Garden Wall - "Assurdo" Review

Artist/ Band: Garden Wall
Title: Assurdo
Label: Lizard
Year of Release: 2011
Offical Artist/ Band Link

The Review:

The latest release by Garden Wall, ‘Assurdo’, uses elements from all their previous recordings plus more, in a big way. The main line up is Alessandro Seravalle: vocals, electric, acoustic, e-bow & 12-string guitars, synths, keyboards, samples, Raffaello Indri: electric lead guitars, William Toson: fretted & fretless bass guitars, Ivan Moni Bidin: drums, and Gianpietro Seravalle: electronic percussion, soundscapes. The guest list is too long to list and brings in an excellent addition of extra texture and sounds for this CD adding things like female vocals, flute, double bass, congas, bass clarinet, percussion, violin and cello. This may very well be their best yet.

The first song gives fair warning that this will be a CD of extreme style collage. It brings instant speed metal/fusion/jazz/and progressive rock all in under to minutes. Although the band has been tagged as a progressive metal band in the past, I think this release is more like a mix of Porcupine Tree , Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Goblin, King Crimson, Nichelodeon (no surprise to know Claudio Milano, the mastermind behind that band is friends with Alessandro Seravalle as they seem to share much in common musically), and a host of experimental, eccentric jazz fusion bands with RIO, space rock, eastern, and electronic edges. It’s just so full of styles and jam packed with ideas, it’s impossible to pin it down with any hand full of descriptions. That’s fantastic in my mind.. One thing is clear, I love it! Your brain will have to catch up with your ears much of the first listening experience of ‘Assurdo’.

As I listened for the third time, I still picked up more bits of influences like Hatfield and the North, Laurie Anderson, Diamanda Galas, Steve Hillage, Henry Cow, Pierre Vervloesem...Whew! It’s a recording that just keeps revealing layers upon layers of musical references from decades of progressive music gems. By the middle of the disc, you are convinced this is a difficult set of compositions to digest all in one sitting. It’s brilliant and it’s far more than your money’s worth. It’s simply a masterpiece of multi progressive music. There, I made a new category for the progressive music genre.

It thrills me to keep finding such tremendous recordings being made in the year 2011. A few years ago I told an old music buddy I’ve known for over 30 years, that I feared there would be less and less progressive gems coming out in the future. I am so glad I am wrong. The fact is, as musicians are getting more and more exposed ( due to internet ) to bands and music all around the world, in a bigger way than ever before, we are getting a more intense selection of artists that are making brilliant music. That is one of the good things about the web. And fact is, Garden Wall didn’t come by their skills and ideas this way. This band came from the 80's and listened to Genesis and bands such as that. They know the old school of progressive rock and are highly skilled musicians with dozens of styles. They use their creative minds to make this magic. And great magic it is! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!

Reviewed by Lee Henderson on November 27th, 2011

Tracks:

01. Iperbole (6:21)

02. Butterfly Song (8:31)

03. Trasfiguratofunky (7:31)

04. Negative (7:03)

05. Just Cannot Forget (2:25)

06. Flash (5:23)

07. Clamores Horrendos Ad Sidera Tollit (6:49)

08. Vacuum Fluctuation (8:04)

09. Re-Awakening (8:03)

10. Isterectomia (7.26)