Electric 69
Let's Play Two

For years I have searched, scoured, and listened to dozens and dozens of bands to find an album comparable to the deadly duo of the Hellacopters' early career. Gluecifer, Puffball, Turbonegro, Backyard Babies, The Flaming Sideburns, Imperial State Electric, Electric Frankenstein, somehow even the "rascals" The New Bomb Turks and many others have long featured in my playlists. All interesting, seasoned groups, capable of properly igniting the walls of my cramped dwelling...But something was always missing to reach absolute excellence.

Then suddenly in 2006, a band from Verbania, therefore from my province, debuts with a work that manages to fulfill this very personal request of mine. An album Let's Play Two that surely did not receive widespread recognition and distribution in our nation; and it's a pity because the guys, led by Mauro who had already made a name for himself in the nineties with Wood, deliver eleven explosive tracks!!

Nothing new or original can be gleaned from listening to the work; however, they push hard, spill blood, and damn their souls to create a dynamite mix made of sweat, Punk'n'Roll attitude, Garage, and visceral Hard Rock. A highly elevated nervous tension is the key element throughout the forty minutes of the CD; sharp, disdainful, streetwise, angry. Four guitar chords, a drum that knows only one execution tempo, and the total detonation can begin.

Gonna Get It has the task of opening the whole thing perfectly; a few seconds of relative tranquility and then it takes off at full throttle; burning, abrasive, distorted guitars. The voice is just the right amount... it really seems like an outtake from that masterpiece, of the already mentioned Hellacopters, Payin' the Dues. Electric shocks everywhere, cruising speed that remains sustained, and here comes the long one, skirting five minutes in duration, Groovy Vibrations with a first part oriented towards a canonical and simple Hard Rock; but the plunge, the shift is around the corner and the last minute becomes wild, furious, derailing.

The title track continues the exaggerated shot; American Towns is insanely Punk, belligerent, with a river-in-flood momentum. A deserved and worthy final mention to Empty Freak, another top piece that dismantles any obstacle in its headlong path!!

Another album two years later, much more thought-out, quieter, comparable in some passages to the Southern Rock of the Black Crowes.

Top marks, it's beyond doubt for me...CHEAP DIAMONDS...

Ad Maiora.