KITE

In terms of composition Kite is as strong as the band's debut album You Have A Chance and as soon as I knew thay had a new EP out I went straight to their Bandcamp page and bought it. But (and they say that everything that comes before the but doesn't matter), WHAT THE HELL they did to the vocals here???? Why they crammed ALL the songs full of AutoTune????? It's so on the face that's impossible to REALLY like the album all in all, and I'm a fan of these guys.

They also 'modernized' their sound in many ways, using electronics here and there to fit the 'new wave of Prog' that I call Post Prog and I cannot understand why, the band was unique on what they were doing in You Have A Chance (2013) now with this EP they seem to be as any other band... if that's the way the band will go in the future I'm afraid I'll not be following them...

Kite is the second album by Roman band Camelias Garden and it was self-released in 2015 with a largely renewed line up featuring Valerio Smordoni (lead and backing vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar), Simone Contini (drums) and Alberto Cari (bass) plus the guests Manolo D'Antonio (electric and acoustic guitar, backing vocals) and Gian Marco La Serra (piano, keyboards, backing vocals). It was recorded between 2014 and 2015 at Kate Creative Studio, LRS Factory and Studio Nero (Rome) and confirms the good qualities of their debut album from 2013 entitled You Have a Chance, with its light harmonies and refined arrangements mixing echoes of sixties psychedelia and pastoral atmospheres. The artwork by Isabella Latini in some way depicts the musical content...

The opener "Rise" is a short acoustic ballad with strummed acoustic guitar, a slightly pinch of psychedelia and soaring harmony vocals that could recall The Beatles. It describes a new dawn, a peaceful moment to start a day full of expectations and leads to the following "Making Things Together" veined of West Coast influences and positive vibrations that tells about a love story on the road... The long, evocative title track has a slow pace and a dark, romantic mood. It describes in music and words a strange meeting in a cold starry night conjuring up visions where dreams and reality melt like if they were following the flight of a kite with its ups and downs: blind, light, beyond the limit of what's real on a frame of subtle skies...

The soft, dreamy "Red Light" is about a kind of psychedelic trip through a beautiful place full of flowers and trees where a charming girl could drive you mad playing with colours and blending the red light of the rising sun with the magic of the surrounding nature.

"The World Inside You" is another ballad with strummed acoustic guitars and percussions in the background that could recall the Beatles, especially in its final part. It's about a kind of spiritual rebirth and evokes the inner power that everyone owns and that can heal the injuries of life... Then the closer "Useless" mixes a touch of electronic, modern sounds and filtered vocals with a pinch of spirituality and oriental philosophy.

Although defined as a simple EP the album reaches almost half an hour length and it's longer than may albums from the sixties or the seventies. All in all, a pleasant listening.