I remember receiving Gregorio Bardini's debut wind-instruments-only solo CD "Eurasia" back in 1995 and after that I haven't heard any of his new material but I do know he has kept himself busy working with the like of Alio Die, Vidna Obmana, Death in June's Tony Wakeford, Lounge Lizard's Steve Piccolo and of course Tuxedomoon, Kino Graz and the italian group T.A.C. in the past. His mastery in ancient and modern wind instruments from all over the world coupled with the violin playing of italian Carlo Cantini (one of Italy's most appreciated violinists who played with Stevie Wonder and Franco Battiato among others and who manufactures his very own line of electric violins that you can see at cantini-strings.com) translate into a majestic sound experience where expertise, knowledge, mysticism but most of all good taste, great musicianship, great composing skills and great sound are the ingredients of a first-class elaborated and sophisticated, relaxing and enchanting masterpiece. Bardini's wind instruments (flute, nay, kena, ocarina, didgeridoo, bulgarian flute) and Cantini's electric violin and viola are hovering over grand anthems of celestial and folkish flavor made deep by skillfully composed electronics (Cantini) and made big and pulsing by dynamically performed percussions (by the both of them) that go from the soft accent to the humongous and deep tribal ceremonial-like drumming. Quiet and isolationist at times, in tune with the visions of nature's most spectacular scenarios, dragging, releasing and convulsed but harmonically representing the folk heritage of the drum's very own history and geographic origin, "The Cosmic Milk" is the ultimate blend of ambient, world music, tribal music and electronica. Cantini's fine recording and engineering only further enhances the artistic value of such a great work of love, unique in its art and absolutely desirable in its form. Go get it right now!

Every single day, I give thanks that the revolution in electronic dance music and technology of the past twenty years occurred when it did. Otherwise, eclectic popster Carlo Spera and many other artists like him would have no compass whatsoever. His new CD, Sto Correndo, has a completely unruly will of its own, with no way to tell whether or not it is steering him in the right direction. It's the variety of rhythms and whimsical flavors that carries this disc, which at times recalls Underworld, Wham!, Cabaret Voltaire and Shriekback, as well as the humorous, jazz-pop stylings of Malcolm McLaren and Barry Adamson. The main issue with Sto Correndo is not Sperra's influences, however, but that all of his ingredients sound as though haphazardly thrown into the pot, without much of a discernible song or album structure. A jazzy track here, a hip-hop-inflected track there (and what sounds inexplicably like a looped guitar from AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" on track number 12, "Il Gladiatore")--just what are we supposed to be getting, exactly? The pastiche of loops, turntabling, Italian-language libretti and female background vocals works best on track number 9, "Tiempi Moderni." Obviously, due to my nonexistent Italian (no, really, il professore, the dog really *did* eat my dictionary), I may be missing some relevant and vital lyrical themes, but on the whole it suffers from an uneasy balance between fascination and clutter.

The ghostly darkness evoked by the fourth release of the White Rose Transmission, a project where the glittering creative wit and whimsical poetry by Carlo Von Putten (member of Dead Guitars) and Adrian Borland, the late lamented soul of The Sound whose warm shadow's still casted onto this band's music, on the occasion supported by the musical skills by ex-Clan of Xymox lyricist Frank Weyzig and Rob Keijzer, is able to haunt listener's ear just like a web crafted by an expert spider. Sad acoustic rock ballads whose firing melodic lines are augmented and fed by melancholic feelings and lofty sentiments, emerging from lyrics, which even if don't really reach the peaks and the spiritual highlands discovered by Adrian, sound fully inspired and sometimes look like Adrian's thoughts and dialogues between his soul and the spider biting his mind since the introductory Love or just Loveless ('¦words like 'This everlasting fire/Came down with you my friend/I saw the lights of heaven/Before I saw the end ' sound like a grateful farewell to all the musicians, artists and common people who had get in touch with Adrian's soul'¦) and Wildest Horse ' maybe the best song of this album together with the moving Glittering Green. That's the reason why even the circumstance that the velvety Carlo's voice seems wallowing in pain and depression and the fact that sometimes lyrics insist considerably on some clichés of the genre makes sense and looks like a sort of reunion with Adrian's soul. Intense guitar lines are enriched by piano touches and backing vocals, both of them being elements highlighting the pathos of the whole album and I can easily imagine Adrian's nodding at these guys when he magically reappears in Foreign Land, an edited and re-arranged version of Love Is Such A Foreign Land, a track issued on Adrian's last somewhat prophetical album The Last Days Of The Rain Machine. It's like he lives again'¦

