EEEEELS is the sophomore album of the Italian, Vicenza-based collective trio Doortri whose concise, tight and fast, loud and provocative politically charged songs draw elements of free and acid jazz, NoWave, free improvisation, hip-hop, noise and punk-funk. The trio features reeds-keyboard-electronics player Tiziano Pellizzari, noise-maker-vocalist-songwriter Geoffrey Copplestone and drummer-percussionist Giampaolo Mattiello. EEEEELS, like the debut album of Doortri, was mixed and mastered by American polymath Elliott Sharp, who released it on its label zOaR, and contributed guitar on one piece.
The album was recorded between January 2024 and June 2024 at Pellizzari’s attic «under the eaves, in poor levels of lighting and under the critical gaze of many green shield bugs». Clearly, these nourishing conditions stimulated the surreal-dadaist-subversive atmosphere of EEEEELS. Doortri is a band that plays by its rules and disregards any attempt to lock its urgent and volatile, post-modernist aesthetics in distinct genre or style borders.
Doortri stretches its musical muscles only on the opening title piece and the last 22-minute «Sleeeee» (with Sharp), and «Greyhound Bus – Desert Rain». In between, Doortri is faithful to its punkish roots, the pieces are fast, raw and wild, spitting their message in a fast and unpredictable rollercoaster manner that often lasts less than two minutes (check the hypnotic «Jelly Belly» amd «Filasteen Hurra» with guest vocalist Ghufran Alkhalili, sung in Arabic), in a way that pays respect to another great Italian alternative trio ZU, and, obviously, John Zorn’s seminal Naked City. «Sleeeee» is a powerful blend of krautrock repetitive, percussive patterns, seductive yet sometimes brutal noise waves of keyboards and electronics, and brilliant, incisive guitar work of Sharp, all addressing both IDM and curious minds. This chaotic journey concludes with the surprising swinging turned into an abstract drone «Greyhound Bus – Desert Rain».
Eyal Hareuveni
Tiziano Pellizzari (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, keyboards, electronics, vocals. percussion), Geoffrey Copplestone (sampler, analog synthesizer, radio, vocals), Geoffrey Copplestone (drums, percussion, drum machine), Ghufran Alkhalili (vocals), Elliott Sharp (guitar)
