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Guano Padano - Self Titled [Important Records - 2010]

If Quentin Tarantino ever makes the western he’s often threatened to make, Guano Padano would be the ideal house band of the local saloon, grooving with an unknockable, deadpan resolve despite the gory carnage sliding over the dance floor. Formed by guitarist Alessandro Stefana, whose debut solo album came out on Important three years’ ago, Guano Padano’s core is completed by drummer Zeno De Rossi and bassist Danilo Gallo, both from Italy’s El Gallo Rojo collective.

Indeed, Guano Padano peddle a surf rock with a strong, cinematic centre. Their sound often mines similar sources to Angelo Badalamenti’s popular prospecting for David Lynch’s films – ‘A Country Concept’s slide guitar writhes in thirst as a cool jazz bass and brushed percussion conspire to create a nimble mystery, while ‘Jack Frost’s mid-tempo march combines Chuck Berry’s R&B with an exotic, mexical dance, both conjuring up memories of Twin Peaks’ Bang Bang Bar.

For the most part though, it is the spaghetti western mystique of Ennio Morricone’s pop arrangements that took in influences from Spanish and American folk song, which informs the album as a whole. This is referred to most blatantly through employing The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’s original whistler, Alessandro Alessandroni, to perform the central melody to ‘El Divino’ (which strongly recalls part of Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’). Complemented by aching strings, Ry Cooder-esque guitar, languid drums and a loping bass you can almost see the credits start to rise over an arid desert. Alessandroni appears again on ‘Bull Buster’ lending the same strong iconic flavour to an otherwise anecdotal experiment involving the interplay of a Bull Buster darts slot machine and a banjo.

The group are joined by a wide variety of other guests throughout most other tracks on the album, from friends from El Gallo Rojo, through to the clarinet of New York’s Chris Speed and Magic Band guitarist Gary Lucas. But apart from Alessandroni’s contributions, theirs are subtle embellishments to sustain interest across fifty minutes. And yet the trio do not really need further assistance, such is their craft of tight jestures and cool interplay, the only downside to which is how measured and controlled the exquisitely rich recording sounds, leading one to wonder what Guano Padano would be like live and raw having eaten the worm not just drunk the bottle.

Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

Russell Cuzner
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