Steeplejack Dream Market Radio

(Here’s the amazing and long awaited Steeplejack’s NEW double Long Playing!

<It’s a magic enchantment born from a “strange” combination of lysergic rock, primitive blues, acid folk and ethnic music, all distilled in 13 original tracks plus a transfigured cover of Captain Beefheart’s "Kandy Korn" and a heavily revisited ancient traditional song ("Gallows Pole")> #Roberto Calabrò – Ltd edition of 400 copies including lyric sheet, gatefold sleeve and CD!!)

Steeplejack is one of the oddest and most intense experiences emerged from the Italian underground during the 80’s
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It was 1988 when Steeplejack, the visionary psychedelic sonic creature of Maurizio Curadi, released their last album, “Pow Wow”. In a way, it was also their first given that the band’s previous efforts were the wonderful mini-LP "Serena Maboose" (1987) and a finished master tape named "High High & Shakin’ Trees" which was intended for print but remained unreleased until 2011 when it was included in the double-CD anthology "No-One’s Land". Since then, apart from a track in the early 90s compilation “Apocalisse di Diamante” and a mini-CD in 2006 ("Six Fishes from Unknown Seas "), Steeplejack’s discographic tracks were mysteriously lost and their activity went largely ignored by the specialist press.

Now Steeplejack are back with a new double album, a collaboration with some of the most active indie labels of the Italian underground scene: Area Pirata, Psych Out and Rock Bottom.

The overall theme of "Dream Market Radio" – as the title suggests – is about dreams and dreaming. The 15 compositions are divided into four “chapters” and are a journey into the inner universe of the group’s deus ex machina Maurizio Curadi and his bandmates Alessandro Tellini and Elio Gavarini.

Often hanging in the balance between structure and abstraction, Curadi’s music lends itself to group improvisation, creating a sort of “total psychedelia” where experimentation and tradition merge and become one.

"Dream Market Radio" is a wonderful psychedelic album where the adjective ‘psychedelic’ refers to an inner mental space where images and sensations freely flow. That’s because between velvet smoothnesses and sharp edges, hypnotic patterns and wild rhythms, visions of meadows and sunsets and arcane mysterious figures take shape. You are swept away into the dreamy atmospheres of the music. It’s a magic enchantment born from a “strange” combination of lysergic rock, primitive blues, acid folk and ethnic music, all distilled in 13 original tracks plus a transfigured cover of Captain Beefheart’s "Kandy Korn" and a heavily revisited ancient traditional song ("Gallows Pole").

Follow Gil Scott-Heron’s advice and find a place by yourself, turn off your mobile, play "Dream Market Radio" and immerse yourself in the magical world of Steeplejack.

Roberto Calabrò
Blow Up magazine

Tracklist Lp:

Side 1 – Red Sunset Sihouettes

1. THE MATTER OF DREAMS (3:15)
2. THERE WAS A TIME (5:35)
3. (THE HORSE OF THE) KNIGHT ERRANT (10:25)

Side 2 – Shiny Ink

1. GALLOWS POLE (2:11)
2. LONGITUDES AND LATITUDES (2:42)
3. A STORY FROM THE WRIGHT BROS. (3:39)
4. BEHIND THE SUN ( 4:29)
5. DREAM MARKET RADIO (1:26)

Side 3 – Twigs

1. LADYBIRD (4:20)
2. SATISFIED (2:20)
3. SONG FOR THE LAST LEVEL CROSSINGS (4:18)
4. WILD OAT AND STONES (3:33)

Side 4 – Teclafish in Exagon

1. ALL THE TIME ALL THE TIME ALL THE TIME (6:29)
2. KANDY KORN (6:11)
3. DAM (8:09)

Tracklist Cd:

1. THE MATTER OF DREAMS
2. THERE WAS A TIME
3. (THE HORSE OF THE) KNIGHT ERRANT
4. GALLOWS POLE
5. LONGITUDES AND LATITUDES
6. A STORY FROM THE WRIGHT BROS.
7. BEHIND THE SUN
8. DREAM MARKET RADIO
9. LADYBIRD
10. SATISFIED
11. SONG FOR THE LAST LEVEL CROSSINGS
12. WILD OAT AND STONES
13. ALL THE TIME ALL THE TIME ALL THE TIME
14. KANDY KORN
15. DAM
Plus hidden track

Written and produced by M.CuradiREVIEW

Richard Allen – Shindig #42 09/2014

The West Coast proclaimers of the ’80s Italian neo-Psychedelic underground return with this stunningly ambitious double LP. Multi-instrumentalist Maurizio Curadi leads a trio completed by Alessandro Tellini on bass and Ello Gavarini on drums. What is immediately apparent is the much improved production given the bands ’80s releases suffered from a thin sound. Opening cut the ‘Matter of Dreams’ swirls with psychedelic effects and the anticipated ringing west coast guitar solos. ‘There Was a Time’ follows with bewitching dreamy sitar and vocals over a pulsing bass line and impresses the listener further. A frantic garage rock rendition of Led Zeps ‘Gallows Pole’  delicate acoustic guitar piece ‘Wild Oats and Stones’ and the trippy improvised Quicksilver like "All the Time, All The Time, All The Time" are just some of the dazzling moments on this sure to be cult classic that perfectly absorbs its retro psychedelic references into a fresh contemporary whole.

Vote: 5/5