Deflore - Egodrive

Subsound Records

April 29, 2008, 03:07 PM

It’s always interesting to receive an Italian CD. Mainly for the reason that Italian bands lack so much of the popular culture which has such a heavy influence on US and UK artists. They seem to have such a fresh approach on music that it sometimes catches you out on how good some of this stuff can actually be. Deflore are an example of a very alternative sound coming out of the country.

Describing themselves as “an explosive mix of electronic grooves, heavy’n’distorted instruments and psychadelic-noise atmosphere” they do certainly capture the imagination. This blend of electronic grooves however is somewhat short of explosive. In truth this album limbers on from an ambient-driven two and a half minute opener, past so many songs which possess the same qualities and offer so little in the way of diversity.

It does at one point feel as though you’re just listening to the same song over and over. When the whole thing is over it’s hard to tell exactly just went on. Sometimes this is a good way, but Deflore don’t **** with your head so much, they just bore in many parts. There is too much reliance upon a very similar beat and repetitive lines of instrumentation, it’s all well and good for the first few repetitions, but when that drags into over four minutes worth it gets tedious, and very quickly gets old.

Each song sounds like a slight variation of the previous, but then goes on to contain all the same elements. To put it as simply as possible, it’s just boring. Deflore are, no doubt, very competent with what they are doing, but there really isn’t enough to keep you interested here. My recommendation, if you must listen to this album, would be to get stoned first and then maybe you’ll discover something that eludes me. Other than that, stay well away from this.