29/01/2009

Fitness Forever release their first album "Personal Train"

FITNESS FOREVER is a surprising Italian quartet that is making its full-length debut with "Personal Train", a marvelous pop album that draws together an immense quantity of influences with marvelous taste, the work of musicians who have an extraordinary ability with the fibers of the most precious and elegant pop: from modern points of reference like LA CASA AZUL (Guille is one of their most unconditional fans), CINERAMA, THE HIGH LLAMAS, Richard Hawley, BELLE & SEBASTIAN, THE POLYPHONIC SPREE or even LE MANS, to other classics like Bacharach, Michel Legrand, THE BEACH BOYS, THE COWSILLS, THE FREE DESIGN or Gladys Knight, and last but not least, the Italians: Rita Pavone, Ennio Morricone, Nico Fidenco, Gino Paoli, Piero Umiliani or Mina. All of this comes together in a huge album whose composition (in the style of the songwriters of the sixties, after hours in the studio) kept them locked in the studio for more than a year putting it all together, achieving an album that is full of life, full of grand pop melodies and marvelous arrangements with the utmost care in every detail. It's one of those albums that each time you listen you discover new shades and sounds, and that introduces us to Carlos Valderrama, a name that we will probably be hearing a lot in the coming years, who is capable of bringing together classic sounds with vision. And as you know, exercise: it's highly recommendable for the pop spirits. Here you have your personal trainers.

FITNESS FOREVER says that their debut album is a homage to their country, Italy, to the musical tradition that gave way to marvelous pop artists from the 60s to the 80s. But the group, led by Carlos Valderrama (VALDERRAMA 5), with this goal in mind, has achieved something much more important: to make this homage extend to music in general, embracing an infinite amount of references, styles and sounds, regurgitating them coherently and with its own personality, without dispersion or eclecticism, showing pop’s common essence, independent of the epoch or the country it comes from. It just has to have that touch of magic that makes the melodies work, makes the arrangements surprising, and makes the whole exciting. And in this first album from the Italian quartet, “Personal Train”, there is much more than this compressed into 30 minutes and just 12 songs. A titanic work that took over a year to record, using a recording method similar to what composers from the sixties used: hours and hours in the studio, trying out arrangements, instrumentation and melodies.

In addition to all of this, there is also the humor they present their project with. They say, on myspace: “The producer, composer, ex-underwear model, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Carlos Valderrama (one of the worst dancers and singers in the music industry) started FITNESS FOREVER in Naples (Italy) shortly after realizing that love does not last forever. That’s why, unfortunately, he couldn’t call the band LOVE FOREVER”. Which is where the homage to fitness begins, which is reflected in the very title of the album, the declarations in interviews, or on the album cover. In any case, this album is full of songs to dance to, because in the end, that counts as exercise too, doesn’t it?

There are so many bands to reference, so many groups to evoke, so many styles to pay homage to, that we can’t do anything but propose a little trip, song by song, through the whole album, because it is by far the best way to get inside all of the different paths that are opened up by listening to the album, written by Valderrama (drums, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, synthesizers, glockenspiel, percussion, lead vocals and chorus), Paster (lead vocals and chorus), "Big Tony" Fresa (piano, fender rhodes, organ, synthesizer, voice and clapping) and Scialdone (bass, lead guitar, 12 string guitar and vocals):

Tracklist: 01. Intro 02. Probabilmente 03. L'Anarchica Pugliese 04. Vacanze a Setiembre 05. Albertone 06. Se come te 07. Je je jeox 08. Quando ho tempo 09. Monica 10. Bacharach 11. Outro 12. D'Estate

- “Intro”. String and synthesizer arrangements to wet the appetite: classic and future together in a turn full of life and beauty.

- “Probabilmente”. One of the best songs on the album. Majestic strings, precious guitar arrangement. CINERAMA see how good they could sound in Italian, and BELLE & SEBASTIAN discover a new way of arranging their songs. The change of tone just before the end of the song and that final electric touch while they repeat: “Piuttosto che aspettare avrei alcune cose da realizzare / perdonami” mark one of the high points of the album, intense, wearing its emotions on its sleeve.

- “L'Anarchica Pugliese”. A touch of indie-pop (have we still got a little of the early LE MANS?), a little scent of Brazil and we’ve got the first of one of the great personas with lyrics that are both ironic and appealing. Stuart Murdoch gave shape to the Major (Me and the Major) and Carlos Valderrama took care of the Aquilian anarchy. Constant changes of tone and always the same perennial melody, demonstrate their profound knowledge of pop, both on a technical as well as a compositional level.

- “Vacanze a Settembre”. We’re taken to the September sun, and we enjoy our sunny vacations on a cruise ship on the crystalline water of the Adriatic Sea. A song whose Italian inheritance shines through, Rita Pavone, Adriano Celentano...

- “Albertone”. An acoustic beauty, with whistles that could have been written by Ennio Morricone or Michel Legrand, and keyboard arrangements that remind us of Mina, backed up by that aroma of lounge elegance that are a part of so many of the compositions of Burt Bacharach. The melody is the essence; what more could you ask for.

- “Se come te”. ABBA steps onto the stage, Italian Disco begins to play, and we have another of the strongest singles of the album. The vocal melody and the voices of Carlos and Paster remind us of a LE MANS that had never been so close to Gladys Knight.

- “Je je jeox”. Brazil in its purest form. Through Jorge Ben and Sergio Mendes we take a flash journey to the country of samba and rhythm.

- “Quando ho tempo”. We return to Mina, Bacharach, Legrand, even the Serrat of “Mediterráneo”. Catherine Denueve comes out of the gas station at the end of “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”, but this time without the bitterness of the passing of time.

- “Monica”. The scent of the sixties continues to impregnate this song, with a crystalline guitar and precious string arrangements, though you can still recognize a bit of the lively youthfulness of LA CASA AZUL, of whom the group are profound admirers.

- “Bacharach”. A touch of ye-ye (Rita Pavone again) with wind arrangements that recall Bacharach, in another of the sunniest and most energetic songs of the album.

- Outro. We go out the way we came in. Precious strings, backed up by synthesizers, but not without giving us one last great song.

- D'estate: This time it’s funk, with the fingerprint of Italy, that closes the album, and the song that most clearly recalls LA CASA AZUL.

There´s a limited edition of this album for vinyl lovers. [White vinyl]

Release date: February, 2nd 2009

**Already available on our online store:
http://www.elefant.com/shop

FITNESS FOREVER: release their first album "Personal Train"
picture: Publicamos el primer ?lbum del sorprendente grupo italiano Fitness Forever!
29/01/2009




FITNESS FOREVER: release their first album "Personal Train"
picture: Publicamos el primer ?lbum del sorprendente grupo italiano Fitness Forever!
29/01/2009