MoonJune 2015
All You Can Eat
Generous offer from Naples septet who remembered how to have fun.
If the title of this record promises smorgasbord, that’s what there is, and it would be – as suggested by the cover – asinine not to gobble up the musical buffet’s contents. The band’s previous effort "Bani Ahead" somewhat lacked in the merriment of their early works, but “All You Can Eat” frolics with gusto – trying to hide the smile along the way.
What, for instance, “Yahtzee” is if not a game? And while it’s elegiac, there’s a delicate playfulness to the piece’s almost orchestral scope running across the Mediterranean from Apennines to Maghreb, as Marcello Giannini’s guitar chimes majestically, whereas the strum and blow in “Hangover” are as gentle as it’s needed on a post-party morning, with Riccardo Villari’s violin serving up additional caress. So yes, opener “Persian Night” may not reveal the light mood in its twang, yet once the hints as dissonance make room for a solemn swell, the whole point of it is rammed home: it’s conversation that matters at breakfast, not food.
Only then Pietro Santangelo’s saxes reveal the Balkan-styled happy, if heavy, vibe, one blooming in “Mani In Faccia” in which the relentless brass marries funk to folk and passes the infectious New York shuffle to “Currywuster.” The throb in “Barotrauma” carefully removes pressure, though, to replace it with a deliberately awkward dance, and “Passannante” shapes up into an energetic walk to Champs-Élysées. In its turn, “Oblio” is looking for wonders in between sharp riffs and, when the interplay solidifies, saturation sets in, like it should after a great meal, because this album is just it.
****2/3