Frigidaire Tango's starts in 1977 when Carlo Casale and Stefano Dal Col met in Liberta square in Bassano Del Grappa. Carlo just visited London with a black Shathesbury's guitar. Soon after, the duo with Maurizio Simeoni started to play and formed Outkids. With Alberto Gomiero on bass guitar they started to play live. After several line-up changes, in 1979, they changed name and became Thrash. Influenced by punk and Roxy Music, the band started to play live. In October 1980, Alessandro Chioatto joined them on sax and they recorded a 15 tracks demo tape. That tape would have been brought to London by Mrs Alex, the first Italian journalist to move to join the new wave but in November, the Italian label Young Records decided to offer them a record deal. That was the official born of Frigidaire Tango. In 1981 the band started the recordings of their first album, "The Cock", which hut the records stores on February 1982. The year after they released a self produced E.P.titled "Russian Dolls"and participated to "Body Section", the second compilation produced by the Italian magazine Rockerilla. After participating to other three compilations (two volumes of Rockgarage and "P.E.A.C.E."), the band had major line-up changes which mined their stability. On the positive side, they had the I.R.A. label that was interested into checking them and they did a lot of gigs but this wasn't enough. Different members started playing with other bands or producing other bands and the fact that I.R.A. didn't contacted them yet didn't helped and Frigidaire Tango split up. The story of the band didn't end here, because few years ago the reformed and recorded a new album changing musical style but this is another story. With this review I want to talk to you about the Synthetic Shadows Records release of eleven out of fifteen songs coming from those 1980 recordings. "The Cock The Original Demotape 1980" is a perfect way to discover a band that was able to mix punk and new wave in a fresh energetic wave and if you didn't purchase "The Freezer Box" the compilation CD box, back in 2006, this is your chance to listen to tracks like "Be Only", "Push", "Black Curtains"or "Anytime You Dress So Fine". On those tracks dissonance, melody and energy blend perfectly thanks to razor cut guitars, catchy sax lines, seducing synth sounds and the neurotic vocals of Charlie Out Cazale. Great release!

One of most relevant surprise carried by a gust whirling from the evergreen alternative grounds is without any doubt the one by these waving Flags, proudly waven by Dead Guitars, a collaborative project whose bandilleros have already walked over the decuman gates of the walls surrounding those fields: almost 7 years have elapsed since Pete Brough, one of the founder of German band Twelve Drummers Drumming , and Ralf Aussem, the man behind the curtain of the successful band Sun, decided to share their musical experiences and knowledge with vocalist Carlo van Putten (from The Convent), giving birth to Dead Guitars (sorry for the pun!), which signed the highly appreciated Airplanes, an album which let them gain the prominent role as a support band for the widespread European tour of The Mission, with whom Dead Guitars began a prolific collaboration as three members of The Mission have collaborated and performed on DGâ??s new album, Wayne Hussey in Isolation (one of the most catchy track of the whole album as well as a potential reply to Foolâ??s Gardenâ??s rejection of isolation!), Mark Gemini Thwaite in the lovely and heartbreaking freedom chant Pristine and Richie Vernon on the melancholic Blue (whose recognizable electronic drums are going to be replaced by real drums on live stage... ) . The way this skilled foundation develops sound is really impressive and their renowned creative wit seems to strike an attitude if compared to Airplanes: guitar arrangements are maniacally cared while drums and the evocative vocals by Carlo van Putten and his astonishing jauntiness are sometimes the elements making the real difference. Itâ??s almost impossible to tell which track is better than others. They shows an unbelievable skill in diversifying their masks passing from up to mid-tempo, showing a terrificly unconstrained style, covering a range of emotional setting whose wideness a psychologist could diagnose just on the most serious case of cyclothymia ranging from the rage of Pristine and Miss America, the romanthicism-tinged On A Trip To Elsewhere, moody pieces like Lazy Moon (with an amazing distorted piano tones and a sort of weeping motif...), Silver Cross River (my personally favorite one... I was almost totally ravished and absorbed by this entrancing track...) and Raise Your Flags, the purity of style of the wise Slowdown and the heavenly choral Watercolours featuring the wonderful voices of a group of Dutch students attending G2a... You should listen to this album as a sort of spiritual experience to better appreciate it...

Immediate, emotional, powerfully melancholic... Maybe one of the most balanced mix of gothic, wave, progressive and melancholic moods weâ??ve heard among recent releases... Dead Guitars will surely play the chords of your soul. It's a must-have if you love to refresh your ears with cool breeze of psychedelically epic stuff! I definitively hope to see them perform somewhere!