Neil On Impression
The Perfect Tango

Neil On Impression, a young and little-known band from Forli, has already released three albums: "For A New Grammar Of Feelings" (2003), "L'oceano delle onde che restano onde per sempre" (2008), and "The Perfect Tango" released in 2006 by Grab the Stars, a small label from Bolzano. The album represents the perfect union between the inexperience and naivety of their debut and the refinement and construction of the soundscape of their latest work. The sound of the group is characterized by the presence of typical elements of instrumental post-rock with the inclusion of classical instruments such as violin, cello, and wind instruments that help create dense and melancholic atmospheres when necessary, light and gentle when the rhythm tends to slow down and calm. The acoustic part prevails throughout the album where electronics are practically absent, not even used marginally. Instead, the group prefers the use of classical instrumentation and builds all the important atmospheres with it.

The four total tracks that make up the album overlap, creating a splendid interplay of emotions and sentiments evoked by the music's consistently high-level atmosphere. As is often the case for these bands, it's tempting to find similarities and references to other groups in the international post-rock scene. So, one might try to find connections with the melodic post-rock of Explosions in the Sky or 65DaysofStatic rather than with Do Make Say Think or God is an Astronaut. In fact, the connections certainly exist, but as already mentioned in relation to A New Silent Corporation, they are absorbed and made their own. The truth is that Neil On Impression does not care whether they play instrumental and experimental rock or post-rock in the classic sense; what truly matters is that they manage to create exciting and elegant music that captivates the listener from the beginning to the end of the album in a parallel world that's hard to leave.

This is indeed the feeling that emerges from listening to the album. Right from the first track, "Stars Paint The Forest Gold", the impact with the group's music is decisive and immediate, with no compromises. A whirl of violent and sinuous violin and drums welcomes and invites you into the world of Neil On Impression, an invitation difficult to resist—a whirlwind of emotions without pauses, slowed only by the violin which calms and regains strength to then lead us into the splendid "Like Hippos Running To The Moon", where the piano and violin seem to chase and court each other. A melancholic and poignant courtship in the sole light of the moon, which from above watches over that wonderful game of love that explodes again with the introduction of all the other instruments in a compelling solo of electric guitar that slowly gives way once more to the notes of piano and violin that chase each other now fast and elusive, now slow and calm in a crescendo of increasingly present drums that almost overshadow them. "The Silent Glance Of Andromeda" seems to almost introduce us to a world at the edge of the universe where our natural laws no longer apply, where even emotions have a different flavor. "The Perfect Tango", the title track and conclusion of the album, brings us back to reality, an interstellar journey where we slowly reclaim our being and realize that we've always been on Earth, not having moved even a centimeter, while our soul still tries to forget those lunar landscapes, those constellations once so close that we could almost touch them, immersed in the void and sustained by the notes of violin and piano, and now instead so far away. "The Perfect Tango" is also a sort of concept album; it indeed revisits some themes dear to Bertolucci, themes intertwined between dance, death, rebirth, and the city as a journey of life, losing and finding oneself as metaphors of this labyrinth.

Once again, the album is recommended to both lovers and non-lovers of the genre, to confirm the fact that the Italian post-rock scene is in constant flux and transformation, and beyond the usual well-known names like Giardini di Mirò and Port-Royal, many other young bands are increasingly making their presence felt.