Milan based musician Max Raffa's latest band's self- titled album Messiness is deeply psychedelic indie pop with a 90's flavour. Messiness are Massimiliano Raffa, Filippo La Marca, Rosario Lo Monaco, Giovanni Calella, Beppe Scardino, Andrea Quattrini, Luca Anello and Lorenzo Di Blasi who recorded the album at 8brrr recording studio Milano with Ivan A Rossi and Max Raffa producing.
The album opens with the early single Feature With A Rapper that isn't a hip-hop tune, sounding more like Kashmir era led Zeppelin, if you want to make it huge, you should have a feature with a rapper, the Raps that are added to this play nicely against the rest of the tune, Psychedelic flourishes make this feel rather summery, despite the bleak message for how screwed up the music business is accompanied by some heavy jazz brass.
Previous Life has them looking through rose-tinted specs at the chilled out hazy 90's, when you could happily add sitar to your indie pop, while being claimed a future saint or saviour of the music business, they fall somewhere between Spitfire and Five Thirty, this has loads of reverb on the vocals and is rather catchy.
Fatally has a great indie pop psyche haze feel. Como Baje, Como Sube is blissed out cosmic vibes for acid drenched days and nights, tune in and drop out with Messiness. Eternity Unbound sounds like it comes from one of those European TV series they showed on daytime TV in the late 70's, mystical and mythic hazy lazy vibes.
Optimised quietly lulls you into its warped psychosis, warping minds with beats, evolving with the building malaise somehow leading to glockenspiel oddness, drum and bass freakiness, sax breaks have The Bells deep in their core.
Doctoral Get-Together so who will get off with the professor, will all your old classmates get on, having fun together through this party anthem, just what did they study mixology or 80's dance music basslines.
Anaesthetized is hazy memories of being out of it in the 90's, totally buzzed in another world, before the DJ starts scratching taking us back to that totally whacked out decade, sounding like they tried to out drug everyone else, which was a proper thing to try in the 90's.
The album closes with By The Sea a very chilled Spiritualized style rapt stoned reflection, practically prone on the floor listening to the tide coming in, hoping you'll have come down enough to stand up before the waters wash over you, this has a cool breezy flute break, leading to a totally blissed out baritone sax finale.
Find out more at https://shop.stonefree.co.at/products/messiness-vinyl https://messiness.bandcamp.com/album/messiness https://www.facebook.com/messiness.music
