I don’t have the treat of having many Italian’s on my musical radar but Bandcamp can help solve many things. Claudio Cataldi popped onto my radar as a recommendation and his interesting blend of rock, harsh ambient and low-key vocals pulled me in.
“Song of Hate” has an interesting and backwards chord structure in that especially in the finale closing section the chords don’t appear to go together properly. The fact Claudio is gently oohing over the top and the guitars, drums and strings are going for it regardless just adds to its charm. The track slinks around like it’s trying to infect the hate inside you. “September Air” is a more straight forward affair as the bass guitar works itself over the lazy free for all feel that the rest of the track has. “Let’s Go To The Secret Place” is more rockier as the electric guitars jangle around their two chord melodies. It’s definitely one of the standouts from the album with its grunge feel and then a shaker perfectly clearly placed on top at the end of the track. It seems like I’m picking holes in the production, but its these funny things that shouldn’t really be doing that makes Cataldi’s music stand out.
“Self Esteem” reminds me of something Beck may have done in the early 90’s if he teamed up with Supergrass. It has a lovely tinge to it with the warm keyboards complimenting the deep vocals. “Take Care” then gives us an acoustic guitar and vocal led ballad. It’s here that Claudio’s fragile and imperfect vocals absolutely shine. There’s something about how humanly he sings over what is a beautiful melody and arrangement that disarmed me.
“A Magic For You” returns back to the openers use of off-key chord arrangements, something I very much approve of! Here Cataldi is dual singing and it makes the song more powerful and angry when the production gets more messy. “Unconfined” is a cute mid tempo track whilst “Final” has a country twang in its step as the song skips and jumps to its beat. It’s a bit different from the rest of the album and stands out as a result. “Nowdays” is another midtempo track that slowly builds into a great outro using Cataldi’s now staple minor chord extravaganzas before “Cal” rounds the album off in a mellow acoustic number.
“Homing Season” is a toughy. There’s some production issues that make it endearing, Claudio’s singing is typically rock where tune doesn’t always matter and where I like things best are where things are really discordant. That may sound like a terrible endorsement but we all know of bands or artists we love because of all the things they’re not. Claudio Cataldi is going to be one of those for me. For all those whom like something a little left of the middle with their rock – there’s some real gems here.