Levitation
Need For Not

1991, West Hampstead, London.

My small loft with a separate entrance and a portion of garden, used as a dump by neighbors and passers-by, always needing to be cleaned to keep insects away. Towering in front, an imposing building abandoned for years, which once hosted the Decca studios on Broadhurst Gardens, where the Moody Blues locked themselves in to prepare and record what would become Days of Future Passed. I imagined Brian Jones and Marianne Faithfull stepping out of a limo and placing their feet on that sidewalk, but I had to settle for admiring the usual chronic alcoholics, long and sprawled at the entrance of the adjacent supermarket, waiting for it to open. My daily life didn't exactly shine with excitement and creativity either, based as it was on ready meals to heat up and mountains of dishes to wash.

Then my brother arrived, and his words: "You know I don't speak English, you need to quit that crappy job... I'll finance you!" So I became his interpreter, and we spent our evenings seeing concerts and downing pints in various places. One evening we decided on the Ozric Tentacles show at the Venue: when we got there, we were welcomed by a great live-sound that made us doubt the time, but the cashier reassured me "It's not the Ozrics, it's the supporting band, LEVITATION... they've just started!" We ended up almost at the foot of the stage, with the crowd pushing forward, completely captivated by devastating rhythms, neo-psychedelic effluvia and keyboard pads that took me back 20 years. I knew it was the new band of Terry Bickers, former guitarist of House Of Love, but the sound was completely different, with pieces I had never heard before, performed by a quintet that seemed like they'd been playing together forever.

1992

Back in Italy, in the meantime, I had procured the COPPELIA and THE AFTER EVER EPs and, not satisfied with that, also COTERIE, a sort of LP compilation with tracks taken from singles and live versions, but when I read about the release of the first studio album, I bought it instantly. After a few listens, the record reveals itself in all its beauty and importance: first of all, the enigmatic Bickers surrounds himself with respectable characters, worth mentioning is DAVE FRANCOLINI, an unstoppable drummer, technically an heir to great drummers like Bruford and Copeland, full of imagination in his phrasing, and CHRISTIAN HAYES, a guitarist who with the CARDIACS had enjoyed a pretty unique musical training ground and who would serve as the perfect link for the presence of TIM SMITH, the lord and master of the Cardiacs themselves, in the role of co-producer.

AGAINST NATURE and WORLD AROUND are the first two tastes: the most accessible pair of the record, perfectly skipping over the British-Shoegazing trench and preparing the ground for HANGNAIL, where a dazed harpsichord precedes a rampant visionary advance, reminding me of the war cry of the tribal chief before the stagecoach attack in John Ford's Stagecoach... (and in one of the stop-and-goes you can really hear the scream!). The almost progressive drive I noticed live becomes remarkable in RESIST, driven by LAURENCE O'KEEFE's bass: "Sometimes, I feel like everyone knows," Bickers suggests, getting lost in romantic meanderings that lead to the blooming square of ARCS OF LIGHT AND DEW, where the specter of Genesis meets acid revelations, in a rain of fragrant petals. PIECES OF MARY, a sonic earthquake of rare dissonant tension, resolves in a wonderful finale, laced with guitar spices and vocalizations you'd never want to end. SMILE, the only previously released track but in a newly refined version, is nothing but a fabulous missed hit single. EMBEDDED and COTERIE close, bestowing soft gifts to everyone, with ROBERT WHITE more prominently featured here, with treated piano and organ, and flows of hypnotic synths.

Unfortunately, Terry Bickers, who had already shown signs of imbalance while in House of Love, attempting to take his life, would lose interest in the project, and, aided by an attempt to sign with a major label, would cause it to collapse completely.

I think you've realized this is my favorite band and album of the '90s, I've listened to and shared it with friends and acquaintances for a long time.....

NOW IT'S UP TO YOU!