Jennifer Gentle – The Midnight Room (Sub Pop, 2007)
(This originally appeared in the Summer ‘07 issue of Skyscraper)
However Sub Pop ended up with a tripped out, pysch-inspired bunch of Italians on their label is probably a good story. As it is though, the 2005 release of Valende easily established this group as the one of the foremost purveyors of Pot Head Pixie rock and goofy sing-alongs. Not that their music shouldn’t be taken seriously, but the twisted church music of “Twin Ghosts” and the Munster’s theme music of “Telephone Ringing” could be looked at as less than philosophical. Unlike the past, every song on this slab was recorded solely by Marco Fasolo who has shed the rest of the group in the studio. This begs the question, how crazy/talented is Fasolo? He staked out a house and record at-least five tracks for each song while maintaining some semblance of order in the music. At the same time though, he was possessed enough to howl like a fucking rabid dog on not only “Take My Hand” but also on “Quarter To Three”. Each track does possess a very disconcerting amount of playing in unison that really does make sense after discovering that it was the work of only one man. The creative and sporadic passion contained on The Midnight Room (best displayed on the angry instrumental “Granny’s House”) suggests that Jennifer Gentle will continue to mine the depths of Fasolo’s abilities.
