Delirious Luminal
Free Rock (EP)

Delirious Luminal - "Free Rock"

"Come to the Seven tonight, an all-girl band is playing" ...It was with this phrase that I first got to know the Delirious Luminal. I must admit that all-girl bands have never fully convinced me, not being a big fan of Hole, but that’s just a prejudice. I had to change my mind; after all, I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of a girl behind the drum kit or holding an electric guitar or a bass (in their case a five-string). We were already used to female singers since many bands have their "frontwoman." However, this case is different: I have always been a huge fan of singer/guitarists, and here we have a frontwoman/guitarist, what more could I ever want? Great music made by them, of course!

When I arrived, they were performing a cover, so it wasn't immediately clear to me that they also made original music. The chorus stuck with me (Lobotomizzatemi, Lobotomizzatemi, DoReMiFaSolLaSi) from what I believe can now be defined as their "flagship track," which is "Eratomica."

I decided that I absolutely needed to delve deeper, a bit on their MySpace, a few snippets on YouTube, and finally at a mid-July night at our beloved Marianiello Jazz Café I managed to get my hands on their EP, "Free Rock," which stayed in the car stereo and at home for weeks.

An EP that can surprise in many ways: the first and most obvious, the presence of songs sung in both Italian and English, which as a native speaker, I can only appreciate seeing non-English bands wanting to use a more international language. The second thing that surprised me is the presence of a very atypical drumming style for the genre they suggest guitar-wise, with countless breaks and rolls, constant bass drum, almost as if it wanted to imitate a double pedal and muted cymbals like in the best Heavy Metal style, even though we are far from that genre. Songs that mostly present themselves as simple and soft ballads, punctuated by guitar arpeggios and light vocal melodies, but rest assured, that's not what you’ll get once the drums kick in, even though we might have some sweeter moments, like "Time 4", as the lyrics also demonstrate, and those a bit more aggressive as the title suggests, "Anger." Then we can completely immerse ourselves in the vocal melody of "Dammi Luce," a fantastic vocal performance that manages to draw attention away from listening to the other instruments. Finally, we have "Eratomica," as mentioned before, probably the band's flagship track, which live probably represents one of the group's best moments. Violent drumming as always, its catchy chorus, and fantastic melodic fragments.