Asphodel
Deluxe Ep

There are albums that have deeply marked us at a particular moment in our lives… for this or that reason, we remember them with immense and unquestionable affection. Then one day they fall into our hands, and we automatically place them in the compartment of our laser player, which, as if by magic, upon pressing the play button, fills the air around us with sensations linked to a distant, past time. This is what recently happened to me with the EP by Asphodel from Varese, a genuine and honest work, which perhaps suffers a bit from the "home production" more than the time that has passed (also because ten years is not really that much)… but trying to keep away the ghosts that stir around me (I exorcise them with the first listen), I attempt to contextualize the music to today (and I manage quite well with a second).

Five tracks of pure noise/post-hardcore flow quickly and intensely from the opening "Super Model Girl" (an enchanting track excellently built on the teachings of the McKaye/Picciotto pair) to the concluding "I Feel So Good" (ten minutes and thirty-four seconds in a hysterical balance between acidic guitars and an uncompromising rhythm section), through "Cellophane Brain," "Blow Me Up," and "Tom." "Deluxe" sounds like a hypothetical head-on collision between the Girls Against Boys’ van and that of the Jesus And Mary Chain on a secondary road leading them from Washington DC to Chicago. "Shut Up Don't Make Questions. You Can Enjoy If You Like." And here, again, memories come flooding back, taking possession of the air around me. I surrender to the sensations they transmit and gently settle on the couch… but only after pressing the play button for the third time.