attention to the last few Friday Full-Lengths (including today’s, which isn’t posted yet), you know has been on my mind. Dopelord, Major Kong, Belzebong, Sunnata and Weedpecker represent Poland well, I thought — Spaceslug are the obvious name left out, but I’m keeping them in reserve for later — and after that I wanted to close with SubRosa just because “Black Majesty” is long, brilliant, not a jam, and something that was in my head. It’s been an up and down couple of weeks, I guess, as regards general well-being.
If you’re unfamiliar, keep an ear out for Moodoom early, plus the tracks from The Machine, Swan Valley Heights, Stoned Jesus and Troll Teeth. The 1782 track isn’t my favorite off their new record — anything about lady-demons is kind of a turnoff for me at this point — but the band is cool and that’s the single from the album, so I wasn’t about to be a jerk and pick something else. And if you didn’t hear the L’Ira del Baccano earlier this week when it premiered, that’s time well spent in instrumental immersion, and makes a great leadoff for that extended block of tunes, I think.
As always, I hope you enjoy the show if you listen. Thanks for reading.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 02.17.23 (VT = voice track)
Mansion
Second Death
Second Death
Samán
A las puertas
II. Montaña Roja
1782
Succubus
Clamor Luciferi
Moodoom
Las maravillas de estar loco
Desde el Bosque
VT
L’Ira del Baccano
The Strange Dream of My Old Sun
Cosmic Evoked Potentials
The Machine
Reversion
Wave Cannon
Swan Valley Heights
The Hunger
Terminal Forest
Stoned Jesus
Get What You Deserve
Father Light
Troll Teeth
Garden of Pillars
Underground Vol. 1
Dopelord
Doom Bastards
Sign of the Devil (2020)
Major Kong
Fading Memory of the Planet Earth
Off the Scale (2020)
Belzebong
Roached Earth
Light the Dankness (2018)
Sunnata
A Million Lives
Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth (2021)
Weedpecker
Big Brain Monsters
IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts (2021)
VT
SubRosa
Black Majesty
For This We Fought the Battle of Ages (2016)
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is March 3 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Italian instrumentalist heavy progressive rockers L’Ira del Baccano will release their new album, Cosmic Evoked Potentials, on March 3, through Subsound Records. Recorded live in 2021, the band count it as their fourth full-length behind 2017’s Paradox Hourglass (review here), 2014’s Terra 42 (review here) and 2013’s Si Non Sedes iS: Live MMVII (reissue review here), though the latter was a live album taken from the first show they played under the L’Ira del Baccano name; they’d previously been known as Loosin’ o’ Frequencies and before that as Dark Awake, the collaboration between guitarist Alessandro Drughito Santori and guitarist/synthesist Roberto Malerba going back to the mid-’90s doom scene in Rome. Completed by bassist Ivan Contini Bacchisio and drummer Gianluca Giannasso, the Roman four-piece reemerge post-pandemic with a 40-minute collection of thoughtfully executed tracks.
They put their two longest pieces, opener “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” (10:44) (video premiering below) and “Genziana (Improvisation 42)” (13:21) on side A while “The Electric Resolution” (6:37), “Cosmic Evoked Potentials” (6:38) and “Eclipse Omega…Old Sun Reprise” (2:50) highlight a more drifting psychedelic approach on side B, not without movement, but balancing its heft against a meditative patience and synth-laced far-out-ism, the title-track rooting its way into a nebular cloud of synth and drum atmospherics that feels broader in reach than the band were even just a few years ago. The general mission of L’Ira del Baccano hasn’t changed, in terms of bringing Santori‘s songs to life in a full, vibrant and engrossing fashion with marked chemistry all the more apparent for their commitment to live recording (which has obviously been there since the start), but as one might expect, they’ve grown firmer in their purposes, more mature, and more solidified even as they explore new avenues of their sound — and not at all just in the two longer tracks at the outset, though “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” and “Genziana (Improvisation 42)” do make for a particularly dive-right-in beginning on the longer first side of the platter.
