| Artist |
| Spiritual Front |
| Title |
| Rotten Roma Casino |
| Format/Cat |
| CD/DVD |
| Label |
| Trisol |
| Style |
| gothic pop/new wave |
| Date of review |
| 23rd November 2010 |
| Reviewer |
| Carl Jenkinson |
| Rating |
| 6.5/10 |
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Due to the odd style of lettering used on the cover it's hard to work out what this is called but, if you see an album with a crying black cat smoking a fag & brandishing an accordion then you've found it! The music of this Italian quartet has been described by their main man Simone Salvatori as 'Nihilist Suicide Pop'; what this rather dramatic label translates to in reality, is a wistful, rather earnest & often overtly dramatic musical mix that takes in a great many musical stylings. Many are from the 80s such as the goth/new wave flavours that grace the lust-fuelled opener 'Darkroom Friendship', the raw, slightly lo-fi feel of 'Odette' that should appeal to Nick Cave fans or the more straightforwardly poppy 'Bare Knuckle Boy where Andrea Ruggerio's violin adds extra gravitas & 'My Eclectic Sacrifice' where the vocals are a dead ringer for Wolfheim's Peter Heppner! Elsewhere, the very British-sounding pop of 'Kiss The Girls And Make Them Die' & 'German Boys' is reminiscent of some of Madness' more melancholic offerings, the piano work in particular showing a marked likeness to that of Mike Barson! It's fair to say, then, that it's certainly not a predictable album; in fact, the aforementioned tracks are only half the story of what you'll find here as 'The Days Of Anger' bears a quite profound debt to Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western themes (no bad thing, in my book) while the country-lite feel of 'Song For Johnny' (not too hard to guess who inspired this!) proves another eye-opener as does the tango-flavoured 'Cold Love (In A Cold Coffin)' which, at one point, repeats the theme to Fernando's Hideaway to such an extent that I was fully expecting an 'ol?' for good measure! And to make sure the album finishes in a suitably poignant albeit epic manner 'Overkilled Heart' boasts a chanson-like vocal perfomance from none other than Sonja Kraushofer, totally overshadowing Salvatori's own contribution with a performance so powerful & so dramatic it's as if Edith Piaf has been reborn! The crowd effects help give the impression that this was sung in some smokey Parisian club, too (unless it actually was, of course!!). And if that's not enough there's an accompanying DVD featuring an interview with Salvatori (thoughtfully subtitled in English!) & some rather 'arty' video clips that, at one point, resembled a homo-erotic Calivin Klein advert!
It's always interesting to her albums from artists such as this who clearly follow their heart musically & there's no reason why this shouldn't appeal to many open-minded music lovers.
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