DISORGANICORIGAMI

And then from another seemingly parallel musical universe comes the eccentric and eclectic sounds of DAAL. A duo who took their name not from the Hindi word meaning "bean" although DAAL curry soup is quite tasty, but rather by simply taking the first two initials of the the two only official members DA-vide Guidoni and AL-fio Costa and strung them together much in the spirit of many other groups ranging from Abba to Codona. The result of this collaboration of talents is a musical tastiness all its own. Although officially a duet, they incorporate the talents of many musical friends in the making of this album including electric violins, turkish and soprano saxes, flutes, clarinets, oboes, violas and cellos.

These guys come from Bergamo, Italy and have played in a number of progressive bands thoughout the years. DAAL emerged right from the getgo as masters of bizarre alien soundscapes that incorporate whole swaths of sounds spanning the musical world. Upon first listen they sounded to me like they married the alien electronic atmospheres of Coil, mixed in the tribal ethno-folk drumming of Comus and the occasionally jazz outbursts of John Zorn horn solos and post bop flirtations while also adding gypsy styled violins. The other musical influences range from Floydian space rock to Tangerine Dream ambience to even some occasional hard rock outbursts and classical music also poking in and out of the scene in a wrestling match with a space drone section.

The true wealth of sounds comes from the space synths of Alfio Costa who includes all of the following on this album: Hammond M100, Leslie 125, Leslie Simse 'Space Master', Minimoog, Mellotron M400SM, Fender-Rhodes Mk II, Kurzweil piano SP76, Furstein-Farfisa piano, Korg MS10 analog synth, Hammond-Suzuki XB2, harmonium, Moog Modular VST synth, SynthOscar VST synth, Arp2600 VST synth, Pro5 VST synth, Minimonsta VST synth, Ivory Piano VST synth, Colossus VST synth as well as others. Equally impressive is the percussion skills of Davide Guidoni who not only takes us on percussive journeys hither and tither with his own arsenal of sound making devices in the forms of: Tama Hyperdrive Plus Roland V-Drums TD6, Roland V-Drums TD12, Synhestesia Mandala drum pad, Roland handsonic, Korg Wavedrums, Rotoloops, cymbals & gongs, Metal Octobans, percussion and many other samplers.

While the eclectic nature of this music sweeps you away from the first sirens alerting you that you are in for a truly unique experience, it didn't really hit me until the cover of Pink Floyd's "A Saucerful Of Secrets" commenced. The lightbulb went off! That's what they are going for here. That particular track has always been an absolute favorite of psychedelic achievement removing the shackles of the pop and blues aspects and offering up a more alien and brooding atmosphere that always made me feel like a close encounter of a musical kind. It seems in fact that "Saucer"is the blueprint for their entire output, not in sound at all times necessarily but in the liberating spirit of that tracks that Pink Floyd only repeated briefly again on "Ummagumma" and then jettisoned for a more accessible style.

The music in all its twists and turns remains alien, dark, brooding, bizarre and at times plain creepy with overlapping parts to heighten the desired effects. This debut album is the beginning of a string of excellent albums that have been getting more attention in recent years. I find this to be an excellent debut. It only begins to wear thin starting with the female vocals on the "Saucer" cover when i feel our female diva shows the constraints of the human world and brings the extraterrestrial experience down to a mere mediocre human one. The tracks that follow seem to derail and seem like mere filler at this point but up to that fateful point i really love this album.

Be warned that this is an extremely ambitious album with a constant business to it that will only appeal to the most hyperactive and ravenous music addicts but it's not always busy. There is plenty of slow brooding melancholy and hypnotic spaciness. If this is, by chance, what you're seeking then DAAL will not disappoint and their debut album DISORGANICORIGAMI is the absolute perfect entry into their eclectic and electrically charged musical universe. Some may find this disjointed, too busy for its own good, unfocused as to not make it brilliant or whatever, but this music is what it is. It is the kind that samples liberally and evokes a mood. Take it for what it is and it is brilliant. Start placing judgments on what you deem should have been done instead then the magic will collapse around you. I personally find this entrancing and outstandingly captivating music and this is only their first album. 4.5 rounded down