Marcello Ventura – Nothing More (Than Blue-White Flames Of The Kitchen Gaz) (Blue vinyl)

Once upon a time, in the 1980s, there was a blossoming, in Italy, of bands able of developing a sound related to the neo-psychedelic movement that had taken root a few years earlier in the United States. Several were the gems that came out in that magical period. Among the many, notable was a demo-tape that circulated almost quietly on the scene that was colouring the nights of that generation.
It was ‘This song will never touch you’ by Marcello Ventura, a singular musician who was among the founders of the Pisan Byrdmen of Alkatraz. No official album was ever released from that demo, but thanks to Claudio Sorge’s review, the Turin-based label Onde italiane has released this gem in a limited edition of three hundred copies on blue vinyl. These are psychedelic pieces with muted tones in electro-acoustic form that were composed and recorded between December 1986 and May 1988.
The long ‘Nothing More Than Blue-White Flames Of The Kitchen Gaz’, which gives the album its title, is a ballad reminiscent of a character such as Roky Erickson and moves between a certain softness mixed with an eerie mood. The whole record is capable of offering us highly inspired moments that evoke the best lysergic sound. Tracks such as ‘This song will never touch you’ and ‘It’s true’ guide us skilfully through dreamy delicacies. Something brings us to the contemporary British C-86 scene with those alienating moods and pastel colours (‘Riding high’).
The advice is not to miss this marvel, there may not be a second chance!!!

Onde Italiane – ONIT LP 014