Gaznevada
Psicopatico Party

THE REVIEW

I first came across Gaznevada in the early '80s, when I was 13, after listening to a few tracks (including "NevadaGaz") on the radio and reading some reviews in music magazines! I bought their first album via mail order (I’m from Bari), I remember well, from a store in Bologna called "Disco D’oro", and upon listening to it, I was blown away. I must say it lived up to the best of Tuxedomoon, Talking Heads, ..., I couldn’t believe how an Italian band had managed to make one of the best albums in rock history! And then the choice of the band's name "Gaznevada" was truly brilliant, new and easy to remember!

So, caught up in enthusiasm, I bought their second album "Dressed to Kill" also via mail order from Disco D’oro. Well! You can imagine my slight disappointment, but masterpieces can’t be repeated, indeed listening to it, it was clear that something was missing, that magic that united the tracks of the first album! A lot more electronic and drum-machine, little sax, ..., still close to the genre of "Sick Soundtrack"!

I read in various magazines about the style change of the third album, but being attached to the band I bought it! It's worth noting that I previously bought the single "Ragazzi dello spazio/Dolly" from 1982, and I must admit it wasn’t bad, they reminded me a bit of Polyrock! Instead, "Psicopatico Party" was a huge disappointment! Let me clarify that I also like dance music, but well done! How can you ruin a band like that in so little time? It was 1983, they could have oriented towards Italian Rock (see Litfiba, Diaframma, Denovo, Underground Life,...), but instead an album devoid of ideas, insipid keyboards, I imagine Billy Blade (legendary) humming those songs, a real torture!!!

I would save just a few, particularly "Beirut Ovest", with harder sounds it would have been the turn towards the emerging Italian Rock of the period (at times it resembles "Elettrica Danza" by Litfiba).