It might be a non-rewarding and not so generous trait  of mine, but I have developed a skepticism towards most records that are          delivered via mail to my front door. This is based on a hard and ruthless          empire - Twisterella has, to put it mildly, had a lot of "shitty"          records and only a few have been worth listening to and even fewer have          been really good. The interesting music you will have to look for yourself.   This insight has been my guide for esthetic development.

     One afternoon a couple of weeks ago there was a package   from New York waiting for me when I came home from work. There was something          there that made me react positively right away. The cover is definitely          impossible to place in a certain genre which you will usually see in Twisterella's  stack of mail. On the back of the cover there is a corpulent Italian-American  man standing (who loves pizza according to the press release) wearing   a knit sweater and very large shorts on a deserted beach with a pan flute  in one hand. It's a great picture. I could make the conclusion right away  that Rocco is not a pop-rock band who sees it as a "career opportunity"   to be named by a web "fanzine" before ZTV and "Aftonbladet   Puls" get in touch with them. Also, Rocco does not have anything   in common with the old pack of generic "lofi", alternative country,    post-rock or "electronica". It was very clear that Rocco represented something completely different. This "something completely different" naturally caught my eye, and when I played the record I was generously   rewarded.

To give you a picture of what type of sound Rocco   exhibits I want to mention something about the instrumentation: The music  is built on pianos, trumpets, acoustic "bossa" guitars, waves  from the ocean, theremins, pan flutes, harmonicas, drum brushes, horns, etc. The arrangements vary between more majestic Bacharach-inspired hits          and more quiet instrumental pieces that reminds me of movie music. The  mood level varies between happy and deeply melancholic.

They say that Rocco has been singing opera since a   young age. In "Hold On" he shows his talent which is out of  this world when the instruments and Rocco's soothing voice (which is an  instrument in itself) work together perfectly.

      

"A Walk with Rocco" is not a perfect album. It does not have a great text and it has a failed cabaret theme, but during the best moments I associate this with favorite labels such as "el  Records" and "Radio Khartoum" and favorite artists such  as Louis Philippe, Ben Watt, and Pale Fountains (without the music feeling pastiche or plagued). I get a pleasant taste of jazz-pop and easy listening in my mouth. It does not happen often that courageous albums that so nicely touch my tastebuds are placed right in front of me without me having to look for them myself. Please send more records like this.
         By Mattias Holmberg
         From the Swedish webzine www.twisterella.com
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