Squadra Omega is an Italian psychedelic free-form jam band that knows how to bend your ears. From the first onslaught of sax, guitars and drums on Tenebroso I was spellbound. The 20 minute single track album was recorded in one live take with an intensity that few artists can keep going for that duration. This is a free improvisation spree complete with all the mistakes and risks that make this form of live art so…well…alive. The tracks starts in full throttle and continues with an almost shamanic dedication, a full volume free jazz chant. It is The Grateful Dead, Sun Ra and Coltrane all rolled together in one night of all joy and dread abandoned. If you haven’t guessed, I love this album. This is some of the best free improvisation you will find in avant jazz and rock. This gem of a live session is brought to you by The Clinical Archives net label and is available in 320kbps MP3 format.

Rennes Le Chateau from the Vuoto net label didn’t send me waxing poetically like the former album did but it did verify my first perception that Squadra Omega is an unique and exceptional ensemble of musicians. Like Tenebroso It is a 20 minute long free-form jam that keeps your interest throughout. There’s a lot of 70s jam rock influence in this album but I find the way these artists interact and mix their influences together totally 21st century. There are traces of The Dead, electronic sampling, mid-east tonalities, free jazz, and even the ghost of Link Wray’s guitar in this jam and all of it makes sense in some musically chaotic definition of normality. I’m hooked on this band. Rennes Le Chateau is available in 320kbps MP3.

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Rennes Le Chateau
Tenebroso