Taking their name from a Syd Barrett song, Jennifer Gentle play '60s psych-pop in a style all their own. Italians Marco Fasolo and Alessio Gastoldello--boys, not girls as their name might suggest--blend traditional pop elements: fuzzed-out guitars, falsetto vocals, and thoughtful percussion mixed with glockenspiel, harmonium, combo organ, phased violins, and even kazoo. The result is acoustically hypnotic and surprising. On Valende they've made an authentic psychedelic album that expresses the benefit of the post-punk era like their contemporaries Ghost. The inclusion of field recorded birds and the crackle of trampled leaves; the right- and left-panned drums; and warm, woody bass sounds provide a great backing for the tenuous guitar transitions. "I Do Dream You" is a fast catchy, Tomorrow-esque ready-steady-go skiffle with purposefully placed R&B organ riffs. Fasolo's vocals move from sounding disinterested and drugged-out in "Universal Daughter" and "Tiny Holes" to an almost luscious whispering on the rainy-day lullaby "Circles of Sorrow." A sudden daring moodshift happens midway through the album with "Hessesopoa," a total freak-out, that breaks down sunny pop into experimental art-rock noise reminiscent of Albert Ayler. The album closer, "Nothing Makes Sense" runs the gamut from Stereo Total-like exuberance into a straightforward march, albeit with sped-up Alvin, Simon & Theodore vocals, finally settling into some unexpected whale sounds to round out the otherworldliness. Valende is solid psych-pop: It is familiar yet pushes the edge in a playful, daring way that isn't predictable. --Gabi Knight
Review by Wade Kergan
Italian duo Jennifer Gentle join Baby Lemonade and Gigolo Aunts in the small coterie of groups that have taken their names from the work of Syd Barrett. Unlike the others, though, both decidedly power pop rockers, the dedication goes a bit beyond just a name here. Marco Fasolo's voice shares the same edgy nasal quality as Barrett and the music he makes along with Alessio Gastaldello often bears the distinct imprint of a late-'60s psychedelic boot heel. Valende is their third album, fourth if you count 2003's Wrong Cage, a meeting between the band and Makoto Kawabata, and it continues their coy buzzing psychedelic expeditions. Only a few songs on Valende point overtly in the direction of Barrett: "Universal Daughter," the excellent freakbeat rave-up "I Do Dream You," and the album finale, "Nothing Makes Sense," which is so rife with pixie vocals and echo that it might as well be an outtake from Piper at the Gates of Dawn (that is both a compliment and a criticism). The rest of the album is full of shimmering folk touched with the everyday exotica of kazoos, squeaking balloons, slide whistles, bells, and xylophone. One such track, "The Garden, Pt. 1," is separated from its companion, "The Garden, Pt. 2," by "Hessesopoa," an extended freak-out, also of the late-'60s variety, centered around crashing cymbals and organ clusters. As familiar as the psychedelic reference points may be, Jennifer Gentle are able to distill them into something contemporary, or at least make listeners feel like contemporaries of a psychedelic era, both past and present.
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