Leopardo

Reviews

Leopardo Side A / Side B LP

This album starts off with a beautiful, bizarro warble of a song that could have been a lost track from SWELL MAPS’ 1979 opus A Trip to Marineville. The album takes off from there with experimental looping tape sounds, off-kilter timing, mesmerizing Dean Wareham-esque vocals, and plinky melodies reminiscent of the VASELINES. Hints of TELEVISION PERSONALITIES and PERE UBU pop in and out. I’m sure the band could and probably has drawn VELVET UNDERGROUND comparisons, but in a more focused sense, it’s the vision and spirit of JOHN CALE that shines out from this unique body of work.

Leopardo Malcantone LP

I picture LEOPARDO being some kind of hippy, freeform communal group. Their music is an eclectic collection of styles. There’s the usual instrumentation—guitars, bass, drums—but also banjo, synths, percussion, drum machine. It gives you a feel of people just bringing whatever they want to the group and seeing what happens. Yet, this record still seems cohesive. There’s poppy songs. There’s psychedelic songs. Some are slow. Some are upbeat. It’s a record for listening while lying down.

Leopardo Is It An Easy Life? LP

Psychedelic rock from Switzerland in the vein of the VELVET UNDERGROUND. The songs are generally on the upbeat side of things, but not necessarily poppy. They’re a little weird, a little off-kilter, the vocals run toward the TINY TIM side of things. Head noddable, yes but not exactly danceable. The two best songs on here are the ones that don’t really fit. “Happiness” is a slow, sparse, ambient, folkish thing that reminds me of a song by one of the Kilgour brothers. It’s followed by the catchy as hell, “I Wanna Tame You,” a pop gem. I’d listen to those two songs over and over.

Leopardo Di Caprio LP

LEOPARDO is a one-man band from Switzerland that plays dreamy, atmospheric pop music. The songs stretch and breathe. They are sophisticated, then childlike. I like what Julie Bugnard said about him: “Mais Leopardo se différencie par son romantisme lo-fi si particulier et son garage trash et naïf” (“LEOPARDO is differentiated by his so particular lo-fi romanticism and his trash and naïve garage”). Naïve garage is a great phrase, and sums it up nicely.