Dirty Wipes
Madness City Vol.1

Once upon a time there was the Isle of Wight with its famous rock festival and Monserrat for its magnificent recording studio. However, there is Sardinia, where an emerging band of six young people hungry for rock music is born, the Dirty Wipes, a group that over the past three years has gained a lot of experience at the regional level and is more than ready to present its first work "Madness City Vol.1", a musical city that needs to be described and built with the right spirit.

The opening track is "ljwtfl", a thrilling and engaging start where the band immediately makes its intentions clear: energetic and dynamic rock; Claudio Casti's guitar is incisive and sharp; Fabio Tidili's keyboards are well-balanced in the transitions between piano, organ, and synth; a solid rhythm section formed by bassist Gabriele Serra and drummer Daniele Landis; finally, the two voices, the male voice of Luca Spiga and the female voice of Elisa Banchero, blend well together. A good start!!

The second track is "Once and for All", an interesting rock ballad full of emotions in which the sense of escaping from a negative and dark world with the obligation to dream of a free dimension is manifested. The instruments and voices gradually enter: an intro of electric and arpeggiated acoustic guitar and a thin veil of cello, expertly played by Nicola Ballicu, create an atmosphere of introspection and melancholy; shortly after, the voices of the two singers enter where the baritone male voice of the frontman provides a solid base on which the bright voice of the singer rests. The piece is a continuous crescendo: the keyboard follows the melody, the instruments increase the dynamics in the verse to then explode definitively in the chorus where the feeling of anger is marked by the long guitar solo and the intense and determined chorus composed by the two singers, who accompany the piece towards the end. "Above the Pine" is the third track, a piece not very original but enjoyable to listen to thanks to the funk/rock influence with Caribbean atmospheres highlighted by the organ; classic funky guitar strumming and a rhythm section that can support the piece on its own: bass and drums move perfectly on a smooth and dynamic groove with the addition of an interesting tribal special. The title track "Madness City" is very original, it is the pivotal song of the entire album, the symbolic presentation of their independent musical world and their artistic influences. Interesting is the development of the arrangement and the way in which genres are mixed; an excellent combination of neo-soul, funk, and 70's blues rock where the keyboard is the absolute master of the piece: the clean and bright sounds of the Fender Rhodes are accompanied by the more aggressive ones of the Hammond organ, appreciable during the beautiful solo and the delightful fill in unison with the other instruments. Noteworthy is the performance of the two singers, perhaps the best of the entire album.

It's time for the only single extracted from the album, Judge Yourself, the most aggressive track where the band urges to empower our inner judge to improve oneself and the soundtrack of the message is a fusion between hard rock and heavy metal: powerful and incisive guitar riffs, which however risk overshadowing the other components in the rest of the track and the ones who suffer the most are the two voices, not determining in the right way; the keyboards have a marginal role and the rhythm section gives a good show of strength supporting the track with a typical metal demeanor. It's a good track, well executed but a bit unbalanced.

The last track of the album is "Lonely as the Sun", a track where solitude can become a positive value if illuminated by the sun, an inexhaustible source of energy and vitality: a slow start, the arpeggiated guitar sets the scene for the voices of the two singers alternating the solo parts; the piece suddenly ignites in a powerful hard rock style with the keyboards returning forcefully and providing a backdrop to the beautiful guitar solo; the theme of the initial part is resumed with the singers engaged in accompanying the piece towards the conclusion.

A bold and enterprising debut where the old and the new meet to give life to a fresh and interesting sound to listen to. The music of the Dirty Wipes is an expression of strong feelings and a variety of interesting colors that build the buildings of their inner city: Madness City.