A Sea Of Troubles, quoting Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is where we find ourselves every day, every time we face the inner horror made out of uncertainties, fears, and anxieties. This is where ghosts swim and ugly “visions” drown, when awareness evolves into revenge. It is a state of mind, a place-not a place for the origin and overcoming of all our problems.
A Sea Of Troubles, to be released on May 29 by Slimer Records on vinyl and all digital platforms, is the debut album by Dead Visions, and you will find yourself in a sea of trouble even listening to their no-frills r’n’r. The cover artwork reminds us of another sea of trouble, that one caused by global pollution, in this specific case by water pollution: we are blowing up the planet, and the planet is pointing this out to us…
Dead Visions line-up stabilized in 2018, when the singer Francesco Mandelli—known in Italy as actor, screenwriter, director, writer, and TV presenter. He is known from his previous band Orange to the collaboration with his friend Adam Green and decided to join Cesar P. Bigelow, Federico Giammattei, Carlo Alberto Maria Rossi, and Sergio Innocenti, respectively on guitars, bass, and drums.
To preserve the energy of the performances, A Sea Of Troubles has been recorded entirely live, on tape, and then mixed at Alberto Ferrari (Verdena)’s legendary Henhouse Studio. The production is by Iacopo Bigagli (sound engineer for The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher, Dirty Fences), contributing also to arrangements and lyrics, while the mastering phase was handled by Gianni Peri.
A Sea Of Troubles was born of love for garage punk music, both a style fo music and a lifestyle, the only lifestyle for the Italian band. There is the danger and fun of everyday life including open wounds, scars, and memories. There is the dust and the humidity of the rehearsal rooms, the smell of the instruments after the sweat and the beers spilled over, the kilometers to reach the gigs, the money spent on records and denim jackets, relationships exploded due to a trip to see a concert…
To those out there who love Stooges, Cramps, Gun Club, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Dead Moon, and Not Moving, the roughest and most foul-smelling sounds generated between the 60s and 70s in New York or Detroit, the ten songs of A Sea Of Troubles will ensure a good dose of electrical satisfaction, on the road, at the frenetic speed of the city to escape in the direction of the wildest nature… or to nowhere because, in the end, you always come to terms with reality.
