Calibro 35 – Riots
Calibro 35 were asked to score a documentary about James Ellroy and ended up making a full album. That’s the short version of how Ellroy vs L.A. came about, due August 8 on Record Kicks. The longer version: filmmaker Francesco Zippel approached the Milan-based quintet to compose the original soundtrack for his film Ellroy vs L.A., an immersive portrait of the writer and the city that won the Nastro d’Argento for best documentary. The film intercuts Ellroy reflecting on his relationship with Los Angeles with archive footage and scenes of Calibro 35 recording in the studio. What came out of those sessions was twelve new tracks, enough for a standalone record.
“Riots” is the first single. The band’s lineup on the album is Enrico Gabrielli on piano, keyboards, sax, flute, and bass clarinet, Massimo Martellotta on guitar, synth, and organ, Fabio Rondanini on drums and percussion, Roberto Dragonetti on bass, all produced and mixed by Tommaso Colliva, recorded at Laboratori Testone in Milan and mastered by Giovanni Versari. That’s a wide palette, and the record apparently uses all of it: the band describes the full album as moving between cinematic funk, urban jazz and orchestral tension.
Calibro 35 have spent their career in this territory, where Italian library music and American funk overlap, and a James Ellroy project is about as natural a fit as they could find. What catches my ear about “Riots” is how unhurried it stays despite the obvious tension underneath, the kind of patience you only get from a band that really knows this material. If the rest of the album holds at that level, August 8 is going to be a good day.
