IL MANISCALCO MALDESTRO

There are hints of the Captain Beefheart/Tom Waits style angular arrangements that permeate the second album, but here they are a bit more subdued. And Distanze actually sounds like a true prog composition. It's quite nice.

This band isn't for everyone, but if you want a tast of what they are about, start here.

Il Maniscalco Maldestro plays a peculiar blend of punk, avant-garde and prog. All of it is in an over the top and in your face style. Aside from the obvious punk guitar riffs, the primary impression I get is that the music falls somewhere between later Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart compositions. The guitars have that jerky angular style that both of the above mentioned artists did much better.

The vocals are mostly shouted, and sometimes screamed, which is what I find most unappealing about the album. They say it's an acquired taste. But I'm not acquiring it.

Their first album is an acquired taste and the same can be said about this, their second album. It is like being locked up in a mental hospital by accident and having to endure the regime there, knowing that you are perfectly sane. For the record, that is how I imagine this feels. This band's music is in short manic insane.

The music is based on punk, with a lot of folk rock and children rhymes mixed in together with some jazz and heavy guitars as in avant-garde prog. That and RPI. The vocals are in Italian. I guess this music is best suited as live music, performed in theatres and variety shows. On an album, this music falls flat on it's face. Besides of a couple of good songs, most music here is noisy and bereft of quality. Those of you into avant-garde may check this out. I am into avant-garde myself, but finds little of value here. The vocals is too noisy and too much up in my face. This is a decent album, but nothing more.

2 stars

This Italian band's music is best described as punk meets King Crimson meets RIO meets gypsy music. The result is very eclectic to say at least. The vocals is very theatrical where most technics is used. That includes screaming, some singing and a lot of singing like a male song bird in a mating season. The vocals is in the front of the mix and difficult to ignore. The use of accordian gives the music and Eastern European feel. I would say music from the Balkan region. In short, this music is a bit of a shock to the system. One of the reason is the first class production & sound.

There is very little breathing spaces on this album. Almost all of it is constant in your face. Just like punk rock in fact. The music here is not that good or even interesting too and it does not meet with my approval at all. There is no really great songs here and most of the album falls well short of required standards. Hence my disapproval of this noisy racket.

2 stars