Strangers neither to fluidity nor heft, L’Ira del Baccano launch Cosmic Evoked Potentials in immediate communion with the titular space. An introductory drone leads to a stretch of methodically building soft guitar before the drums enter, synth or guitar drone coinciding as the bass and the drums lock in the central groove. Over the next few minutes, they solidify around a procession that brings to mind My Sleeping Karma before seeming to find another level of heavy shortly before the five-minute mark. Tied together in some ways by its synth, “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” flows in its transitions and is hypnotic as it plays back and forth, one element rising in the dynamic mix before receding back, be it heavier guitar, the keyboard or some looped effects either from Santori or Malerba. A second (or third, depending on where you hear the divisions) movement to the track begins at around seven minutes, shifting into slower roll, with weightier low end and a distinct sense of punctuation in the snare as the guitars strum harder and the synth moves toward its eventual freakout apex, residual after the crash of the other instruments as a lead-in for “Genziana (Improvisation 42),” the 13 minutes of which were reportedly carved out of a 45-minute jam.
It’s hard to imagine that full session won’t see release at some point in this age of infinite capacity to throw something out there to stream for interested fans, but there’s something to be said as well for the manner in which L’Ira del Baccano construct “Genziana (Improvisation 42)” — one also wonders if they actually keep count, and if so, if they have a hard drive somewhere containing this and the 41 other improv jams leading up to it — working off the spontaneous foundation and overdubbing synth and effects in ways that build out the ambient impression of what becomes a complete idea of a song, growing to some of Cosmic Evoked Potentials‘ heaviest moments rather than simply meandering through space, finding a progressive chug in its second half around which the band seem rally and collectively push forward, and while I know editing is a part of the art here, the musical conversation between players is nonetheless what makes “Genziana (Improvisation 42)” such a highlight, the way the turns are anticipated and fleshed out and all the more cohesive for the keyboard so crucial to its makeup.
“The Electric Resolution” finds itself more quickly directed into a winding but still riffy movement, some fuzz to the tone but a kind of distortion that would work as well for metal as it does for the ultimately still-languid purposes L’Ira del Baccano put it to as the backing for the midpoint lead on their side B leadoff. That solo legitimately soars, and the rhythm that reemerges after seems to carry all the more punch for its having been there, the two guitars finding a harmonized moment before splitting off for dual-channel solos and a stop that brings the keyboard to the forefront ahead of a complex but welcoming ending and direct turn into “Cosmic Evoked Potentials” itself, which is a mellower counterpoint to “The Electric Resolution.” The two feel purposefully paired even before one notes the similarity in runtime, and though the title-track gets plenty heavy and even works in a bit of shove to its ending, the abiding spirit is more subdued, not as hard-edged as the song prior, which is a turn well made in leading to “Eclipse Omega” and its synth/drone communion with “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” back at the start.
If the idea with “Eclipse Omega” was to underscore the journey that’s been unfolding as L’Ira del Baccano convey the ways in which creativity seems ether-born — the potentials evoked from the cosmos, they might say — and to look back and see the place they started as a small dot like the distant Earth as viewed from Saturn’s rocky, icy rings, then fair enough. What that doesn’t necessarily tell you is how well Cosmic Evoked Potentials functions as a distinct entirety in tone and performance. The molten vibes throughout and the manner in which the band create space and then work to fill them are a fitting manifestation of their style and evolution as a group (Giannasso, making his first appearance, fits right in and plays a large role in setting the mood), and they’ve yet to find the end point, it seems, as “Eclipse Omega” calls out to the void in the resonant long fade that caps the album. Considering these recordings are two years old — something not all that uncommon in the era of global wakeup — it’s entirely possible L’Ira del Baccano have already moved forward from where these songs find them, but the accomplishments here in atmosphere and expression aren’t to be ignored. It is a work to be engaged with which it is a pleasure to engage.
The video for “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” premieres below, followed by more info on the record from the PR wire, including some words from Santori on the subject.
