ZUNDAPP

This wonderfully spirited Tuscan quintet rock the house with their demo from 2005. Filled with plenty of crunchy blues riffs and rhythms in a biker bar meets jazz club way, the disc is mostly instrumental led by the guitars of Fabrizio Brilli & Moreno Mencarini, backed by the solid if frantic Rossi/Biagianti rhythm team and laced liberally with Roberto Chechi's cutting flute. At times these boys do evoke a very early Jethro Tull in a we're-still-developing-but'll-kick-ass-one-day manner. In fact some of the material is not unlike how Tull might've sounded had Tony Iommi stayed on as lead guitarist.

Chechi's flute is jazzy and light which works to balance a slightly brutish sound, a bit of metal shaking open 'L'Invasione del Cavalletti' as it becomes an old-time hardrocker with jazz charm, 7-minute 'Hursky e Stutch' just as good if not better with some great little moments and 'Effetto cera' is a pounding jam that grows in intensity. Melodious 'Phase A' moves around, changing and mixing colors but always of a particular palette, sometimes you can even smell the fragrant air of the Riviera. 'Black Commendha' is tough, and a completely unhinged vocal for 'Satam Blues' this time summoning Joseph Smalkowski's dismembered horrors.

A band with a whole lot of potential, Zundapp's proper and long-awaited debut in 2009 will likely be worth the wait.