One of the greatest pleasures in writing CD reviews for Concreteweb is the discovery of great bands I may not have ever heard of otherwise. Qoph was one such band, as was Madking Ludwig and many others. The Strange Flowers is the latest to join that esteemed group.

“Ortoflorovivaistica” is a seven track CD full of beautiful and powerful masterpieces that are performed with so much feeling and passion, the intensity of each track is so deep you wonder what was going around the time of writing and recording. It finds the Pisa, Italian band exploring acidic rhythms and organic melodies, floating on the poetics of wah-wah guitar and spacey analogue synth effects creating a pretty psychedelic atmosphere. This band certainly has listened a lot to Velvet Underground, Syd Barrett and Spacemen 3. The longest song “Strange girl” is full of hallucinogenic images and inventive music that will grab the listener from the beginning. Even Rachmaninov rears its ugly head on this one. There are some wacky, swooshes, bleeps, spiraling guitar parts, it's “After bathing at Baxter’s”-era Jefferson Airplane taken to the tenth degree and is an essential purchase if psych rock is your thing.

The boys from Pisa should definitely be proud of themselves with this one. Brilliant!

95/100

Cosmicmasseur.