Please enjoy:
L’Ira del Baccano, “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” video premiere
Alessandro Santori on “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun”:
“The Strange Dream.. ” is a roller coaster, a trip about our expectations, on what and where the highs and lows of our lives will bring us.
L’IRA DEL BACCANO “COSMIC EVOKED POTENTIALS” pre order :
Doomdelic Instrumental Space Prog Rockers L’IRA DEL BACCANO are back with their official 4th album on Subsound Records ‘‘COSMIC EVOKED POTENTIALS’’. The album release will be preceded by a video for the single ‘‘The Strange Dream of My Old Sun’’.
Producer and guitarist Alessandro Santori says about the album: Cosmic Evoked Potentials is a rite of passage, the end of a circle and already blooming of another. Surely our most instinctive effort so far. We went back to our roots of live recording, this time instead of a stage we chose an old mansion from late ‘1700 outside Rome. The atmosphere there was so charming and stimulating that 13 minutes of a 45 min long improvisation ended up in the album. We wanted the dynamics and moods of the parts to be the most important thing, taking more time than our usual developing the “story” of the songs.
L’Ira Del Baccano will start promoting “Cosmic Evoked Potentials” live in March 2023: COSMIC MARCH TOUR 2023 03-03 MANTOVA IT – Arci Tom 04-03 ROSENHEIM DE – Asta Rosenheim 05-03 WURZBURG DE – Immerhin 06-03 NUREMBERG DE – Kunstverein Hintere 07-03 WEIMAR DE – C. Keller 08-03 HILDBURGHAUSEN DE – Molle 09-03 MANNHEIM DE – Altes Volksbad 10-03 ULM DE – Hexenhaus Ulm 11-03 KAUFBEUREN DE- Roundhouse 12-03 TBA
Tracklisting: 1. The Strange Dream of my Old Sun 10:44 2. Genziana (Improvisation 42)* 13:21 3. The Electric Resolution 06:36 4. Cosmic Evoked Potentials 06:37 5. Eclipse Omega…Old Sun Reprise 02:50
(* Genziana is an improvisation extract from a 45 minutes live session with post overdubs)
L’Ira del Baccano: Alessandro Drughito Santori: Guitars, Loops , Production Roberto Malerba: Lead Guitar, Guitar FX, Synth, Loops Gianluca Giannasso: Drums Ivan Contini: Bass
Posted in audiObelisk on November 9th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
You know how it is. A lot of bands make a show of recording live in the studio in an attempt to capture their natural sound or give their listeners some glimpse of what they sound like on stage. Nothing against it. In making their first full-length, L’Ira del Baccano went one further and just actually made a live album. Si Non Sedes Is: Live MMVII celebrates its 11th anniversary in 2018 with a reissue/remaster via Subsound Records that’s pressed to CD and gatefold 2LP to make it physically available for the first time. And indeed, it’s the Roma-based instrumentalist outfit, as they were 11 years ago, showing off progressive heavy rock textures in a stage setting. I don’t know what methods were used to capture it, how many mics, etc., but especially without vocals, there isn’t much ‘tell’ to give it away as live on stage as opposed to live in the studio — which isn’t to take away from the energy of the four-piece’s delivery, just to note the overarching clarity of the recording — and if it were a bootleg you were finding in a bin at some record show, it would have a little round sticker on the front cover (which would probably be a huge pain in the ass to peel off) grading the sound as A+. And so it is.
Then comprised of guitarists Alessandro “Drughito” Santori (also engineering) and Roberto “Malerba” (also synth, lead, noise), bassist/synthesist Massimo “Miss” Siravo and Alessandro “Fred” Salvi on drums, L’Ira del Baccano impress quickly on the nine-minute opener “Doomdance,” which unfurls with a patience and instrumental chemistry that undercuts the idea of just how new they were at the time. The subsequent “Sussuri di Nascita Celeste/Grateful to Jerry” dips into metal-tone riffing and proggy synth work at the same time, creating an interesting dynamic that will continue to be a theme. Their turns are sharp, their stops precise, and their material fluid. They roll through the early going of “875” and into an effects-topped jam in its midsection smoothly, and move into more straightforward riff-led fare on “Don Bastiano” before rounding out the original album with the 18-minute “Tempus Inane Flago Requiem Spatiumque Furori,” which bookends a sprawling cosmic exploration with crunchier riffing and caps Si Non Sedes Is — caps the set, really — with an apex that stands up to both its own breadth and that of the entire outing before it.
