London Underground "Honey Drops" 2010 Italy Psych Space Rock
Line-up / Musicians
-Gianluca Gerlini / Hammond C3, piano, wurlitzer, fender rhodes, mellotron
-Alessandro Gimignani /drums
-Fabio Baini /bass
guests
-Stefano Negri /sax
-Riccardo Cavalieri /acoustic and electric guitars,violas
-Sergio Taglioni /moog,mellotron and synful orchestra
After very good "Through A Glass Darkly" and 7 years break, London Underground strikes back with new (3rd) album and re-formed line-up. The only original member which left in the band is organist Gianluca Gerlini, who joined forces with Alessandro Gimignani (drums) & Fabio Baini (bass). As much as I liked previous rhythm section of Stefano Gabbani (also vocals) & Daniele Caputo (both from very impressive formation called Standarte), I still have to say that I love new sound of London Underground: instrumental only psychy/jazzy/proggy organ-driven power trio. "Honey Drops" is a really entertaining release filled with highly energetic new versions of some well known & totally obscure rock classics from 60' and 70' + few original compositions of the band. It's also worth noticing that despite being Hammond-drenched prog trio, London Underground doesn't sound like ELP or Triumvirat at all. They music is much more rooted in 60' & early 70' psychedelic rock, jazz, blues, rhythm&blues and early progressive rock.
"Ellis Island" - London Underground's version of Brian Auger's classic instrumental track is also top notch. Very jazzy performance as always loaded with swirling organ, but this time we can also hear supportive wah-wah, funky guitar licks played by guest: Riccardo Cavalieri. In general it's very faithful to Auger's original but I still think it was worth to re-new it, especially that Sergio Taglioni added some nice Moog fragments here too.......by ozzy tom