NUOVE LETTERE

MARY NEWSLETTER was formed in the spring of 1992. Their music is basically progressive rock and blues, with strong influences from the seventies. Inspired by many different artists such as GENESIS, Jimi HENDRIX, JETHRO TULL, KING CRIMSON, NEKTAR, PINK FLOYD, SOFT MACHINE, VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR and YES. They say they are playing dadaist-rock! You can also hear influences from Folk, Jazz, Psychedelic and classical music, and that gives MARY NEWSLETTER a unique style, but instead makes them rather hard to get used to.

"Nuove Lettere" is their first self-produced demo-CD. Half of the lyrics are in Italian and half in English. The sound on the CD is very dated with a flat and rough sound, but actually that is only good, because you get the impression of actually listening to a band from the late 60's or early 70's. The music got an improvised feeling overall, with many rhythm and tempo changes.

A very nice thing about this album is the use of violin and flute. There is also some excellent guitar and bass playing too, even though the guitar and bass get to much space on the album and the keyboards is sometimes disappearing in the mixing. When you get used to the singer he fits in very well with the music.

The best track is "Introduzione", "Mary", "Thanks Daddy!" and "Thoughts" (a 13 minutes long masterpiece).

This is not a perfect debut; still I think it's one of the five best albums from 1996. MARY NEWSLETTER is surely a promising band with very good musicians. I hope I get the chance to hear their new release "Distratto dal sole", because this is an interesting band. Recommended.

Hard to believe it's been over 8 years since the last written review for this album. This is where it all began for Italy's own MARY NEWSLETTER. I really like this band and especially their first and third studio albums. I would rate this second best of the bunch. It's a little Bluesy, a little Psychedelic and mostly Progressive Rock.

"Introduzione" is somewhat spacey early. Strummed acoustic guitar as it builds with flute and drums joining in. It kicks in at 3 1/2 minutes with some excellent bass. "Le Mie Mani" sounds great early on with the bass as flute, drums and a full sound follow. The guitar before 1 minute starts to solo. Nice. Piano is prominant when the guitar stops. Vocals before 3 minutes. Piano and bass are prominant again when the vocals stop. The vocals continue to come and go. "La Danza" opens with flute then it kicks in with bass, drums and guitar standing out. Bluesy guitar before 1 1/2 minutes. Vocals 2 minutes in. "Mary" opens with guitar, bass and piano as drums join in as well. Love the sound of the guitar. Almost spoken vocals follow then it calms down. Love how this sounds 3 minutes in just before the vocals arrive. English vocals for a change on this one. This song continues to twist and turn throughout. Great track.

"Thanks Daddy !!" kicks in with a full sound almost right away. It settles some when the vocals arrive. Chunky bass here. It picks back up around 2 minutes with some excellent guitar. Great sound here to the end. "Thoughts" is the closer and at 13 minutes the longest song on here. It's mellow to start with flute and gentle guitar. Atmosphere too. The organ floats in bringing to mind FLOYD. It kicks in at 1 1/2 minutes. Vocals before 3 minutes. Guitar solo 4 minutes in with chunky bass and more. A calm before 7 minutes as sounds come and go. Very psychedelic here. It starts to build after 9 minutes as the drums pound. A calm 10 minutes in then it kicks back in. Vocals follow.

I'm a big fan of this band and they certainly started their careers off on the right foot with this excellent debut.