HOBOS///
Not a Safe Place

Another year is coming to an end and it's time for musical assessments; this debut by HOBOS/// is vying for a spot as one of my albums of 2015, and I didn't even have to look far to find them since the group is from Piedmont.

They play in a classic trio with guitar+vocals, bass, and drums, but they sound like three hundred with the vigor and drive they put into it. A short album that doesn't reach forty minutes, featuring ten tracks all composed by the trio except for a cover of Alice In Chains. "Bewildered" is the first term that came to mind as I listened; it was a surprise, as I didn't expect such a sound at all: country-rockabilly, smelling of the American Far West. Marco's voice reminded me of Bill Steer's, guitarist of the monumental Carcass (...my beloved Death Metal), in his Hard Rock Firebird project.

A "genuine and rural" crossover played full-throttle without getting lost in unnecessary introductory frills: an explosive mix that's hard to associate with other Italian memories. As a point of comparison, the Stray Cats came to mind, especially in Marco's already mentioned twisted and electrifying guitar solos, which clash with the overflowing and colorful country of the Meat Puppets' "Forbidden Places" era.

The album opens explosively with "This is Not a Safe Place," a track that has incredible drive and immediately sets the precise coordinates of the album. An additional asset is the rhythm section of Pably on bass and Max on drums, which decisively contrasts with the crazy phrasing of the vocalist-guitarist. And what to say about the cover of "Man In The Box": a track that made me laugh heartily, with that street-folk-mocking imprint typical of Les Claypool (a song, by the way, that the Primus bassist redid in his crazy project named Duo De Twang).

There are two tracks that stuck in my head, without taking anything away from all the other songs: "Sometimes I Fly," where country-rock prevails, featuring a simple and catchy chorus as its strong point; and especially "New Me," which opens with a "metallic" and liquid arpeggio (and here my metallic background made me jump because this time I thought of the masters Van Halen), with that shift, almost at the end, to a western-Morriconian style where I closed my eyes for a moment and found myself in the middle of a village festival in Texas, with rodeo, barbecues, and rivers of beer.

Thus, we quickly arrive at the last track, "One of These Days," where the guys unplug, taking an acoustic, dreamy flower-pop path; with a graceful, totally unexpected finale that smells of that late sixties Californian sound. A difficult closure to imagine after the electric bursts that fill and abound in much of the album.

In conclusion, a work that can be listened to with absolute pleasure, produced and played excellently; and paraphrasing the very title of the work "This is a safe place!!!" Well done, really well done.

Ad Maiora.