Review Summary: While somewhat flawed, an interesting piece of psychedelic/stoner rock.
Mondo Naif is an underground stoner rock group hailing from Italy. Turbolento marks their second release. It is an interesting album, mixing well-done stoner rock with several somewhat unorthodox elements. While generally a very solid release, Turbolento is perhaps less cohesive than it could be, and as such does not flow particularly well.
Turbolento possesses much more diversity than the typical stoner rock release. Much of this is manifested in the appearance of several interlude tracks, such as “Per Sempre” and “Vexilla Regis Prodeunt Inferni”, which give the album a softer psychedelic vibe at times. The song “Niente” provides heavily grunge-influenced vocals, and is an interesting addition. Arguably, the album’s best track, “Aquilone”, also defies standard stoner rock conventions, being an instrumental which mixes rugged guitar riffs with a wailing saxophone in an impressive manner. However, in general, Turbolento seems at its best during the heavier moments, and the abundance of softer interludes can detract from this at times. Powerful riff-driven songs such as “THC” and “Belfagor” easily stand among the best on the album.
Besides the aforementioned issues, the other main concern for some may be that all of the lyrics on Turbolento are in Italian. Ultimately though, this is a relatively minor consideration, given that the genre in question is rarely lyrics-based. Overall, Turbolento remains a generally successful release, as the band excels here at writing concise and powerful songs. While it is hopeful that in the future Mondo Naif will create a more complete work, for now Turbolento is an enjoyable album well worth a listen, particularly for enthusiasts of stoner music.
