This compilation features 20 different Italian bands of a more obscure, noisy indie vein, combining the more obscure and off the wall elements of the west coast vibe with the Amphetamine Reptile sort of stuff, but without a lot of distortion. So there's a lot of wackiness and a focus on rhythm, meaning that many of the bands have a math rock flare, as well as great rhythm sections, but the guitar parts and often irritating vocals really don't do much for me at all. Twig Infection brings in some electronic noises that really drive me nuts, Daemien Frost's "Duck Gait Parade" is looser and noisier than most of the other songs (I find it pretty terrible), etc. On the other hand, Spriggan uses some more rhythmic vocal patterns and a slightly heavier guitar tone that catches my ear; Lillayell balances their annoying vocals with some excellent uses of strange melody; Querelle's "Wind Me Up" is a little more melodic and straightforward, with probably the cleanest vocals herein, making it my personal favorite track; Ceke has some wild slap bass playing and what I feel is a more technical sense of rhythm, and so on. For the most part I enjoy the rhythm sections and arrangements of these bands, I'm just not into their vocalists and their guitar parts irritate me too often. I don't know, maybe I'm just not in the right mood for it, but I just find myself really digging the bass and drum parts in these songs and trying to focus on those by tuning out everything else. To my surprise all of these bands sound not only stylistically consistent, but the recording quality is very level across the board as well. Each band has a very warm and natural sound that's understandably on a bit of the rugged side. The bass always plays a large role, the mixes tend to be pretty even, nothing gets too dirty or raw, etc. I'm pleasantly surprised by that aspect of the CD. The disc comes in a thick, glossy digipack with photographs of an old car and some text, but it's not very vibrant and some of the text looks sort of messy, so I definitely feel that the presentation could've been far stronger. Part of me knows that my lacking feelings towards this collection are a matter of personal taste, so I have to say that if you're into this kind of stuff, especially when it leans towards being a bit less melodic and more unconventional, you should probably look into this label, but me... I only like a few of these songs.
[Psychotica]
Running time - 70:00, Tracks: 20
[Notable tracks: Spriggan, Lillayell, Querelle, Ceke]
Psychotica Records - http://www.psychoticarecords.com
