Luigi Pavone è nato nel 1985, come me. Il 1985 è un anno che, almeno nella memoria collettiva italiana, si lega principalmente ad una delle più massicce nevicate della storia meteorologica nazionale. Ma il 1985 fu anche l’anno del Live Aid e di We Are The World, di romanzi memorabili come Trilogia di New York, Meno di Zero, Meridiano di sangue e Atlante occidentale e di album non meno importanti come Steve McQueen, Songs from the Big Chair, Meat Is Murder e Psychocandy. Nel 1985, accendendo la radio, avreste potuto sentire Take On Me e poi magari Close to Me, mentre nel cinema più vicino vi avrebbero molto probabilmente accolto pellicole straordinarie come Ritorno al futuro, Brazil, TheGoonies e Breakfast Club. Insomma il 1985 sembrerebbe esser stato, a posteriori, un anno non così brutto da vivere. O in cui nascere.
Rhymies is the solo project of Lauren Matsui (guitarists with San Francisco shoegaze act Seablite and post-punk outfit Neutrals), and I Dream Watching is her debut EP, out now via Dandy Boy Records. For this project Lauren has traded her two suitcases of guitar pedals for an assortment of Korgs, Rolands and Yamahas. The songs are built on arpeggiated melodies and sequences rooted in the nostalgia of an 80s dance party. The gauzy textures serve as a perfect base for Matsui’s breathy, wistful vocals. Often glimpsed through the mire of swirling guitars on Seablite records, here they take center stage, to great effect. Written, arranged, and recorded at home in her living room, the new EP centers on Matsui’s voice and her synths. The title track brings to mind another artistically successful convert from guitar-to-synth-pop, Patience (Roxanne Clifford of Veronica Falls), while Crashing Lead somehow fuses the bounce of early Madonna with the ethereal, surreal vocals of Cocteau Twins. It’s the closer (and shortest track at 2:40), Hesperian (Again) which points to what we can hope for in the future. It builds one layer at a time to an ecstatic crescendo, before abruptly leaving us with only the memory of the refrain – “When’s it happening?”. For Rhymies, if there’s any justice, the answer is NOW.
French musician and singer Frank Rabeyrolles debuted in 2004 with Life behind the window, the first album of his project Double u, with dreamy and hybrid music, oscillating between pop, electronic and songwriting. A prolific and insatiable artist, Rabeyrolles released a solid succession of albums under Double u first then Franklin on different labels such as Sonar Kollektiv, Nocturne, Karat, Plug Research. At the end of 2011, it was under his real name that Frank Rabeyrolles decided to release a new album and with it, a desire to bare himself a little more. Between Experimental Pop, Folk Lo fi, Ambient, Frank never wanted or needed to choose. The sequel arrives in 2021 with A ghost by the sea, a record that asserts itself as Ambient, also endowed with a melodic and contemplative obsession that has been a trademark since its beginnings. In 2022 and 2023 he composed Boat Songs and Minor Blue, bittersweet ballads, in chiaroscuro, built around clear and concise guitars accompanied by Romain Delorme, Sebastien Pasquet in Guitar/Bass/Drums Trio. In early 2024 Frank Rabeyrolles returns to the solitary work of the Home studio in which he lends himself to cultivating a gentle schizophrenia between tenderness, sound roundness, echoes, spleen and hopes. In conversations, his magnificent latest record was released in February 2025 on French label Araki Records and Wool Recordings. Built around acoustic guitars and discreetly ”electronic” textures, it is a lofi songwriting album completely assumed. Sometimes classical, sometimes bedroom oriented this album crosses indie music without complex, both melancholic and sometimes joyful without academicism and fear. Your dream, taken from the recording session of In conversations, will be out on Wool Recordings on May 14th.
Un disco di esordio a quarant’anni dal primo scioglimento. Un evento certamente fuori del comune ma che è apparso logico, una volta fatte le proprie esperienze, dimenticati le gelosie e il rancore. Everything Changes Everything Stays The Same è uscito per la Tapete e vede il ricongiungimento in studio di Peter Astor con il chitarrista Andy Strickland, il bassista Bill Prince e il batterista Dave Morgan, quest’ultimo già con lui nei Weather Prophets, altra grande promessa della Creation non mantenuta (almeno a livello commerciale, .n.d.r.).
Sunrise (out today via The Sunday Pop Society) is a new collaboration between Grand Drifter (Andrea Calvo) & The Cascarino (Sergio Varbella). Grand Drifter is Italy-based Andrea Calvo’s musical project (voice, guitar, instruments). Sometimes as a band, sometimes him alone. In 2018 arrived his electroacoustic and gentle debut Lost Spring Songs on Sciopero Records, while in 2021 the more electric Only Child (Subjangle) was out. Paradise Window, his third record was released again via Subjangle in 2023, adding Sarah Records vibes, Belle and Sebastian popness and Grant McLennan’s melody. Cartoonist, illustrator and graphic designer, Sergio Varbella worked for Internazionale, Electa Mondadori, Edizioni EL Einaudi Ragazzi, Einaudi, Centauria, Fabbri Editori, La Rivista dei Ragazzi and has published some graphic novels: Piccole Donne (Electa Mondadori, 2020) Bauhuas. L’idea che ha cambiato il mondo, written by Valentina Grande (Centauria, Seuil, Prestel, 2021-22); Dynamic Depero, written by Cappa & Drago (Mart, 2021). As The Cascarino he worked with Grand Drifter and released, in 2023, the wonderful single The Summer Song.
Indie Sunset in Rome 