Hear The Track Here
As an indication of how backed up my review system is, I recieved a request to review Andrea Caccese over six weeks ago and lookee here, it finally gets there. Andrea is a solo musician, originally from Italy (Ed: nooooooo) but now living and working in Sweden. Smart boy, maybe he knows what it is in the air/water/food supply of that country that makes their musicians so bloody good. Believe me, I've been living with that thought for a long time. Anyway, Icarus Falling etc is the latest project from him and was, apparently, put together while travelling throughout Europe. He recruited cellist Nadja Ali from the town he eventually settled in to add some other flavours to the four tracks on offer and lo... Yeah but, you mutter, how the **** do you know all this?
All a bit TMI even for me, innit.
The reason, my stupified friends, is that this man has a WIKI!! Damn, I am so jealous. Even I don't have a Wiki, although I try not to publicise this disgraceful lack.. (Ed: that's because you mean nothing Gilmore, deal with it!). So, jealousy aside, what's shaking musically here? Icarus Falling is the first track out of the box and sets the scene for the whole EP and considering it was made in a succession of 'apartments, hotel rooms, trains and airports' it sounds pretty decent, if a little too clean for my tastes. Nadja's cello takes centre stage on Set The World On Fire, and I suspect that's her on the backing vocal too and the combination of Andrea and the aching beauty of the track instantly assured a place in my heart. Lovely song for sure.
I never bought into the cults surrounding Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, but I was aware of their music and when Andrea compares himself to them, I'd say that was accurate, at least for the majority of the tracks.The only real oddity here is Playing With Ghosts which is definitely more tinkly **** than I could stand, even while I could appreciate is as an ambient piece and I'm never very friendly with that genre. The last song, Stars and Satellites, reverts back to the folk music style of the other tracks although peppered this time with some squally electric guitar. This was also the track that, for my money, illustrated the one problem with this whole set. With the exception of Set The World On Fire, the vocals in all cases was too low, and on Stars and Satellites it was noticeably so. Meh, small change if what I have described (Ed: totally inadequately) sounds good to you.
Highly Recommended Folk (uh uh)
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