Decadence can be lush, even without much overabundance. “Waterplay” is voluptuous, and layered, but its sound is essentially barren. The tracks float in some uninhabited ambient/jazz sea, secretly braced by the most diverse post-punk currents. Where they emerge, they draw the music close to no wave, or A Certain Ratio’s punk/funk. Most of the times, though, it’s the sonic imprint of Tuxedomoon, Brian Eno and David Torn that dominates.
Rarefied – yet omnipresent – synthetizers and sudden free-jazz zigzags: these are the antipodal souls the album masterly conciliates, never sacrificing atmosphere to obliqueness or vice versa.
And the cover version of The Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” is simply prodigious.
Cudù are a band from the Florence area. This is their second album, after the MiniLP “Neck”.
