The Backwards Eerie Thoughts Collection pt. 3

(Long-awaited reissue of the only Lp (1990) made by this great Italian psych band, plus an amazing selection of
their best tracks remastered and originally released on their demo cassettes between 1989 to 1993 and now
ready to BLOW UP YOUR MIND!!!)Long-awaited reissue of the only Lp (1990) made by this great Italian psych band, plus an amazing selection of their best tracks remastered and originally released on their demo cassettes between 1989 to 1993 and now ready to BLOW UP YOUR MIND!!!

THE BACKWARDS: ITALIAN UNDERGROUND’S BEST KEPT SECRET…OR SO IT SEEMS!!!
by Roberto Calabrò *
The Backwards are one of the best kept secrets of the Italian underground. A true revelation that came out of the psychedelic scene in
the late Eighties when the interest in the neo-Sixties movement was already decreasing and the media attention was turning elsewhere.
The geographical location too – the group was from Genoa, an important city but miles away from the underground movement major
centres – helped in creating an obscure cult-band dimension, which did not at all displease Pierpaolo Rizzo, deus ex machina of the
project and, at the time, a young medical student with a burning passion for the original Sixties psychedelia as well as for the new
psycho-pop sensations (Robyn Hitchcock, Julian Cope) coming from the UK.
After the initial Chapter 24 that evoked the Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd, the chosen band’s name immediately revealed that the imaginary
the songwriter was drawing heavily on: Backwards in fact refers to the tapes turned upside down (and other sonic weird home-made
effects) so much in vogue in the late Sixties.
Prior to their debut album, in 1989 the band released an intriguing demo-tape titled "Real Life Permanent Dream": a collection of
psycho-pop gems always suspended between an acid and nostalgic side and a more aggressive and gritty one. It’s exactly in this "middle land" that the unique and instantly recognizable Backwards’ sound takes shape. Hidden among the original songs, there are
also four covers that reveal some of the quartet’s tutelary deities: the Creation ("Makin’ Time"), Robyn Hitchcock ("The Lizard"), The
Byrds of the "Fifth Dimension" period ("Why"), The Chocolate Watchband ("No Way Out").
It’s just a tasty starter for the album that will be released just 12 months later for Crazy Mannequin, the Milan-based label owned by
members of Peter Sellers & The Hollywood Party.

"Eerie Thoughts Collection pt. 3" – that’s the album’s title – started to take shape between Recco, where Rizzo lived in that period, and
Milan, where the album was recorded at Window st by Fabio Magistrali with the help of some musicians of the Crazy Mannequin’s
entourage: Cesare Polenghi, Stefano Concobeach and Mic Martiradonna (Pow), Uncle Tybia and Magick (Tiberio Longoni and
Stefano Ghittoni of Peter Sellers) and Valeria (Impulsive Youth), under the clever production of the sound engineer Fabio Magistrali.

The album is a kaleidoscope of colours, a maze where to get lost between acid ballads, lysergic acceleration, evocative acoustic
fragments, catchy pop songs, melancholy numbers that few moments later descend into psychedelic rock songs. It’s pure magic.
Without doubt we can define it as one of the best Sixties-oriented albums released in Europe in that creative season.
More than twenty years later "Eerie Thoughts Collection pt. 3" returns today to charm us again. The CD you’re holding in your hands
contains the whole Backwards debut album as well as the 10 songs included in their first legendary demo "Real Life Permanent
Dream", plus a number of other intriguing/dreamlike episodes coming out from the demos (actually real LP’s on cassette) that
Backwards were generously releasing until 1993: the year in which the band’s adventure ended and the story of Lo-Fi Sucks began!
This retrospective is therefore a unique opportunity to make up for lost time and dive into the dreamy dimension of a minor
masterpiece that time has given us back intact in all its magic.

* Author of "Eighties Colours. Garage, beat e psichedelia nell’Italia degli anni Ottanta"

TRACK LISTENING:

1. Love song (Barrett)
2. The Backwards Are Here
3. Travellin’ Knight
4. She Stared At Her Own Feet
5. Out Of Focus
6. Across Your Mind
7. My Advice For You
8. Pause
9. Your Precious Time
10. Happily Ever After
11. Upstairs
12. In search Of Yourself
13. Portrait (of an unbalanced mind)
14. Evening Conversation
15. Daily Rites
16. Point of View
17. Makin’ Time (Pickett/Philips)
18. Across Your Mind
19. So Asleep
20. The Lizard (R. Hitchcock)
21. In search Of Yourself
22. Portrait (of an unbalanced mind)
23. Nasty, When I’m Leaving
24. My Advice For You
25. Why (McGuinn/Crosby)
26. No Way Out (Cobb)
27. Spoiled Child
28. Or So It Seems
29. Here She Comes Now (Reed)
30. My Attic

REVIEW

Ugly Things #36 – Fall/Winter 2013 – Dennis Dalcin

The Backwards are one

of the best
kept secrets of the ’80s Italian underground. They were from Genoa, a large
city but not close to the major centers
of underground music in Italy at the
time such as Torino, Florence and
Rome. The band was the brainchild
of a young medical student by the
name of Pierpaolo Rizzo. The sound
was a combination of Syd Barrett
fronting Pink Floyd, the Electric Prunes
and the Church all at the same time.
In other words, catchy songs with
tremolo-laden fuzz guitars and trippy
vocals.

Eerie Thoughts Collection Pt 3 was
their first album released in 1990,
which makes up the first 16 tracks of
this CD. Their first demo tape, released
in 1989, a year before their first LP,
was known as Real Life Permanent
Dream and included songs originally
recorded by some of their idols such
as the Creation, the Byrds, Chocolate
Watchband and Robyn Hitchcock.
They make up tracks 17-26, and are a
great mix of originals and cover tunes
by the above mentioned bands. The
final four tracks are taken from their
1992 Delerium Records cassette album
Or So It Seems, and their unreleased
1993 LP The Ocean Inside.
This release comes with a very nice
12-page booklet with liner notes in
English and Italian. A superb collection of ’80s Italian psychedelia by one
of its best bands.