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Guitarist Adriano Lanzi and bass player Omar Sodano have been working together since 2000 and released an album called La Vita Perfetta in 2004 (that contains a track called ‘Russ Meyer’!) on a German label, Klangbad. Four years on, they’ve teamed up with lik-minded jazz, experimentalists Andrea Biondi (vibes, percussion) and Frances Mendolia (drums), and Pigiama Psicoattivo is the result.

So whilst this album is jazz-rock based, they do divert into electronica, krautrock, minimalist, blues and even psychedelia. The link with Gunter Hampel is provided by Biondi who raises this album above the ordinary (particularly ‘Seicento Giri Carico Frontale’ with some blues guitar from Lanzi and ‘Telegraph Dakar’). But this album is more on the side of the Mahavishnu-Soft Machine than, say, Steve Reid’s electronic experimentation with Kieran Hebden (Daxaar) but with added Unsafe elements (‘Scelsi’).

There’s also a theme going on here like on ‘Errore Meccanico’, ‘Crew’N’C’ and ‘Macinino’ (with guest sax from Amy Denio) and apparently when El Topo perform live they are joined on stage by a crew of visual artists/VJs called Neumax. You can hear the potential for mixed media art in these instrumentals; also great artwork to all of the albums on the Off label.

Off is a sister label of Stilll and whilst I admit this doesn’t mean anything to me, it’s worth checking out their websites as they seem to have loads going on and planned for next year.

Reviewed: El Topo - Pigiama Psicoattivo (Off) Cat. No: OCD 006 Release date: 13th June 2008
Credits: Guitar, Electronics - Adriano Lanzi
Bass, Electronics - Omar Sodano
Vibraphone, Percussion - Andrea Biondi
Drums - Francesco Mendolia
guest musicians as Amy Denio, Mike Cooper, Riccardo Lay, Anadi Mishra.
Tracklisting:
1 Tosca (3:53)
2 Sonics (5:14)
3 Seicento Giri Carico Frontale (4:37)
4 Pigiama Psicoattivo (6:03)
5 Telegraph Dakar (5:36)
6 Scelsi (4:32)
7 Errore Meccanico (5:43)
8 Crew’N’C (5:54)
9 Macinino (5:09)

Links
www.myspace.com/eltopogroup
www.myspace.com/Andrea Biondi
www.amydenio.com
www.myspace.com/offlabel
www.stillll.org
www.myspace.com/stilll
www.klangbad.de
www.myspace.com/klangbadmusic