Ritmo Lento. Leatherette

Over the past years, I've made this comment before. Italian bands have somehow made it into my span of attention. When this blog started, nearly 14 years ago, there wasn't a single one. Today, there are several, for the simple reason that people present them to me. Leatherette is a new name. You will find a single from this album recently, but that is it.

So let's start and introduce the band. The members are called Michele Battaglioli (vocals, guitar), Francesco Bonora (drums), Jacopo Finelli (saxophone), Andrea Gerardi (guitar) and, Marco Jespersen (bass), The band is based in Bologna. Ritmo Lento ('Slow Rhythm') is the band's third album. They started out as a punk band but as you will hear on this album, the band diversified into, let's call it post punk, but there's alternative rock as well and bits and pieces aimed at going against the grain of mainstream listeners.

The album opens with 'Magic Things'. The rhythm grips me immediately. The dirty sound of the rhythm guitar makes the song truly dirty, while sounding great at the same time. The lead guitar seems to be doing what it feels like and then a saxophone joins with a scream that could also have been delivered by a female punk singer. The mood of Ritmo Lento has been set and Leatherette is like a fish in water.

'Lovers Drifters Foreigners' starts as if it is a dark 1967 psychedelic song. Then it explodes into a punk song's chorus. Next is a far slower interlude where the sax comes in. The second verse is alternative rock that makes Personal Trainer seem like neat schoolboys. The song goes from mood to mood. Leatherette is doing things very right. It may seem like a hotchpot of styles, it comes together as a great whole. If a name comes to mind, it is The Libertines. With one main difference, that band often irritated the hell out of me after a few songs. Not Leatherette.

Promo photo

The way the sax is played by Finelli, reminds of the saxophone on David Bowie's 'Blackstar'. The songs it features in don't for one second. It just has the same tone, which is different from the way saxophones sound in e.g. classic soul tracks.

On Ritmo Lento Leatherette works somewhere between the genres I've just described. So, there is no need to pull out more individual examples for you. What makes the album so attractive is just that. Add to that the element of surprise that the band manages to throw into every single song and you have an album that is up there way above the average album. I am not familiar with Leatherette's previous work but if the change in its music brought Leatherette to this level of musicianship, the change was well worth pursuing.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order Ritmo Lento here: 

https://leatherette111.bandcamp.com/album/ritmo-lento