No Strange
Trasparenze e suoni

In the 1980s, the music scene was rather bleak. New wave was ruling at the time and the sounds were cold and plastic. But there were those who boldly went against the grain, as was the case with the Paisley Underground movement and the neo-psychedelic and garage-punk scene. Even in Italy, the phenomenon of revival and the recovery of certain atmospheres experienced some buzz (though amplified by specialized magazines) with numerous bands starting to use Farfisa, fuzz, and dressing like the '60s. The impression is that critics lumped everything together, confusing the bands playing garage-punk (like the excellent Sick Rose) with those doing psychedelia. Among them were the No Strange of the psychedelic guru Salvatore d’Urso Ursus and Alberto Ezzu: the group (initially named No Strani) actually had an eclectic musical background ranging from beat to psychedelia to krautrock (Amon Düül II) and certain less conventional Italian prog (Claudio Rocchi, Battiato, and Aktuala). Definitely an unconventional formation with deep roots compared to those who perhaps picked up a guitar chasing the trend of the moment.

In 1985, the No Strange released their debut album No Strange (also known by some as Trasparenze e suoni). That mythical and mythological vinyl contained a long suite of almost 20 minutes entitled "Trasparenze e suoni". You certainly had to be a bit crazy to release at that time a long, liquid, and lysergic suite. It felt like listening to the first album by Ash Ra Tempel: the No Strange had somehow found the key to enter the temple of the god Ash Ra! Meditative music made for the spirit and mind, also a child of the expansive atmospheres of the Pink Floyd of A Saucerful Of Secrets. But during the listening of the record, also, the love for certain Italian psychedelia and beat was evident (a subject on which the psychedelic Ursus is an authority). "Let Me Play The Sitar" in this sense is almost an aesthetic and ideological manifesto of their interests leading them towards the East evoked by Hermann Hesse in Siddhartha. "The New World" evokes the flowers and colors of the '60s. "Another Morning" is a lively garage-punk track with sitar as the protagonist, fitting well into the era's "zeitgeist" immortalized by the compilation Eighties Colours published by Electric Eye. "The Sound Is God" closes this enigmatic and surreal work in a mystical manner. The first edition had a transparent cover with a psychedelic drawing, and even the vinyl was transparent.

May Cthulhu reissue this record since Toast doesn't want to hear about it!