Orient Express
Illusion

At Orient Express, as drummer Pablo puts it, they like to self-identify as a "psycho-rock" band.

The full understanding of such a definition can certainly only be grasped after a careful listen to their debut album ILLUSION (for the independent label MY KINGDOM MUSIC, distributed by Audioglobe). The connecting thread throughout the entire album is the strong psychedelic influence, a dominant element in almost all the tracks, intertwining with hard rock and grunge spirit, all with strong seventies influences.

Eternal Child, the opening track, shows the way: a first part with a slow pace (which in this specific case seems to echo AFTERHOURS' Quello Che Non C'è and Dentro Marilyn), which progresses and brings the Orient to express all their sound power. This very power is reiterated in an extremely convincing way in Madness, a fairly anachronistic piece compared to the rest of the album, but of great impact and with strong seventies shades, featuring a beautiful main riff, dry and incisive.

The title track unequivocally expresses what are the peculiarities of the band, both in music and in lyrics. The initial obsessive pace and the almost whispered singing unravel into a splendid psychedelic web, where the blend of instruments finds its maximum expression and the vocal intensity of Wito, are overlaid with great mastery. Certainly more catchy and immediate is Prison Head, a fresh track, really well-constructed, in which especially towards the end, the guitars of the once RADIOHEAD echo. 

Of notable emotional depth is Rats Know, also very interesting in the electronic alchemy elaborated by Blondie, making it even more poignant and intense, as profound is, once again, Wito's interpretation, perfectly shaping to the changes of the song. Ten Drops promises a lot, with a nice electro-acoustic intro, but ends up wrapping itself too insistently without ever taking off and ultimately comes across as a bit monotonous, despite vibrant and well-crafted arrangements and guitar harmonies. Such completeness is instead reached by First Dawn, driven by a syncopated rhythm section and a decidedly heavy guitar in the starting phase.

In Hidden Man you can perceive in the background of the group, a strong grunge imprint, with notable influences received, in the harder sections, from the devastating power of the GOD MACHINE and QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, the same applies to Today; but, apart from the accuracy of the sounds, the two tracks slip away leaving a bit of a bitter taste. The album closes with Euphoria, which draws heavily from the more acid and expansive MOTORPSYCHO. The track is decidedly well-structured and flawlessly executed by the Orient, who seem to wear their best suit when they venture down the path of psychedelic digressions.

Pessimistic and anguished vision of life in their lyrics, that "mal de vivre" typical of grunge, which at times seems to want to surrender to the resignation of suffering the inevitable fate and at other moments conceals a desire for reaction that flares from the fire that walks within us.

The flaws can be identified in the setlist and the repetitiveness of the structure of the tracks. One offers its best in the first half only to fade in the second, the other almost always identical to itself, has slow and minimalist intros only to explode into powerful and whirling digressions which in the long run risk becoming monotonous for the listener.

A debut, that of the Apulian band, undoubtedly noteworthy, in which emerge a notable ability to create inspired and imaginative melodies and a meticulous care and competence in the execution and arrangement of the tracks, always with a seventies aftertaste, that stands out particularly in GG's guitar escapades, a talented and imaginative pick, and in Pablo's skillful drumming, precise and measured at times, powerful and aggressive on other occasions and incredibly adept in the use of the cymbals, yet never conceding anything to mere stylistic exercise and exercises in mannerism.