Leopardo - SOLO RECORDINGS 2019-2022 – New LP

LEOPARDO from Fribourg, Switzerland with something certainly somewhat like their previous album, still likely influenced by folks like Syd Barrett and VU, drenched in melancholy and unsettling, an uneasiness running through a good portion of both sets...yet along with unsettling elements, the previous album often seemed comforting, like sitting on the davenport in the basement with a paper-plate dinner and people you really like the most, featured some lifting of the blanket of melancholy, rays of sunshine and whiffs of fresh breezes, always seemed an attempt to lift out of the gloom, and whenever it seems to be getting too heavy, they notched up the tempo and hopped in StepVan and headed off through the fog toward a beach where the sun might not have been shining but friends were certainly waiting.  While this one has some quirky garage pop, for much of this, the tires seem submerged in mud, the band abandoning the van completely and moving through a bath of baked beans and heavy pear syrup, give up on trying to push the jangle and chime through the fuzz and distortion, finally on the last cut moving into the space-rock tar-pit acid-rock territory of late 1960s, Pink Floyd after Syd departed, and early 1970s Black Sabbath/Alice Cooper Group at their most tripped out and atmospheric, when the influence of voodoo soundtracks and early Pink Floyd were surfacing.  If this brings you to a beach at the end, the sun has set a long time ago, and your head hums with drugs, the earth rising and horizon blurring into the foggy darkness. -- winch

"It isn’t the pastoral Impressionism of the prior Leopardo LP, on which you can almost hear the sunshine, taste the mountain tops. Just as the Velvets often lived in the oblivion of sunbeams, Leopardo knows the finer things in life are quiet anticipation, rigorous conversation on a scenic drive, minneolas, gusts of wind. Like with the band Cheveu (remember?) you can’t help speculating on a film out of tunes like “Temperature”. There are people who enjoy reading Rimbaud on oceanic vacation as much as they like blowing lines off a washing machine in a Midwest winter basement, and this is for that type of lifer." -Brandon Gaffney