!Gato de Marmo!
You're A Spin In Eurospin

The !Gato de Marmo! are a group of very young lovers of Apulian high-mid-low frequencies. Our guys were born in 2006 with a lot of kraut in their blood and a fetishistic passion for pedals of every shape, form, and size. They have arrived at today with an unbelievable number of pedalboards and this new EP, released between 2009 and 2010.

Not quite satisfied with the number of adjectives that can define them, our guys expand their sonic lysergy with lengthy and dilated tracks where a maniacal tendency towards noisy assault and kraut-psychedelic melodies takes the lead. If Roger Waters had played in Neurosis, something similar could have emerged. Our guys don't skimp on distortions and the tempos remain slow and liquid ("Silberblock"), the atmosphere is unsettling and alienating but not excessively claustrophobic, and this form of "balance" (with appropriate quotation marks) in my opinion manages to streamline where needed, making the listening experience overall smooth despite the considerable track lengths. With "Splugen" our guys exhaust their reserve of pedals and loops, creating a small fresco akin to certain very distorted dark ambient. "Van Pur" returns to the more substantial territories of the album's opening, while maintaining greater openness and more post-rock sounds. In any case, in the end, it's the noise that overwhelms everything.

The Gatos prove to be interesting and juicy like few other bands (and not just in the local Apulian surroundings). Aside from slight vocal inconsistencies, the work shows excellent technical mastery and is in any case a tasty prelude to new, unexpected (and increasingly geeky!) developments.

Up the Gatos!