Search - Stefano Torossi :: Feelings

Nicola Conte and Bernard Herrmann in a Discotheque!

L. S. Slaughter | Chapel Hill, NC | 03/22/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Way cool! Stefano Torossi has provided me one of my favorite albums of the year (although it was released in the mid-80s and reissued by Easy Tempo recently).



It's got a distinct Bernard Herrmann-taxi Driver sheen to it. Lots of reverb on the strings and dynamite, driving, 70s type percussion.



The sound and song fall somewhere between post-mink stole and pre-Fern Bar; imagine if the ever-sturdy skill of Italian pop songcrafting had descended on Issac Hayes' Shaft-era horn clusters, Barry White's strings, Artie Kane's late 60s film scoring techniques ("The Love Machine"), then all of it ladled with that snazzy, way-Uptown, 'oh babe let's dress up like we're in a decadent Helmut Newton photo -will you slip on those 7 inch stilettos?' vibe that Neely Plumb produced for the remix versions on the 1977 TAXI DRIVER soundtrack (including the groovy flugelhorns). Throw in a few guitar licks from Archie Bell and the Drells' "Tighten Up". Gosh, you can just visualize some mid-70s era rock star's mistress leaping long-legged out of a limo, dashing by Tiffany's for some last minute jewels, catching her wistful relfection in the store window, then dipping some nose candy in the leather backseat before she heads off to that new place called Studio 54, and basking in all the lush, melancholy neon draped along both sides of the streets along the way ("Aren't the bums so tragique? I wonder if Liz will drag along that little eyesore, Truman?") It's such an exciting life, and it can be yours if you buy this disc!!!



It's all done skillfully: Herbie Hancock-swift electric keyboards, throbbing electric bass, outrageously lush strings that swoop down from heaven and spin circles around driving percussion, and horn arrangements that spit sunbeams. The title cut alone will make you long for another romantic laision - no matter how disastrous the last one may have been!



All Easy Tempo fans of Piccioni and Umilani: this is a must-get. It's more mid-70s than, say, Camille 2000, but it's got the scintillating quality of Nicola Conte's JET SOUNDS which apes and reimagines the late 60s and its leopard-print Mrs. Robinson aesthethic. Put them both on repeat play and you'll never need Prozac again.



Anybody know what happened to his gifted Italian guy? I sure would love to hear more."