Void Generator: Phantom Hell and Soar Angelic

It seems there are quite a few bands from Italy crossing my desk lately and the trend continues with Void Generator. Formed in Rome in 1996 the band have two full length releases to their credit with the latest entitled Phantom Hell And Soar Angelic. The five piece ensemble includes Gianmarco Iantaffi (guitars, vocals), Sonia Caporossi (bass), Cristiano Lodi (synthesizers), Marco Ricci (drums) and Bob The Rich (accumulator). The band released their self titled debut in 2004.

Void Generator's intentions are made abundantly clear with Phantom Hell And Soar Angelic – and that is a delicious concoction stoner, space and psychedelic rock. If you appreciate early Floyd, Hawkwind and Van Der Graaf Generator you really need to hear this disc.

The CD has only four songs, including the untitled fourth tune, but each song is over ten minutes long with the last song over twenty-three minutes. The songs are built around spacey synths and catchy repetitive guitar riffs leaning towards the heavier end of the spectrum but often venturing into softer dream-like territory. The songs take time to develop as the guitar and synths slowly build in intensity forming densely textured layers of sound. While this is mostly an instrumental album, Iantaffi has a good voice when called upon. He has a limited range but uses his voice effectively, filling in the spaces between the psychedelic and space rock atmospherics. All vocals are in English.

The albums first track is the spacey "Message From The Galactic Federation". A solid guitar groove is established early, before layers of synthesizers are used to add texture. The catchy guitar riffs and synth lines makes for engaging stuff and I found myself totally immersed in the music. The last part of the song focuses on repetitive guitar jams and some pretty cool bass with lots of space given between the instruments rather than the dense wall of sound heard previously. "The Morning" is much more subdued than the first track with spacious guitar rhythms and drum work. Iantaffi's lower end vocals are slow and plodding as the song leisurely builds with trippy guitar riffs. The synth outro is very cool and will be sure to please all of the space freaks out there. "The Eternaut" starts with a rather long bass intro and is a little jazzy with soft textures of synths before the guitar crunch starts with the vocals matching the intensity. As the song slows a wonderful progressive fusion guitar solo takes hold before the outro of space driven synths and guitar. The album's last song is the untitled hidden track filled to the brim with psychedelic synths and catchy riffs that slowly build. Listen for the excellent guitar solo surrounded by layers of background synths.

This is very good slice of spacey goodness that will be sure to please fans of the aforementioned bands. Do yourself a favour and check out Void Generator as this has been another pleasant discovery.

Track Listing:
1. Message From The Galactic Federation (15:14)
2. The Morning (13:02)
3. The Eternaut (18:10)
4. Untitled hidden track (23:42)

Added: July 12th 2010
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf
Score:
Related Link: Band's MySpace Page
Hits: 3189
Language: english

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