Cani Dei Portici
Cave Canem

"Give us the joy of knowing well 

our joys, with our sorrows"

I was listening to "No Blues" by Wes Montgomery when this EP, ‘Cave Canem', happened upon my ears. And who are and who aren’t these Cani Dei Portici? I decide to listen to them hoping they won’t suck. I press play without interrupting Wes, and over the driving groove of jazz flows a scorching magma of wild post-hardcore. The overall effect isn’t bad at all, almost the result of the lateral thinking of some schizophrenic, or John Zorn.

At this point, encouraged, I decide to go further. I pause the good old Wes, who I'm sure won’t be offended, and suddenly the emotions that were all in my head while listening to jazz, and had stopped like a lump in my throat just before, now slowly descend towards the guts and lower abdomen, like a flow of molten lava.

It’s visceral music, angry yet not too impulsive, often thoughtful, constructed with the logic of a madman. The repeated phrases and time changes, the alternation of different degrees of noise manage to create the right tension that often erupts into dark, cathartic moments.  It’s music that makes you vibrate right where you’ve stored all the pains and disappointments, the ones that others cannot see, which are there to be contemplated without a solution; everyone has them, but no one has the courage to show them, like a deformed creature. It’s hopeless music, a successful expression of the pars destruens we carry inside, redeemed by the sublimation in the music itself.

The musical references range from the stoner of Kyuss to the post-hardcore of King Snake Roost, from Steve Albini (the ruthless Big Black) to Jesus Lizard, passing through the post-rock of Slint and math-rock, but also from Massimo Volume and Teatro degli Orrori. And even if sometimes these references are quite clear, nonetheless interesting ideas and cues aren’t lacking, nor the desire to kick ass.

All the songs on the EP are worth noting, but perhaps my favorite of the bunch is ‘Orient Express’: it does simple things, has a flexible pace, changes tempos, doesn’t feel the need to complicate things too much, alternating noise and melody with a beautiful Eastern-inspired motif that serves as a common thread throughout the track. In the end, it turns out to be the piece with the most personality.

In short, I was pleasantly surprised and recommend everyone to listen to it, also because in our little town you don’t hear much music like this, and of such quality. To Cani dei Portici, I suggest instead not to stop searching and exploring: what music would you make if you weren’t afraid to play something completely new?