Located in the North-West of Italy sits Cuneo, a city close to the French border. This town has seemingly been home to a number of notable far-left/left of centre figures including the politicians Cesare Damiano, Livia Turco, Anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti and anti-fascist lawyer Duccio Galimberti.
From this place possessed with a seemingly revolutionary mindset comes Sad Pony Girl, a brand new trio formed in 2023 who are described on their Bandcamp and Instagram pages as a 'Noise Pop band from the desolate land of Padania' (an alternative name and proposed independent state encompassing Northern Italy, derived from the name of the Po River - Wikipedia). Consisting of Eleonora Natilii – Vocals, Alberto Costa - Audio Engineer and Fabio Anghilante on Bass & other curious things, from the research I've undertaken I can see that all three have a heavy amount of involvement in differing artistic ventures. A personal draw were the Shoegaze and Post-Punk tags on the aforementioned Bandcamp page which proved a deciding factor in my choice to cover Guerilla, the group's debut release.
'Pond' features a wash of blissful ambient sounds, atmospherics and dreamy Vocals which makes the track feel like a Lo-Fi fusion of both Slowdive and Stereolab. If either of those bands were to go down a more Electronic route it might not sound overly dissimilar to what is demonstrated here. A beautiful start. 'Of Red' retains the dreamier aspects of its predecessor but with the inclusion of interesting Hip-Hop and Synthwave elements, ala Cliff Martinez scores for the films of Nicholas Winding Refn crossed with New Yorkers Luscious Jackson, its that good. The band's cover of Xiu Xiu's 'I Luv The Valley' is the shortest track on the EP with tasty moody Post-Punk vibes, particularly the dominant Peter Hook/Simon Gallup style Basslines. I know nothing about Xiu Xiu but the music is a little more 'conventional' in terms of structure proving the band capable of playing both comparatively straight ahead fare as well as more avant-garde material.
'Arson' immediately brought to mind a number of Warp Records artists, but particularly Broadcast, in the band's ability to successfully forge together Dancey/Electronic elements with Indie/Alternative and Post-Rock to rather brilliant effect. Another certifiable winner. 'La Zona (Пикник на обочu не)' moves along slowly in a Trip-Hop vein with Jazzy inflections and muted spoken word Vocals. To draw comparisons, fans of former Talk Talk leader Mark Hollis' S/T album may find some appeal here as well as Radiohead on albums such as Kid A and Amnesiac, which despite not being a fan of the latter, I nonetheless found a lot appealed to me about this particular number. Nearing the conclusion of the album are its three longest pieces at over five minutes each commencing with 'Nostalgia', an emotive and moving song that again taps into Shoegaze fuzz ala Slowdive around the time of Souvlaki while 'The Raven' seems to mine a similar kind of territory to Yo La Tengo and their brand of Noise-Pop to rather fantastic effect; in fact this would slot in rather perfectly on that band's 2009 album Popular Songs (a personal favourite of mine). If you were to look up a dictionary definition of minimalist you'd find 'Teddy Bear' staring right back at you. Acoustic Guitar, glacial paced Slint-esque Post-Rock and yet more Spoken Word Vocals, the track also recalls The Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth musical spirit too. A wonderfully downbeat way to conclude proceedings.
Sad Pony Girl have constructed an intriguing and beautiful collection of tracks, which certainly bodes well for the band's future. Ones to watch.
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