ALBUM REVIEW: Nell’ Ora Blu – Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats

Ever since their inception UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS have carved a career in making forward thinking music with a nod to what has inspired them in the past. Rather than rehashing the same ideas over and over, the band have constantly reinvented their music, taking in everything from psychedelia to garage and occult rock and the results have always been breathtaking.

The band’s latest album Nell’ Ora Blu is the most breathtakingly impressive of all though, a massive undertaking that is executed in the most perfect way and a phenomenal tribute partly inspired by the glory of Italian Giallo cinema. The album is constructed as a cinematic radio style play complete with dialogue (including actual contributions from bona fide Italian cinema legends Franco Nero and Edwige Fenech) and the way it flows through and takes in so much atmosphere is an incredible achievement.

Nell’ Ora Blu is an album like you have never heard before – from this band or anyone else for that matter – and the only thing it really retains from their past work is the brilliant sense of the macabre. The funereal vibe that they conjure up so well is still in full effect and the album is a sprawling collection of music that will captivate you as well as any good cinematic experience does, with elements of everything from hazy, laidback moments to minutes of thrilling terror contained in its duration.

This is an album that you of course have to listen to as a whole from start to finish; there is no picking out individual tracks, this needs your full attention at all times but it is unbelievably worth entering this world and experiencing everything from the intense and fearful to the truly beautiful. It really is like being in a film.

Obviously, if you are not familiar with the Italian language then you won’t understand what is being said as the album goes on but that would be missing the point of the whole thing and the best way to enjoy it is to let the whole saga unravel in front of you and let it take you into its own story through the sublime and eclectic music.

You can obviously rely on UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS never to do anything like this again so immerse yourself and revel in its timeless glory and appreciate the vast spectacle that has been undertaken in creating Nell’ Ora Blu. 

Rating: 9/10

Nell’ Ora Blu is set for release on May 10th via Rise Above Records.

Like UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS on Facebook.