Vito
Monument

"Monument" is the second album of the Welsh group Vito, originally from Cardiff, whose only source of notoriety is (for now, one hopes) belonging to the Flower Shop Records roster, which means the long hand of Robin Proper-Sheppard, excellent indie production and distribution, similar to the revived Swervedriver and the side projects of Sophia's creator (... and notoriously not only...).

The sonic formula of the four-piece can be summarized as follows: drumming that is sometimes impetuous and sometimes more subdued, frequent use of offbeat rhythm, melodic noise-rock with influences from Angelo Badalamenti, nods to the clear arrangements of the Sigur Ros and the concept of the wall of sound of the Mogwaii. This last seems almost a theatricalized concept from the title of the second track: "Breaking The Fourth Wall", a Pirandellian breaking of the fourth scenic wall or perhaps something else (in the previous "Vito Make Good Areas Disturbed" they had titled a song "Across The Rubicon"... do they love Italian Poetry and Theater?) or both, in the sense of a new conceptual approach to rock music tout court.

Apart from any conceptual aspirations, in this "Monumentum" Vito offers a handful of rock-songs cloaked in melody with a classicist flavor, built more in depth on an evanescent guitar sound, densely psychedelic, à la My Bloody Valentine, a fundamental trait d'union for all Art Rock that from Velvet Underground leads to the mentioned Mogwaii, frequent in this case too is the use of xylophones, which give a slightly exotic imprint to the songs, almost a sense of levity ("You Will Have Your Time" seems almost a theme similar to "Glosoli") whereas in other cases it is an imposing, impetuous, monumental indeed sound of electrified guitar enveloping with its circular coils progressively thicker a melody always very delicate and never banal or trivial. As happens in the splendid "Reclaimed!" (the most beautiful track of the entire work) or in the closing "The Setting Sun".

Music in balance between rock, psychedelia, and classical attitude, which has the hypertextual added value of fitting each individual track into a more extended whole, which reverberates its musical significance not on the single sonic segment.

Do we need to thank Robin Proper-Sheppard once again for his Flower Shop?