Customer Reviews

Valende

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4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
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At times bizarre and experimental, at other times psychedelicly poppy, and at other times downright pretty. The singer has a very distinctive voice, sounding a little like Syd Barrett after having sucked helium. In fact, the whole thing has a very Syd Barrett/early Pink Floyd vibe. One of the more interesting things I've heard in awhile, if a bit derivative.

This is a really. kazoos. fun, energy, this music gives you a high and makes you space into the land inside your head. Exploring the ocean waves and the fire your body lives on that scientests so easily call blood. Help yourself.
This song has a lot of qualities of Piper at the gates of dawn (Pink Floyd). 1/3 of album and last song. But it isn't all like that and it has some more relaxed songs as well with strange voices and what sounds like a harp and an acoustic guitar and a harp together- also a cymbal. Anyway I am rambling this is a really good cd. Listen to it twice before you judge.

This is actually Jennifer Gentle's fourth album including a split CD with Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mothers Temple (that should warn you that jangly psych-pop is only part of their armoury). Their first, 'I Am You Are', was a deeply experimental affair, like a friendlier version of Wolf Eyes or Black Dice. The second, 'Funny Creatures Lane', was a brilliant collection of warped psychedelic melodies, like early Soft Machine setting Edward Gorey to music, topped off with a dash of Boredoms-style tribal chanting. Both those are hard to get, but were collected as 'Ectoplasmic Garden Party' by an Australian label I think.

'Valende' is initially a slight let-down for the established fan, with a straighter retro-pop style. Many reviews mention Syd Barrett but The Beatles' Lennon-led tracks are surely a bigger influence. The Jennifers often also sound uncannily like contemporary Scousers, Clinic. Disappointment is likely to give way to fascination on repeated listening, though; all their albums are growers, and there are enough exquisite touches, shifts of mood and flashes of wit to satisfy most listeners. I think the disappointment really stems from knowing that this band has a great, great album in it somewhere. Whether they'll find the sound they need -- their records all have very different production -- we can only hope.

Jennifer Gentle are well worth checking out -- also worth contacting them, as they are an extremely bright and friendly bunch. Heck, why not go and visit them -- Padua's a beautiful place.

I purchased this for my boyfriend who lost this album. I tend to dislike his taste in music but this is a wonderful, low key album. Very "coffee-house."

source: www.alternativemalta.com

When I heard the name `Jennifer Gentle', I thought it was an indie-pop girl band but I was very wrong. Jennifer Gentle are two guys who hail from Padova, Italy. `Valende' is their third album. And the music? Well it's far from indie pop. On the contrary. It's the acid frazzled psychedelia favoured by Syd Barrett, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Os Mutantes and the 13th Floor Elevators.


Thus there are Joe Meek style chipmunk voices, backward guitars, and hauntingly surreal lyrics. "I'll spill some coffee on my trousers, on the sofa" (Liquid Coffee)
But the centerpiece and the track which sums up the whole album is the seven minute plus `Hessesopoa'. It starts off like Pink Floyd's `Interstellar Overdrive' which mutates into a wonky Beefhartian freakout. Then the bongos enter the scene and it just gets noisier until just the keyboard remains, and dies merging into `The Garden pt 2', something the Mutantes might cook up.
`Valende' is breathtakingly marvelous. It does require a little bit of time to get used to but when you do you are sucked into a whole new vortex of eye-opening music.

This is my first review for Amazon and I just would like to start with something really special. I saw this band playing in Chicago during their recent US tour and it was such a revelation. Great playing and these giddy, mysterious pop songs mixed with otherwordly psychedelic jams. I bought the album and it was even better: sure, it's not for everyone, but how you can resist to the blasting pop of "I do dream you" and "Universal Daughter"? And their more acoustic-tinged songs are just as good, "Circles of sorrow" being a total classic. In a word, awesome stuff. If you like pop music with a strange twist, this is a must.

No, Jennifer Gentle is not a person. Rather it's an experimental band from Italy, with a very unusual musical style -- half Pink Floyd, half inept Velvet Underground cover band. Their debut "Valende" is an exercise in opposites, and while the Floydian psychpop is delightful, the louder songs are musical manifestations of insanity.

It begins in possibly the most grating way possible, with the discordant guitar pop "Universal Daughter." Clumsy percussion, creaky vocals, and amateurish guitar riffs. Oh yes, and did I mention the kazoo they play through most of the song? It sounds like a small circus gone completely mad. Even worse, things don't improve much in the next few songs, which sound like the evil twins of Velvet Underground's best.

Marco Fasolo's weird singing and some vocal distortion give an eerie feeling to these songs, but no amount of distortion can hide that these melodies are too simple, and too grating to the ear. I'm not talking about mere sonic roughness -- they're just unpleasant to listen to.

Thankfully, things take a different turn with the ethereal "Circles of Sorrow," an airy little tune, with a slightly Middle-Eastern vibe and a hint of penny whistle. Birds chirp, water tinkles, a xylophone is played with gusto, and Fasolo's high-pitched voice wafts through like a medieval bard's.

This side of Jennifer Gentle is utterly enchanting, and it's also where they are at their strongest. That theme continues for awhile, with swooning pop numbers that are just this side of ambient music. Too bad "Valende" ends with another frighteningly clunky rocker.

Rarely is a given album so schizophrenic as this one -- or perhaps the illness I'm thinking of is actually MPS. Sure, a lot of debuts are jumbles of different styles and techniques. But there are only two styles in Jennifer Gentle, and they switch rapidly and without warning. One minute you're listening to a swoony, sparkling pop instrumental, and the next you're hearing fuzzed-out acoustic guitar, and Marco Fasolo's mad laughter.

Perhaps most memorable -- and revealing -- is "Hessesopoa," an experimental song right in the middle of "Valende." It's half melodic, half chaos. And that is pretty much the description of Jennifer Gentle's album.