PSYCHEDELIC LIGHTS IN A DARK CITY

VU METERS are an Italian prog band from Rome that was formed by three experienced musicians coming from different experiences: Stefano Pontani (guitars, loops – previously with Ezra Winston, Anagramma and Mathilda Mothers), Fabrizio Santoro (bass, guitar, mandolin, keyboards – former member of Nodo Gordiano and Oak) and Ugo Vantini (drums, keyboards – in the past with Ezra Winston, Divae, Twin Dragons and drummer in a recent line up of the reformed “seventies cult band” Il Balletto di Bronzo).

“Dark City”, their debut album, was released in 2007. It’s the result of long “jam sessions”, it’s completely instrumental and features six long, complex tracks. The music flows like magma from volcano slopes, blending delicate beautiful melodies with fiery and raw passages with the rhythm section in the forefront. The mood is dark, unquiet like the art cover by Ugo Vantini...

In many passages this work could recall King Crimson (as in the opener “Brain Washing”, in “Tetsuo” or in the hypnotic “AC/BC”) while in other moments you can find here a particular jazz feeling melting in “pastoral and melodic” guitar solos (as in the excellent “Swarm Intelligence”). In some passages you can perceive some echoes of bands as Perigeo, in others of Goblin (as in the final part of the mysterious, beautiful title track), but this work has its own strong dose of originality and grows listen after listen... Definitively not bad for a self-production! Have a try!

More info:

http://www.myspace.com/vumeters

http://it-it.facebook.com/pages/VU-METERS/35129315027