ZIO CROCIFISSO
Campana Di Legno + Trappola Per Topi AMS
Oddball prog with Italian youth on its side.
There’s something thrilling about the sound of a young band making music like this. Named after a character in Italian realist author Giovanni Verga’s 1881 existential tragedy Malavoglia/The House By The Medlar-Tree, Italian avant-prog quartet Zio Crocifisso take a default position of unhinged exuberance on their debut album. This is a maze of intricate, knotty songs, plucked from the same delirious ether that produced Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, PoiL and Disco Volante-era Mr Bungle. It’s a joy from start to finish and Zio Crocifisso aren’t averse to embracing their romantic, melodic roots. There’s an aggressive angularity to Arenicola and Metaxu, but an ongoing duel between guitarist Matteo Serenelli and keyboard wiz Paolo Botta adds generous amounts of old-school colour and askance melody. Audacious centrepiece Lievito Madre (Pt. 1-V) is a theatrical, 13-minute burst of joy. Awash with synths, saxophone, violin and vibraphone, but rooted in a very modern strain of darkly twisted math metal, it fizzes with ingenuity, bravado and insidious, haunted house hooks. Wonky and weird in all the right ways, the potential here is huge.