Øjne
Undici/Dodici

If I were to say Amherst, Massachusetts, just like that, without specific references, would it mean anything to you? I'm sure those of you who have already taken a peek, there on the right where there's the box indicating the musical genre, have already figured it out. For the curious, I'll add a name and surname: Will Killingsworth. Still staring into space? Especially because the review is about a very young group, standing since 2011, from Milan. Well, the gentleman mentioned above was the guitarist of a certain band that is a legend on the East Coast underground scene and a pillar of a musical scene: the Orchid. And not content, he is also part of the creation Ampere. Well, he is the one who mixed this debut EP by Øjne “Undici/Dodici”, five guys who know exactly which strings to pull.

There are five tracks offered, twenty melancholy minutes that perhaps pass all too quickly. That's exactly the feeling, when the arpeggio of “Ancora” drops the curtain and the temptation to start again from the beginning, from the warm whispers of “Glasgow” is too strong, indeed fully justified. It's the right EP for this autumn climate, with the atmosphere charged with energy, but well contained within melodic veins that explode when you least expect it, taking you straight back to the vintage Pg.99. Ideally, our guys take up those solutions glimpsed in La Quiete's “La Fine Non E’ La Fine”, as the screamo is well articulated, not just self-destructive screaming. The sounds are sharp and aggressive, but also paced when there's a need to create an atmosphere of regrets and disappointments, continuous stop'n'go that create those contrasts that damnably make late '90s/early '00s screamo, which we always need. Distortions that are healing for open wounds, being elusive against a cruel fate on a backdrop of sentimental opacity, in search of oneself, to understand how to stay balanced in a swing of precarious thoughts.
The Øjne have not only taken the lessons of the past and old school as God intended [Ammaniti wants the ©?], but they add a good dose of personality, as demonstrated by “Ancora” where storytelling takes over or the violent unraveling of “Voragine” which, starting from a frontal assault, expands into an articulated and compelling structure.

In short, I could mention every single episode of “Undici/Dodici” because in each of them you find the winning element, the detail that strengthens the proposal, a bit like the Roman Heisenberg [“Immaginarie Linee Matematiche Tra Cielo e Terra”, listen to it if you haven't done so yet!] use screamo as a starting base to develop a progressive matrix, here inside there's a horizon that changes cyclically with the opening of harmonious variations intertwined between dirty riffs and chaotic patterns.
It might be the greyness of Milan these past days, but they, yes, just as I've written between the lines, are indeed the perfect soundtrack. And yes, they have all the potential to become huge. I said it. We'll talk again in a couple of years, won't we?