Ok!!!! My head officially hurts.

I just took a listen to Salmagundi and their second album, Rose Marries Braen (A soup opera).

I had never heard of them before, so if you haven’t either I will give you the description I was given – a mix of progressive rock, post-punk, psychedelia elements and heavy stoner sounds. That description in itself left my brain a little rattled. The Italian 4-piece has a very unique sound with distorted basses, synthesizers, drums and an interesting vocal.

Rose Marries Braen (A soup opera) really challenged my thought process and left my inner monologue saying “wtf”, so I struggled a little to break each track down but here we go…

1. “Cheese Fake” had some really groovy distorted bass for an intro. The vocal was very psychedelic (not in English). A very different sound that I am finding very hard to describe.

2. “Cockayne”- all I have to say is what the heck is this? A yelly sound that reminded me of Zena Warrior Princess before continuing onto a vocal that can only be described as having his manhood squashed in a vice. Afterwards some laser battle sounds with a robotic vocal. Very odd yet slightly intriguing. This track confused me, not sure if I liked it or hated it. My brain hurts.

3. “I Ate You!” Well, I literally don’t know how to describe this. Single instrument parts and some softer depressive sounding vocal.

4. “Mrs Braen aka TantaVogliaDelay” can only be described as some kind of messed up Crash Bandicoot vocals over some relaxed warped bass guitar for an intro before turning intro before turning into some alien psychedelic craziness.

5. “Mumbo- Jumbo” started out with some funky grooves. The bass was actually really cool and to start with I was really digging it. Then they killed the groove factor with some retro video game sounds and some really mind splitting whistle that I actually had to turn off because it really hurt my ears.

Since starting this review writing game I have listened to some interesting stuff, but this has to be the most unique and insane thing I have ever listened to. Not sure if this is good or bad. Maybe a little of both. Can’t say I’d ever be in a hurry to listen to Salmagundi and Rose Marries Braen (A soup opera) again. But points for uniqueness.

4/10

 Steph Suter-James.