MAD FELLAZ II

The second album by Mad Fellaz is entitled Mad Fellaz II and was self-released in 2016 with a renewed line up featuring Paolo Busatto (guitar), Marco Busatto (drums), Jason Nealy (guitar), Carlo Passuello (bass), Enrico Brunelli (keyboards), Rudy Zilio (flute, clarinet), Lorenzo Todesco (percussion) and Anna Farronato (vocals) plus some guests such as Flavio Brun (sax), Alessandro Brunetta (sax) and Sean Lucarello (trumpet). The artwork by Maria Todesco perfectly fits the musical content, a magic brew of different influences ranging from jazz to classical music, from Santana to Jethro Tull and many more...

The long opener "Hollow Shell" is a good mix of exoticism, jazz, folk and psychedelia evoking a dream world where time passes by through dangerous love affairs, ephemeral feelings and vain efforts to fill a life that could be perceived as empty when you get lost in a constant search for pleasure without the project to form a family or other goals...

The following "Blood Pressure" is a long suite divided into two parts that starts softly. In the first part the mood is relaxed, then the rhythm section begins to pump up the pressure, the tension rises and the stroke is just behind the corner as your heart seems on the verge of explosion trying to keep up the pace...

"Me Gusta" is a nice instrumental track where fiery Latin rhythm patterns are combined with hard rock, jazz and oriental flavours. Then it's the turn of "O.V.O. (Of Virtual Omniscience)", another long piece where you can find many changes in atmosphere and mood taking you on winding, endless roads across oneiric realms...

Two instrumental tracks close the album. "Moslem Sabbath", as you can guess from the title, combines hard rock and Middle-Eastern influences. After a heavy start marked by powerful electric guitar riffs and a sudden change in rhythm, it veers to more peaceful passages and represents a very strange call for a day of rest and prayer while the following "Meet The Gooroo" takes off like a glider and tries to lead you towards an inspirational source revealing the meaning of life...

On the whole a very good work, even if the jazz trained vocals every now and again could sound a bit out of place. Anyway, have a try and judge for yourselves... You can listen to the complete album on bandcamp!