The Morlocks
Play Chess

So far I've been joking, but sooner or later I'll get a taste for it, and with the excuse of DeBaser, I'll bring out everything that seems right to me ...

Giorgio Gaber will forgive me for the quote, but I find it absolutely perfect for the occasion, given that in the presence of the Morlocks, the groups I've gradually proposed are little more than a joke.

And since the ones I consider the best garage record in history and the second best garage record in history have already been noted, I'm content (so to speak) to present to you the latest birth of Leighton Koizumi, body and soul (and everything else) of the legendary Gravedigger V first and the equally indispensable Morlocks then.

And certainly Leighton couldn't have chosen a better name for the group. Created by the novelist H.G Wells, the Morlocks are the underground humanoids that populate the pages of «The Time Machine» and, under the cover of darkness, sometimes emerge to the surface. Now, tell me if you can distinguish, between this one and this other one, who is the Morlock and who is Leighton.

And moreover, if there is a group that can be defined as underground, it undoubtedly answers to the name of Morlocks: a record released in 1985 - the amazing «Emerge» - a couple of live shows between 1988 and 1991, signs of life from «Uglier Than You'll Ever Be» in 1997, and then total darkness ... so much that news of Leighton's death from overdose becomes semi-official.

Not at all. Our man resurrects in Italy in 2004 and makes every enthusiast of the Bel Paese a new St. Thomas, a witness to appearances repeated up and down the Boot.

It is the prelude to a grand style comeback in 2007, with «Easy Listening For The Underachiever», just to reaffirm who is the undisputed and indisputable godfather and master of the garage scene for the past thirty years. It's the feeling you get when you listen to a punk band from the nineties or later and think ... this is good; then, by chance, you stumble upon a late Iggy Pop on a night of grace or «Zeno Beach» by Radio Birdman and then, magically, everything falls back into place.

Now, with «The Morlocks Play Chess», Leighton goes extremely heavy, reinterpreting twelve more or less famous tracks recorded for the Chess Records in the night of times.

One reads the setlist, finds (among others) the classic «I'm A Man», «Killing Floor», «Smokestack Lightning», «Who Do You Love», «Boom Boom», «You Never Can Tell», and «Back In The U.S.A.» and maybe thinks ... well, the Morlocks have hit rock bottom and are scraping the barrel to attract some fool, maybe someone ready to exclaim  «But it's the Pulp Fiction song» or worse «But it's the Pavesini commercial».

But get rid of such a thought immediately because someone like Leighton would rather die on the spot than put something less than honest and passionate on record: damn, he is Leighton Koizumi, not just any Eric Clapton!!

On the contrary, the first thought that grabs you and doesn't let go for quite a while is that the Morlocks have returned with an album of originals, a great album no less. Twelve new Morlocks tracks, then, because Leighton's ability to personalize everything is unrivaled, almost like the madness that shakes him, the same that pushes him to open and close «Help Me» to the rhythm of «My Generation» or even to wear Joey Ramone's jacket, torn jeans, and tennis shoes in «Promised Land».

And here I take the opportunity to consider how only the Ramones in «Acid Eaters» and a few other greats (Nick Cave, Mark Lanegan ...) have managed to identify themselves so much in someone else's songs to make them their own.

So, there is no doubt that Leighton is the greatest and that for him this is not just a note to follow and precede another hundred, but something more, a matter of life or death.

As always, long live garage rockers worldwide and long live the spiritual father of all gazzers, Leighton Koizumi.