Two bonus tracks follow, one of which builds on “Sussuri di Nascita Celeste/Grateful to Jerry” for another live jam, and one of which is a remix of “Doomdance,” and with those, that pushes the reissue to a comprehensive seven tracks/71 minutes. That’s well into the kind of runtime I’d generally consider unmanageable, and indeed, it’s a good chunk of time, but after 11 years and this being the first physical pressing one can hardly hold wanting to make the most of it against the L’Ira del Baccano, whose work proves immersive and full in its spaces and tones and able to conjure a variety of moods and vibes in a sans-pretense vision of heavy that runs between prog metal, heavy rock and psych without giving itself over entirely to any of them. I’ll admit, I was kind of hoping “Doomdance (Apocalypse ’80 Mix)” would be new wave, and it’s not, but a synthy redux all the same makes it easy enough to get over that.
There must have been a moment at which the members of L’Ira del Baccano were talking about recording their debut album and they made the decision to put out Si Non Sedes Is: Live MVII instead. Obviously they knew they’d recorded the show, but I have no idea if they knew it would be their album at the time or if that decision was made after. That’s a brave choice for a new band to make, essentially putting the rawest form of their work out as their opening statement. Some bands never do a live record because they’d rather not let their audience experience their live sound outside the context of an actual show. L’Ira del Baccano make the right call at that point and have continued to build stylistically on the parameters these songs put forth. In other words, it’s worth digging into the record, both on its own and in context of what the band have gone on to do with their sound. Fortunate then that it’s streaming in full below.
L’Ira del Baccano‘s Si Non Sedes Is: Live MVII is officially released on Nov. 16 through Subsound Records. You’ll find it on the player here, and Santori offers some comment after about the record and this release in particular.
Please enjoy:
Alessandro “Drughito” Santori on Si Non Sedes Is: Live MMVII:
I am very glad to see finally a proper release for the recording that signed for us a new “birth” as band back in 2007. Si non Sedes iS was recorded during the first two concerts in three years for LOOSIN’ o ‘ FREQUENCIES, a name we had since 1996, and those were also the very first “officially instrumental” gigs for us. We actually decided to change the name of the band to L’IRA DEL BACCANO only after the mix was ready and some friends suggested to open a page on MySpace. We are still very proud of these recordings and we definitely have to say thank you to some people we “met” on the web back in those days, people who showed interest for our vision and musical path; all things that gave us the confidence to proceed on our journey as musicians.
L’IRA DEL BACCANO & SUBSOUND RECORDS presents the FIRST TIME EVER official release in Double Gatefold Vinyl and DIgipak of the band instrumental first album from 2007 ” SI NON SEDES IS…LIVE MMVII(originally and until today only available in digital download)
After the last two critically acclaimed studio albums : “TERRA 42 (2014)” & ” PARADOX HOURGLASS (2017)” The Doomdelic Instrumental Space Rockers L’IRA DEL BACCANO decided that was time for their very first instrumental effort to have a physical release after 11 years. All these 2018 versions had Spectral & Balance correction by Pisi Mastering Studio.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 2nd, 2018 by JJ Koczan
For those disinclined toward Roman numerals, MMVII is 2007. For those disinclined toward Latin, the title Si Non Sedes Is is something about ‘if you’re not sitting’ or something like that. Put the two together and you get Si Non Sedes Is: Live MMVII, the until-now digital-only debut from Rome-based heavy rockers L’Ira del Baccano, which is set for release as a CD and 2LP this November through Subsound Records. The trip back to their origins follows the four-piece’s 2017 album, Paradox Hourglass (review here), which came out on the same label, and can be streamed in its instrumentalist entirety at the bottom of this post. There are bonus tracks with the LP editions however, including an “’80s mix” of the song “Doomdance Apocalypse,” the delightful weirdness of which previously featured on a 2010 split with the awesomely-named Watermelon Time.
