Picchio Dal Pozzo

Picchio Dal Pozzo (Woodpecker From the Well) formed in 1976 in Genoa, Italy; they’re still around, though they’re not very active, and they’ve only managed five albums in their near-fifty years of existence. That being said, when you’ve made an album as extraordinary as their self-titled debut, you’re allowed to rest on your laurels for a while. Picchio Dal Pozzo is often read as an Italian take on the Canterbury Scene sound, and there’s something in that observation, as they have a kind of limberness, and lightness of touch, that recalls The Soft Machine at their sly, playful best. But they’re not reducible to mere Canterbury tribute. They often play at a fiercer clip, and their focus on mind-numbing repetition that’s repeatedly rumbled by blats of space synth and floating, surrealist vox… Well, it could feel a bit like Gong, but Picchio Dal Pozzo have their feet far more firmly planted in the earth.