If Zucchero is Italian rock at it’s most buoyant, colourful and direct, CodiceEgo is rock at its most jagged, clubbing the listener on the head as it plunges further and further into an inferno of their creation. Loosely based on an illness Dario Pelizzari endured during the pandemic, the three song set – Rainbow’s End – captures the band at their most incendiary and inventive. In some ways, it’s Joy Division for the 21st century, capturing an atmosphere that’s heavy on drum effects and thunderous, blustery vocal performances. Who knows where the band will go next with their career, but whatever the journey, the effects will remain.
The EP starts off with the shimmering title track, which bears a striking similarity to Radiohead’s artier outlet (incidentally, some of the tracks were mixed by Hugo Nicolson, who worked with the Oxford quintet in the noughties.) It’s arguably the most industrial sounding track on the album, laced by a torrent of guitars, the whispering vocals recalling My Bloody Valentine’s Bilinda Jayne Butcher efforts on Loveless. Between the hammering and the disembodied yelps comes a Sergio Leone like guitar strum that demonstrates a sense of humour from the band that could be misconstrued as sardonic sensationalism.
The EP quickly bursts into ‘Errors and Repairs’, all loops and chopped guitar hooks, one foot set into the Mancunian textures of the 1990s, the other aimed at the future. And then there’s ‘Contriver’, the slowest moving, yet arguably most rewarding track on the track, incorporating as many far-reaching genres as techno, garage and psychedelic pop. Bolstered by a collection of idiosyncratic lyrics, the song captures the mania many of us felt at a time of pandemic and plague. Chaos ensued in bedrooms, contrivance took to the streets. But as they did in different points in history, humanity survived to tell the tale. Brilliant.
Rainbows End will be released on 21st April 2023
