REVIEWS: Learning to See (album) by Pete Gioconda
PETE GIOCONDA's new album Learning to See contains songs fused from new wave, pop and folk/rock influences, mingling poetic lyrics with a punk attitude and playful unpretentiousness. Youthful songs of mischief, desire, loss and sadness, plus transcendent perceptions.
It starts out quite rocky (Heaven's Wild Flower), with a hint of Velvet Underground, and after moving through indie pop (Darkened Images), sci-fi folk (We Are Real) and a ska-Caribbean song about a carefree girl (Little Monkey), settles for a while in the elements of folk rock and rhythm and blues (albeit not your usual flavours). Alien coldness of no intimacy, mysterious vision, sweetheart muse . . . On into dance territory and sequenced synths, catchy lyrics plus psychedelic guitar break and bubblegum French verse (Queen of the Future).
The title track (Learning to See) is the first of two visual songs, culminating in a surreal coda (Save Your Dreams) - "You are your soul / And only you can save your dreams . . ." After a grinding guitar, we're at the final song (The Charm of Making), which derides "the burnt out shell of rock'n'roll" for its dead vision, asking "Is there no one out there waking / To whisper the charm of making?"
There are all sorts of stories running through this album - in sound, in words, and the strange and startling sound effects which crop up to colour the picture. Quite a journey.
I look forward to seeing where this all leads . . .
Highway Ellen
"This music is the sort to get you bopping joyfully without even realising it. Loads of cheeky lyrics and strutting guitars. It could have been made yesterday, five years ago or ten years ago . . . music that any girl in a flowery dress with a '60s haircut is bound to love - one for the students." - Tubs, scout at Besonic
Tubs' recommended tracks: The Charm of Making, Darkened Images
Download from
Amazon & iTunes
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