Julie´s Haircut, Invocation and Ritual Dance of My Demon Twin (2017) A Review

Julie´s Haircut, Invocation and Ritual Dance of My Demon Twin (2017) A Review 

By: Ghost Writer

Italian progressive rock scene was one of the most exciting ones in Europe for a while, favorite bands of mine like the well-known Genesis, with the impressive Peter Gabriel and the incredible guitar wizardry of Steve Hackett and the more underground Van der Graaf Generator with the mighty Peter Hammill were HUGE there, as huge as they were nowhere else, Italians were crazy about progressive rock, I guess the drama, the epic flare and the grandiose histrionics appealed a lot to the vibrating nature of Italy, it was just a small matter of time for Italy to have an impressive scene of its own, featuring the totally amazing Le Orme with its nostalgic songs, the mind blowing the Balletto di Bronzo with its dazzling song structures and the enigmatic Goblin, favorite musicians of Italian Horror Cinema legend Dario Argento, were first rate exports to the global prog rock scene, there was something definitely cosmic and obscure on those bands that made them so exciting, but after them I guess there wasn't so many bands taking that route, besides My Cat is an Alien, I haven't heard that level of cosmic experimentation coming from that part of the world, not until I heard Julie's Haircut, a six piece outfit heavy on the experimental side with a sound not so easily to categorize and to describe, not proggy in a strict sense but obviously influenced by, adding elements from the Canterbury scene and form teutonic kosmische musik, and making a quantum leap forwards to reap some sound lessons from modern ferocious out there experimentalists like the Spaceman 3 or Spiritualized.

Invocation and Ritual Dance of My Demon Twin is the bombastic title of this extraordinary band, with a more than 10 year history, the record features an impressive drum work by Ulisse Tramalloni, who lays down some fluid and precise beats going from dynamic rock forms and even daring to explore some motorik beats, which lets the band move schizophrenically from pop to intense experimental rock, there's also the outsider element of Laura Agnusdei's piercing saxophone lines, adding unexpected intensity and courage to the mix, as both incredible players are perfectly allowed to play at their best in opening track Zukunft that comes just like a mix of CAN's krautrock and Roxy Music's brand of glammy cerebral pop, while on The Fire Sermon is Tramalloni's tribal drumming and Andrea Rovacchi's liturgical keyboard lines the ones that lead the piece along the three part guitar attack of the band, sometimes going into full noise mode.

Big drilling  guitars and heart pulse drums welcome us in Deluge, where Agnusdei's saxophone screams furious above the mix, the band turning into a really abrasive mix of Ash Ra Tempel hallucinating improvisational and The Stooges madness circa the classic Fun House, while on Gathering Light the band's route splits into the Iron Butterfly like keyboard psychedelics and an a very ethereal approach that aimed to transform the song into almost pure sound, all performed in an epic as big as cathedral way, which again let us hear how uncompromising is Julie's Haircut approach to music, is possible that these Italian will never achieve massive success with such a rebellious sound, but I don't really thing they care because their music goes directly towards pure transcendence, and they totally succeed in that goal, the band´s sound is a totally original way of making music, walking a thin difficult line between accessible pop, psychedelic experience and totally unexpected flirting with noise rock, this is such an original musical offering, coming from a country that loves totally original stuff.