ABBANDONO DEL TEMPO E DELLE FORME

I have to wonder if J'accuse..! ever heard of the California alt/punk 80s band called Firehose. When D. Boon, the great leader of the Minutemen perished in a van accident in December of 1985, the remaining members re-emerged the following year as Firehose and proceeded to release several albums of ripsnorting good fun. While others will rightfully mention Porcupine Tree and Crimson while speaking of J'accuse..! I still hear them channeling Firehose in various places throughout this ride whether intentional or not. J'accuse..! has been around for several years and this debut features the talents of Sasha Colautti (vocals, lead guitar), Donald Paljuh (vocals, guitar), Michele Scherlich (bass) and Raffaele Tenaglia (drums, percussion).

The band from Trieste along with Mellow Records have surely delivered an album that will be on many lists of top albums for 2008. Packed with energy it crosses musical styles like space rock and psychedelic with eclectic complexities; and again in my opinion, some of that early alt/punk swagger. Urgency, tension, nail-biting progressions keep building and releasing. There are moments in the 12 minute "Sul Bordo Dell'Abisso" that are the musical equivalent of the final moments of a gazelle's life as it's being torn to shreds by the lions. Punchy and violent in these moments it really doesn't get much better than this.until the arc comes down into a breather and lets you enjoy some serene moments accented by lovely guitar notes or a laid back vocal. What a track! Of course it isn't all like this. The short opening is a Floydian style soundscape that leads into "Il Tempo Muta Le Forme" which starts a bit like 80s Crimson before adding the alt-rock sound on top. The playing on all levels is very attentive and original. From the stellar percussion to the searching guitar parts to the driving, awesome bass lines it is fabulous. The vocals are blue-collar but certainly get the job done with either power or sensitivity depending on what the moment calls for. The album continues the frenetic vein through "L'Angelo" for the most part until "Cencando un Punto Lontano" when it shifts towards a beautiful and mellower spacey rock sound that wouldn't sound out of place on Deadwing. The 13-minute closer "Ricorre L'Abbandono" continues somewhere between PT and Radiohead quadrants while showing the band's uncanny ability to take each possibility somewhere interesting and add the stamps of their own personal sound. (They are not clones of the bands I mention..I note them as references for readers only.) They even throw a jazz guitar solo by Andrea Massaria into this one. I read one complaint about the sound/mix quality of this album and while it sounds pretty thin in my car I had much better luck inside.I can't say it was any big issue for my enjoyment of the music.

This is an album for anyone who thinks there's no original rock and roll left on the landscape. This is not simply a "progressive rock" album for the traditional "prog" crowd but also just a great rock fix.something not to be taken lightly in a time when the media exhorts us to be excited over yet another U2 or Coldplay album.and the public dutifully laps it up. J'accuse..! will not let rock and roll (or prog) go quietly into the night. "Neighbors are to be wakened and fists are to be pumped out car windows" should be the caption on a sticker on this CD. A very meager booklet with this one unfortunately, but no matter. Along with DFA and Il Bacio Della Medusa, J'accuse..! gives Italy yet another serious contender for prog album of 2008. Bravo! 8/10

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