L’Ira del Baccano have some live dates booked in order to promote the reissue. All info was posted as follows:
L’IRA DEL BACCANO & Subsound Records are proud to announce the first time release of the band instrumental first album from 2007:” SI NON SEDES IS…LIVE MMVII” (until today only available in digital download)
*****PRE SALES STARTS : OCTOBER 5th ***** *****OFFICIAL RELEASE : NOVEMBER 16th *****
-Available in : DIGIPAK / DOUBLE GATEFOLD “Black” / DOUBLE GATEFOLD “Special” coloured VINYL / DIGITAL ( Both Vinyl versions will have 2 Bonus Tracks for a total of +16:38 minutes!!!)
-The album was recorded live in concert when the band’s name was still LOOSIN’o’FREQUENCIES (formed in 1996,with a mcd produced by the Guru of Doom Paul Chain) and marked the official change of the band in “instrumental”. The Italians then decided to change name after the mix was ready and right before opening their “MySpace” page. During 2008 the album started to circulate in the underground with enthusiastic reviews.
-Tracklist ( tracks 6 & 7 are VINYL ONLY Bonus ): 01 Doomdance -09:21 02 Sussurri Di Nascita Celeste/Grateful to Jerry -8:29 03 875 -10:51 04 Don Bastiano -7:42 05 Tempus Inane Flago Requiem Spatiumque Furori -18:32 06 Live Jam on “Sussurri Theme* 7.55 (INEDIT VINYL ONLY bonus track) -7:55 07 Doomdance Apocalypse ’80 mix (VINYL ONLY bonus track;from ” Split 2010 ” digital ep) -8:43
Artwork by Fabio Listranii Produced & Mixed by Alessandro Drughito Santori
SI NON SEDES…TOUR 2018 : -07 Nov IT TBA -08 Nov WÜRZBURG – IMMERHIN -09 Nov MAGDEBURG – TONNE27 -10 Nov BERLIN – ZUKUNFTt AM OSTKREUZ ( w/ Samsara Blues Experiment) -11 Nov OSNABRUCK – DIRTY+DANCING -12 Nov HAMBURG – HAFENKLANG (w/ Samsara Blues Experiment) -13 Nov WEIMAR – C-KELLER -14 Nov NUREMBERG – Z-BAU -15 Nov STRASBOURG – L’ELASTIC BAR (w/ Bull Terrier) -16 Nov FREIBURG – WHITE RABBIT -17 Nov SALZBURG – ROCKHOUSE
[Click play above to stream L’Ira del Baccano’s Paradox Hourglass in its entirety. Album is out now on Subsound Records.]
Roman heavy instrumentalists L’Ira del Baccano made their studio debut in 2014 with Terra 42 (review here), as a follow-up to their summer-2013 live offering Si Non Sedes iS …LIVE (which the band count as their debut). It’s important to keep in mind as one makes their way through their second studio long-player, Paradox Hourglass, that the band’s roots are in playing live, and that when it came to what they wanted to put out into the world first, it was a live album rather than something more polished. Issued through Subsound Records, Paradox Hourglass is that something more polished, but it still maintains its core of live performance beneath its progressive overtones, and across its evenly-split two sides, four tracks and 39 minutes, guitarist Alessandro “Drughito” Santori, guitarist/synthesist Roberto Malerba, bassist Ivan Contini Bacchisio and drummer Sandro “Fred” Salvi don’t sacrifice one sensibility in emphasis of the other.
