Epo
Il Mattino Ha L'Oro In Bocca

Epo, aka Ciro Tuzzi. Or maybe not. In reality, it's a band, but Tuzzi - the group's songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist - is undoubtedly its key figure. It must be said that without the synth and keyboards of Mario Conte, who is also their producer, Epo would lose a significant part of their essence. Because their peculiarity, although not new, is to blend rock, songwriting, and pop melodies with electronics.

Neapolitan, they formed in 2000 and released their debut LP in 2002. The album achieved fair results, receiving acclaim from critics and audiences, as well as recognition, such as the "Fuori dal mucchio" award, where they won third place in the "Best debut album" category.
Despite promising beginnings, it's not clear why they lost the support of their record label, and the album was only re-released three years later by another label, with the title simply changed to "Epo".

"Il mattino ha l'oro in bocca" is a work, decently produced with refined arrangements, that deserves some attention. The lyrics are commendable, and Tuzzi's theatrical and melancholic interpretation bestows the album with an underlying pseudo-serenity. The opening "Serie/parallelo" is a glaring example of this. But what immediately stands out is a successful, albeit bizarre and daring, homage to De André's "Amico fragile," where the coldness of electronic sounds perfectly marries with the vocal interpretation. There are two covers, but the album is not notable just for these; rather, it finds its strengths in tracks like "Sete" and "Città amara," which are truly remarkable.
The album is titled after an instrumental piece, accompanied by a sitar (or perhaps just a sample) with an Oriental feel, which serves as the opening for the first of the two tracks where Tuzzi pays homage to his mother tongue (perhaps a misstep, having them in succession in the tracklist). Then there's "Anna" born from the Mogol/Battisti partnership, "coldly" rearranged for the occasion, but less impactful than the other cover, and which is tasked with closing, perhaps a bit miserably, a work that is noteworthy in several respects.

6.5/10