Novembre
Wish I Could Dream It Again

THE REVIEW

When I first listened to "Wish I Could Dream It Again", I was stunned to learn about this band's Italian nationality: it's 1994, Litfiba is bringing "Spirito" to life, and a year later Timoria will gift us the excellent "2020 Speedball".

Well, even in Italy, the icy wind of Scandinavian countries influenced the inspired minds of two brothers of Sicilian origin, Carmelo and Giuseppe Orlando. And that's why it would be limiting to classify the genre of this album, an interweaving of Burzum-like atmospheres (in fact, in one of the booklet's images Carmelo is wearing the T-shirt of "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss"), softened by the Mediterranean taste of classical guitars. This is the atmosphere of "Wish I Could Dream It Again", a journey into the melancholic yet simultaneously angry world of Carmelo Orlando, voice and guitar and author of almost all the album's lyrics.

And it is precisely the vocal line adopted by Carmelo that attracts the listener's attention: a powerful scream alternating with clean parts that sometimes go beyond the limit of tuning. Many criticized Carmelo's clean singing, still inexperienced in front of the microphone, although I believe that in the context of this album, those off-pitches are part of the best of the entire project's architecture.

Tracks like "Sirens in Filth" and "Swim Seagull In The Sky" will remain as some of the best of Novembre's production: the scream is obsessive, and the riffs of pure black staple hold well the rhythmic section of a very young Giuseppe Orlando. And the work of the latter deserves praise: by listening to "Let Me Hate" you will appreciate his immense qualities, perhaps hindered by sufficient production, although two years later with "Arte Novecento", the younger brother of the Catanese combo will be able to give free rein to his technical skill.

I was telling you about magical, dreamlike, Mediterranean atmospheres, the result of a very successful interlock between classical arpeggios inspired by Fabrizio De André (Carmelo is still a great enthusiast of our late poet) and the aforementioned black bursts. "Behind My Window/My Seas of South" and "Nostalgia/Its Gaze" will make you sink into these worlds.

Notable is also the presence of a couple of solos (a secular component of this genre) in the track "Swim Seagull In The Sky" (as you can see, I really love this piece).

A bit for the not excellent production, a bit for commercial ideas, in 2002, Novembre decided to re-record "Wish I Could Dream It Again", changing its title to "Dreams D'azur": it is a more mature revisitation, accompanied by a markedly better production, in which the vocal parts are replaced (with sometimes excessive overdubs) by a Carmelo now mastering his voice.

In my view, all this was unnecessary, "Wish I Could Dream It Again" remains a very valid debut album, considering that in 1994 the Italian scene was quite far from this genre.