Picking up this reissued Italian library disc as an entirely blind buy (how could I not?), I must admit I had my fingers crossed for some H. Tical/‘Distortions Pop’ type heavy rock freakouts, or some foot-tapping, Bruno Nicolai-esque weirdo-giallo jams – but for better or worse, it turns out maestro Iacoucci was going more a rather more literal and primal interpretation of the term “psychedelic”.

As such, proceedings opens with some weird tone generator stuff that sounds like a pair of Clangers attempting to sing opera, before subsequent pieces bring in harpsichord, piano, scittering free drumming and stridently atonal bass for some studio-warped “jazz on the moon” type shenanigans that might have escaped from the more fragrant end of Sun Ra’s planet of sound. Climbing-the-mountains-of-Mars reverbed kettle drum crescendos are up next, then bleeping sci-fi movie sonar noises, before the flip-side opens with something that briefly sounds like one of those atonal nightmare dirges that Morricone used to bust out for gialli soundtracks… and then it’s back to Moon Base Alpha again for laughing gas cocktails in the jazz capsule.

Basically then: if you’ve ever felt the urge to create a parody of an aggressively experimental Italian library music album from the early 1970s (a pretty niche audience for those laffs, I’m guessing), give up immediately - ‘Simbolismo Psichedelico’ already covers that ground so perfectly as to render your efforts surplus to requirements.

To be honest, only a maniac would be likely to deem this LP ‘essential’, and with so much of this kind of way-out weirdness popping up in the reissue racks these days, I’m not sure that ‘Simbolismo Psichedelico’ will claim much space in many listeners’ lives. Although there are moments here that arguably break through to the increasingly busy plateau of “long lost avant garde genius”, the more persistent feeling is that of “a couple of blokes farting about in the studio for the few days after the boss demanded ‘something spacey and psychedelic’”. But, well, I dunno - I like it nonetheless. It’s quite the mood-setter, that’s for sure – especially if the mood you tend to favour is one in which everyone else leaves the building, leaving you to watch a Czech sci-fi movie in peace. Score.

You can listen and download directly from Intervallo’s bandcamp, or check Discogs for the vinyl.

Labels: best of 2016, comps & reissues, Gerardo Iacoucci, Italy, library music