Picchio Dal Pozzo - Abbiamo Tutti Suoi Problemi (RER Megacorp)

Here’s a reissue of this Italian group’s second disc, one of only two released during its existence. I’d not heard them until this release showed up in my mailbox, and now I realize what I’d been missing.

This largely instrumental record defies easy comparison, though if I had to enter such dangerous waters, I’d say that some kind of Henry Cow/Frank Zappa collaboration was in the offing. If Zappa is a model, it’s the Lather material from which the Italians draw, heavy on the vibes and always sporting an undercurrent of Stravinsky. Those beautiful modal melodies Zappa could spin out at will are also in abundance; when vocals do occur, as on the series of pieces entitled “La Sgargianza”, the Cow harmonies and voicings come to the fore. Abrupt chromatic shifts speak to the compositional pallets of Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson, not to mention those exquisite chords!

Never, though, did the Cow engage in the “telephone” effect from “Sgargianza” Part 2. In fact, it’s as if the afore-mentioned influences were stripped down, serialized and shuffled, or blended, to create something familiar but jarringly different; it’s the disc’s strong point, seconded only by the playing itself, which is obviously virtuosic but never flashy or self-aggrandizing. Deceptively simple, the disc demands repeated listening for full effect, and I intend to do just that.

~ Marc Medwin