Vacuum is the second studio album by The Watch and was
released in 2004 on the independent Lizard Music label with a renewed
line up featuring Simone Rossetti (vocals, flute, tambou), Roberto
Leoni (drums, percussion), Gabriele Manzini (keyboards,
synthesizers), Ettore Salati (guitars), Sergio Taglioni (piano,
organ, Moog, Mellotron, synthesizers) and Marco Schembri (bass,
guitars). Genesis from the early seventies are still the main source
of inspiration and the band demonstrates not only to have studied
their style in depth but to have absorbed it and, in some ways, made
it their own...
The opener, “Hills”, is just a short introduction that depicts a
mysterious, peaceful place in the dark surrounded by distant traffic
lights. All around little shining cars seem dancing like dolphins in
the sea. It's a secret time...
Then, in “Damage Mode” the music and lyrics evoke a young man
recalling a youthful trauma. He can't deny the anger and hatred
toward the man who caused it. In his mind, he sees the images of a
film where the female protagonist is ready to run to escape the
attack of a lion that wants to devour her...
“Wonderland” paints a beautiful city full of lights and signs.
It's a world that invites you to spend your money with the illusion
of achieving happiness through parties and slot machines, easy women
and alcohol. But all this is just an illusion and isn't enough to
hide the inner emptiness of those who allow themselves to be seduced
by the sirens of a merciless consumerism...
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| the Watch, 2004 |
“Shining Bald Heads” describes a strange character, someone who
appears like a rainbow when your day seems over: Mr. Doubt. During
the day, his bald head shines in the suburbs and outlying
neighbourhoods, but when the workday ends he reappears with his claws
planted in your dreams. He's a sign of life and sometimes it would be
better to heed his friendly advice...
“Out Of The Land” tells of the solitude and peace one can
experience in a small town far from the hectic life of big cities,
and of the strange and contradictory feelings experienced by those
who leave the chaos of a metropolis to take refuge in the
tranquillity of a distant and all-too-silent place...
“Goddess” depicts the image of a man singing the praises of his
beloved, a woman who for him is a true goddess to be adored and loved
blindly and unconditionally, and without whom his life risks losing
all meaning...
“Deeper Still” is a lullaby for a child born on a cold winter
morning. White snow falls on the newborn troubled life while his
future is taking form. The parents sense a kind of passing of the
baton in the relay race of life. The prevailing feeling is small and
fragile: it's simply love...
The long, complex title track, “The Vacuum”, is a suite divided
into five parts that was inspired by the character of Serge Abrahamovitch Voronoff Voronoff, a French surgeon of Russian origin working in
the 1920s and 1930s best known for his practice of transplantation of
living cells, tissues and organs from animals monkeys to men to
increase sexual power and as an anti-ageing therapy. The piece opens
with the excerpt from the report of a patrol of the French
Gendarmerie. A strange creature was seen running outside Voronff's
castle, near the border with the Italian town of Ventimiglia. The
piece continues with excerpts from Voronoff's diary, which address
the ethical implications of the scientist's work. The third part is a
surreal exposition of the creature's sensations. The fourth part
contains a warning about the excesses of experimentation: those who
live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones! The fifth and final part
features the creature's discovery in a pool of dreams...
On the whole, a very good work in pure Genesis style!
You can listen to the complete album HERE
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