Nice review by Angelo Hulshout on the Dutch webzine Background Magazine.
About eight years ago, I was a member of the admin team of Canadian progressive rock site Prog Archives. One of my tasks was to maintain the’Unsigned Bands’ forum, where bands without a record label could promote their independent releases to the members of the site. One of the bands that I got in touch with that way was If, who renamed themselves to IfSounds two years later. At the time, they were already an eclectic band, with a mix of styles across the tracks on their then fourth album Morpho Nestira. This album contained more progressive rock than their previous three releases and eventually got them a place in Prog Archives.
Now, they present us with their 7th album, Reset, which is no different from Morpho Nestira and the albums succeeding it, in terms of stylistic variations. However, the band is quite different, since from the line up that I got to know in 2007, only two members remain, Dario Lastella and Claudio Lapenna. They restarted the band in 2012, after all other members left, and took two years to accomplish that. In changing the band, they did not lose their stylistic variations but they may have lost some of their progressiveness. Not because the new singer Runal is mainly a rock/blues singer, but because the compositions are slightly less complex than they used to be.
Tracks like 40-14 and I Never Hated Anyone contain hints of punk and hard rock, mixed with some psychedelics in the case of 40-14, although the musicianship of the band members far exceeds that of the average punk musician.Run Away is a solid rock track, as is Flashback, but the latter leaves no lasting memory with me, nor does closing track The Tide. The most interesting tracks on the album are the opener When I Was Born Again, Laura, and the title track.
When I was Born Again starts out as a guitar oriented rock track, but soon the synths start adding a neo progressive feel, although the vocals are rougher than what the average neo progressive rock band provides. A worthy opener. Laura is a different song altogether, almost completely acoustic, with a string trio and flute, and a very nice folky vocal arrangement with multiple male and female vocals. A surprising island of rest in a quite ‘present’ album. The title track Reset has a space rock feel to it, with drums and bass laying down a nice foundation for the guitar. There’s a lot to hear in terms of melody here, no surprise the album is named after this track.
One track that surprised me, and could be my number for if I had to rank them, is FR9364, which is certainly not an average rock track, with blasting drums, funky bass and guitar parts – somehow refreshing amongst all the 70s prog rock clones I’ve heard this year.
Like eight years ago, Dario and Claudio are at the center of a solid band, but in this case it resulted in an album that may be just as varied as their previous works, but less appealing to a prog audience. Still, musically very well crafted and worth four stars.
Norwegian reviewer Olav Martin Bjornsen wrote about our album on his blog.
Italian band IFSOUNDS have been around a couple of decades now, initially starting out under the moniker If and releasing 4 studio productions under that name. (altro…)
Very insightful review of Apeirophobia by Didier Gonzalez on the French magazine Highlands.
Merci, Didier!
Jeune formation italienne originaire de Petacciato, IFSOUNDS vient de proposer très récemment son premier album, au titre énigmatique d’APEIROPHOBIA, paru en 2010 sur le label Melodic Revolution Records. Ce qui saisit d’emblée pour un album auto produit est la qualité spectaculaire du son, très rond, bénéficiant de beaucoup de profondeur, très dynamique et percutant. (altro…)
Well, today I read one of the more enthusiastic and incredible reviews about our music I’ve ever read, courtesy of Mr. John OBoyle on Sea of Tranquillity!
Thanks a lot John, for your kind words and your insightful review!!!
People let me introduce to you the following personnel Elena Ricci (vocals), Enzo Bellocchio (drums and percussions), Franco Bussoli (bass), Claudio Lapenna (piano, keyboards, synth and vocals) and Dario Lastella (guitar, synth and vocals). These are the people responsible for this rather interesting and intriguing release. (altro…)
Very nice review by Dave Pearson. Thanks a lot Dave!!!
The band began in 1993 named “if”, recording four albums, after which they became “ifsounds”, with current line up (Elena Ricci (vocals), Franco Bussoli (bass), Claudio Lapenna (keyboards), Enzo Bellocchio (drums) and Dario Lastella (guitars). Meaning ‘fear of the infinity’, this deep concept album is about man’s conscience (“thought”, “spirit”, the essence of “being”) fearing infinity after death. For a sophisticated concept, the music is more up front, a little raw at times, and Ricci’s unique vocal style is high in the mix. They bring an in-your-face attitude to myriad of trad prog influences, no more so than on the almost punky ‘Last Minutes’. This band deserves a higher profile, as they put a lot into their work, with particular plaudits going to their epic 27 minute closing title track.
Today is the great day of the launch of Rockella a new Polish webzine!
And we’re honoured to have been contacted by Kuba Henrewicz and to be in this launch with a great review and an interview on this brand new site. (follow the links for the original in Polish).
So, we all want to say to Kuba and all the staff of Rockella
Dzięki i powodzenia!!!
(this is the review translated in English by Kuba himself…)
“Apeirophobia” is the album in the classic art-rock style. We have 5 tracks, most of which lasts more than 6 minutes and is simply packed with all sorts of embellishments typical of this species. (altro…)
Ron Fuchs of ProgNaut.com published this very good review of our Apeirophobia.
Thanks a lot Ron for your kindness!!!
Ifsounds hail from Italy and have released a new album in 2010 on the Melodic Revolution Records label, entitled Apeirophobia. This is the first album as Ifsounds, as the band was formally known as If. (altro…)
Bernard Vincken wrote this great review of our album Morpho Nestira for the Belgian magazine Prog-résiste.
Merci beaucoup Bernard!!!
Après une 1ère vie entre ’93 et ’00 comme cover band, une respiration de 4 ans, puis 3 albums (voir PR 52 pour une critique de l’avant-dernier The Stairway) en rafale, IF, maintenant rejoint par Luca Di Pardo (batterie) complète sa discographie par un nouveau CD caractérisé par un éclectisme proche de la labilité. (altro…)
Artur Chachlowski published his review of Morpho Nestira on the Polish edition of the magazine Metal Hammer. His review appear on page 50 of the issue of september that Artur sent us.
Thanks a lot Artur for your constant support.
© 2015 www.ifsounds.com – Melodic Revolution Records