That’s A Good Move

… That’s a good move, That’s a good move, Good move, That’s a good move … 

Hello? anybody out there up for listening to the best space-themed Italian glam rock LP ever made? of course you are*.  Welcome to Giuda E.V.A; released on Rise Above Records last year seemingly via a time machine from early 1973.

These Romans, formerly a punk band called Taxi, had something of an epiphany after a fatal accident in 2007 discovering a whole undiscovered world in the early 70’s UK glam rock scene; prog rocking Italy never got this stuff, apparently..  Giuda devoured the big stuff like Slade, Sweet and Suzi Quatro and then dived deeper and deeper into the whole UK ‘junkshop glam’ scene**, all those stomping, yobbish glam wannabes that eventually fed their energies into ’77 punk.

I can never resist a big glam rock beat, the kind designed to stamp your platform soles to, it just fries my pleasure centres signalling good times, ahoy!  Almost every single track on E.V.A has gaps which it would take a stronger man than I not to fill with ‘Come on, Come on!‘ shouts and choruses that echo for miles.  Rather cunningly Giuda inject this formula with two contrasting elements of their own on E.V.A, some powerfully simple guitar lines and a few more keyboard flourishes than their previous LPs.

Opener ‘Overdrive’ is a real case in point.  It all begins with the best AC/DC guitar line not on an actual AC/DC track ever^ before gliding on with its ridiculously catchy ‘that’s a good move’ hook.  Classy and fun, much like my good self.  I’m also particularly taken with the expansive ‘Interplanetary Craft’ which manages to be kinda smooth and yobbish simultaneously.

There really is not a duff track on E.V.A and it makes me yearn for a time when folks used guitars to make proper pop LPs.  Giuda get the whole sci-fi on a low-fi budget sound spot on; that whole bacofoil spacesuits and torches-as-rayguns aesthetic.  Which is not to say that Giuda don’t growl on occasion, ‘You’ve Got The Power’ chucks in some real voltage, ramping it all up with a driving bass line, handclaps and chanted choruses. It rocks.  Ditto the charged ‘I’ve had Enough’, and double-ditto the frenetic ‘Raver’s Rock’ – no wonder Joe Elliott is a fan.

Giuda have a couple of other tricks up the sleeves of their tight knitted tops, a bit of well-directed new wave on ‘Cosmic Love’ and some rampaging disco rock on ‘Junk’, an ode to the joys and flaws of rummaging around in the past which struts in to the pilfered intro of Bowie’s ‘Starman’.

January is always a grim time for me and I need a shot of technicolour fun to get through it. E.V.A gives me this in spades, from the bright red vinyl*^ and the ace cover art onwards, this is day-glo fun enough to banish the seasonal blues.  If you’re up for a bit of by-no-means-mindless fun then look no further than this Italian job and get ready to stamp your boots to their space beat.

… That’s a good move, That’s a good move, Good move, That’s a good move …

974 Down.

PS:  Not on this album, but one of my very favourite Giuda tracks:

PPS:  Really good article on Giuda and several others who share their tastes.

*otherwise we can’t/wouldn’t be friends.

**see the excellent compilations Velvet Tinmine and (I shit you not) Boobs.

^lest we forget they were a glam rock band themselves for their first 8 months, all manner of satin and tat.

*^limited to 300.