While Paradox Hourglass brings forward a proggier mindset than did Terra 42 — something the band credits in part to a Rush influence and I’m not inclined to argue — it keeps its tonal edge and strips away nearly 20 full minutes of runtime, so that the material is not only vinyl-ready, but all the more efficient in making its stylistic point known without lingering. That in itself isn’t to be understated as a recognized step forward for the band, as it shows an editorial mindset developing alongside these progressive tendencies, which is something all the more crucial for a group whose sound is only growing richer.
As to the origins of the title, it’s obviously harder to say without any lyrics to work from, but it’s another evocative element from L’Ira del Baccano, which seems to find its core in the partnership between Santori and Malerba. The two weave layers of riffs and synth and effects fluidly around each other throughout Paradox Hourglass, and while ultimately there isn’t much about the record that one might consider a paradox — that is to say, they’re not making it hard to figure out where they’re coming from or purposefully melding together disparate sonic elements — the new stage their approach has reached is plain to hear from the start of 11-minute opener. And, if we’re looking for clues as to where Santori, Malerba, Bacchisio and Salvi are coming from this time around, it is telling that the first piece of the two-parter title-track is subtitled “L’Ira del Baccano,” eponymous to the band itself.
Across its span and that of the complementary eight-minute “Paradox Hourglass – Part 2: No Razor for Occam,” the band touch on psychedelic melody without losing their real-world footing tonally or their underlying crunch of riff. Salvi‘s drums hold together the proceedings as they no doubt did the jams that birthed them, but whether it’s the departure-to-drift in the second half of “Paradox Hourglass – Part 1: L’Ira del Baccano” or the guitar scale-work fleshed out by layers of keys and effects swirl in the follow-up, a sense of control remains prevalent in their approach. The digital version of Paradox Hourglass presents a 19:42 bonus track that brings these two pieces together as one entirety, and while there’s still an audible break between one part and the next, hearing them in that form only highlights the nuance developing in L’Ira del Baccano‘s sound and the manner in which the band is drawing from multiple sides as they stomp and roll their way through movements tied to each other through rhythmic flow and conceptual consistency.
Side B brings a like-minded pair of tracks, also 11 and eight minutes, respectively, that push the aesthetic somewhat further out. “Abilene” leads off with a bit more patience than “Paradox Hourglass” and more of a psychedelic flourish to its beginnings, and unfolds to a blend of desert-style riffing and the progressive course-setting that the first half of the record had as its foundation — the notion that L’Ira del Baccano know where they’re headed even if they’re keeping it a surprise from their audience. They settle into a mid-paced chug at about two minutes into “Abilene” but have more spaciousness to offer from there, and the theremin-infused (or theremin-sounding, anyhow) reaches in which they wind up are perhaps the most satisfying stretch Paradox Hourglass has to offer in terms of immersing the listener in a hypnotic flow, pushing gradually toward an apex that brings together both sides — the breadth and the crunch — on the way to a clean, purposeful finish.
At 8:06, “The Blind Phoenix Rises” ends out with no less clarity of intent than its predecessor, synth and guitar once more working together to cast an impression both psychedelic and progressive. At about 4:45, there’s a turn toward straightforward riffing, and it seems like L’Ira del Baccano made a conscious decision at that point to let loose a little bit in the studio. No complaints. The uptick in tempo from the first half of the track is welcome and though to close out they fall back into the “chorus,” such as it is, the moment of airing out a more rocking impulse is welcome as an answer to the riff that started “Paradox Hourglass – Part 1: L’Ira del Baccano” and makes as fitting an end as one could ask.
They stretch a couple seconds of silence to get over the eight-minute mark, but with the clear drive toward symmetry, one is inclined to give that ground in service to the presentation of the album as a whole. With Paradox Hourglass, L’Ira del Baccano are less marking their arrival than they are establishing the path they want to take as a group, but the prevailing vibe toward direction is something of a landmark for them nonetheless, even if that landmark is in the shape of an arrow pointing toward the next one. I still won’t venture a guess as to what the overarching paradox here is, though, because from where I sit, it sure seems like L’Ira del Baccano have it all figured out as to who they want to be and what they want to accomplish as a band.
