Lunocode
C'e Vita Intelligente Sulla Terra?

Is there intelligent life on Earth? doesn’t the answer to that question vary depending on how you define intelligence, how you determine if there is intelligence and some other variables? My answer is yes as there are some intelligent people on Earth, not very many but some so there is intelligent life on earth - if we use my definition of the word intelligence. An alien being from another place in the universe might see it differently though, he might take one or two samples and as very precious few of Earth’s people are intelligent it will most likely find that the one or two it tests meaning that it will conclude that the answer is no. Then you can look at it in many ways but if you look at our society and think we should define it as a society of intelligent beings, then you clearly does not qualify to define yourself as intelligent. That was it, the answer to why this question is asked is because it is the name of Lunocode’s new album.

Italian band, not very italian sound unless you discount the sometimes very thick accent of the female vocalist. This is their second album following their first album which was a bit of an unrealised reality, not really being as good as it could have been. Older and wiser now the band has taken their creativity further and they did a show where they mixed monologue with acoustic music which was a novel idea and they decided that it merited to be a disk on this double album. Fine, the recordings are excellent and you will be hard pressed to find a better sounding live performance in this category. Thing is though that they were not satisfied there, they also did the same songs as in the performance but as studio songs, rearranged, sometimes completely reworked and came up with the album’s first disc which is a well produced, varied piece of music that isn’t the easiest to place in a given genre.

All good this far, I can say a lot of good things about this band and I really like how they do their own thing. But little things starts to rack up for me, the playing time could be one but then I could play only the studio first disk and that is not a problem. The vocalist should take english lessons to try and work away some of that accent as it becomes disturbing at times, or just sing in italian that would be cool too. The sound is great but if this comes as a double prised album it is not right, I think that the second disk should be a free bonus. The italian monologue will not be understood by many, the mix of spoken word and music was probably great for those watching and would probably be better as a DVD or youtube clip. So there are some things not falling into favour with me.

I think though that you have to conclude that these guys know their thing, they are good and I really love how they do clever stuff and also sing about existential things like the cosmos, life, big questions, I like philosophical stuff - it works in music as well, look at Ayreon. But Lunocode once again feels like they should have been better, maybe they are overambitious and drown in their own ideas - I know I do many times and have to abandon stuff in order to distance myself to them and then maybe pick them up again. I think this is worth looking into and many will probably like it as well because it is quite good, I just don’t think they manage to put the jigsaw together as well as it is possible to do.

They have all the tools, they just need to find a way to use them to their full potential.

HHHHHHH