Reviews

Interview - 4Q Magazine - August 2009 by Jon Gardner
"Sally Garozzo has balls. You may be shocked by this, considering the singing voice and the pictures, but it’s true. This operatic, poetic angel has great big, hairy, shiny brass bollocks. I’m speaking of course, of fearlessness. Of bravery. There has been a resurgence lately of the faux-gothic US shoegazing that Evanescence, Paramore, et al excel at, and this is largely thanks to the dreary soundtrack of teen wampyr-weepie “Twilight” and all the introspective lonely-hearts soul searching it has inspired in the panda-eyed nobody understands me set. While on one hand this might pave the way for the more intelligent rock fan to look deeper into the music they are being offered and maybe even find some real art under the machine-tooled rubbish such movies have championed, for the most part they will only likely dig up the typical and hollow “Why don’t nice boys / girls like me and honestly, I don’t care anyway cos I’m dead inside” kind of bullshit that barely held water when the Cure still had coke habits and Siouxsie Sioux didn’t have anyone blowing her onstage at the Brits. Not since Kate Bush was initially openly ridiculed, and later quite rightly canonised, for what turned out to be a groundbreaking and essential move into a soulful, almost magical blend of vocalisation, dark poetry and instrumentation, has anyone stood even close to her fire. A shocking number of 21st Century songwriters have worn supposedly unique and broken hearts on their tattered sackcloth sleeves, which then have only turned out to pump ordinary old money-grubbing plasma after all, having aimed for Bush’s crown and missed by absolutely miles, time and time again. Even KB herself, with her overdue 2005 comeback “Aerial”, failed to capture that elusive element that made her truly captivating in the first place, instead choosing to champion the a capella skills of Rolf Harris and rattle on about her son Bertie being “luverly, luverly” rather than hit any of the deeper, ferocious notes we’d missed during her 12 year hiatus since the astonishing The Red Shoes. Sally Garozzo may very well be just the peg to fill the hole, so to speak. For her, music must, above all, have a point. “Put it this way” she asserts, “Without music, there is no point. In a world of transience, music lasts. I seem to have been born with this feeling that no matter how hard I try to explain myself with words, I will never be fully understood. Words alone don't seem to do my feelings justice, but add a soundtrack, and they come alive. The heart opens and the soul merges with the mind and suddenly you not only hear what I'm saying but you feel what I'm saying.” The heart opens. The soul merges with the mind. Hey baby, hey lover boy, I wanna rock you all night long. “Music has the power to heal, enhance and enliven and it also has the power to destroy and torture.” Do it to me baby. Uh-huh, uh-huh. “I was horrified to read an article which said that music was used as a form of torture in some prisoner of war camps. Music would be played to prisoners at very high levels for long periods of time. Even classical music when played like this would drive anyone insane. When used with the right intention, music can soothe and change cellular structure to induce healing. I was recently on a long coach trip and one of my fellow passengers complained of travel sickness. I gave her my iPod with some soothing classical repertoire for her to focus on and miraculously, her sickness went away. This is just a simple example.” …and Vogue. You may have gathered by now that Sally Garozzo isn’t writing just to sex you up. Not that she isn’t sexy. Quite the opposite. Again much like Kate Bush, Garozzo exudes an odd, otherworldly sexuality that perfectly compliments her astonishing voice and dream-weaving, poetic lyrics. But in the face of the obvious fact that sex sells and we all like, yes we all like to party, where is the real need to write about anything with more substance? “Because, like me, there are many adults and children in the world who want more from music. Sex and love are great subjects to write about, but there are other, more interesting things going on in the world. My favourite subjects are self empowerment, quantum physics, evolution, freedom, love, community and spirituality... so I write about them.” Quantum physics? How do you even find anything in there that rhymes? Is this not a slog, writing about such subjects? “For me, it's not really an effort, it's just what comes naturally. It would be more of an effort for me to write a ‘Hey baby why don't you come over here and let me fuck you' type song. It just wouldn't feel right.” Sure, but… quantum physics? Evolution? “I think people get the impression that I'm a bit of a new age yoghurt knitter so I'd like to banish all rumours and say that I'm actually more of a space cadet!” Welcome to Planet Garozzo. Her unique and beguiling approach to her art is evident not only through the music itself, but also her choice of performance venue. In addition to gigs such as the Mind, Body and Spirit Fayre at the Pera centre in Melton Mowbray over the 13th June weekend, Sally has a residency at the Blue Cat Café in Stockport as part of a monthly Electronica night, appearing alongside triphop mentalists Kalahan. This month you can catch the Blue Cat night on June 20th. Then, in July, she’ll be playing an acoustic set at Gorton Monastery. So where is the real Sally? “I have a split personality. I do clubs and I do churches!” she laughs. “Gorton Monastery is the most spectacular venue I've come across. It is a church with cathedral proportions and was designed by Edward Pugin. The abbey itself has incredible acoustic qualities and when I got offered a gig there, I couldn't refuse. I don't know what it is about churches but my songs seems to fit! When I gig the Blue Cat Café, for example, I use my full electronica backing tracks. Coupled with some crazy outfits and some inspired dance moves, these gigs satisfy my alter ego. They’re banging!” Sally recently completed her album “Earth, Meet Heaven” at Manchester’s Airtight Studios. She wants you to come to one of her eclectically chosen venues, hear her music, and then to take it home and really, really hear it. It may be obvious by now that her audience is a particular type. You can decide for yourself if that is you. So what’s next? “Who knows where this is going. My goal is to continue writing songs and I will do so whether they are picked up, signed up, snapped up or not. I am a creative being and I will always be seeking new ways to express myself musically and otherwise. If somebody thinks they are any good, that's great, if not, who cares... it ain't gonna stop me! Life is a journey, there will always be another 'over there'. You never get it all done and so making music is a beautiful path that unfolds along this already beautiful life. I'm not hoping I'm different from everyone else. I am just being myself, so if people resonate with it, cool beans... if not, I don't really mind.” Cool beans. Evolution. Crazy outfits and inspired dance moves. Banging. Quantum physics, yoghurt knitting, changing cellular structure to induce healing. This already beautiful life.Try to keep up at the back, there. This one demands your full attention. Sally Garozzo is playing the Blue Cat Café, Stockport on June 20th and Gorton Monastery on July 19th. See www.sallygarozzo.com for other dates and venues outside the Manchester area. Album “Earth, Meet Heaven” on sale now online and in selected stores."

Review - UK Music Review - January 2009 by Dave Voss
When I received Sally Garozzo’s follow-up album in the post my initial instinct from the cover was that this was going to be some kind of unimaginative female pop drivel, something along the lines of Enya meets B*witched, instead this is ‘Earth Meet Heaven’. Opening track ‘Remmember Who You Are’ is an introduction to a great mix of Drum ‘n’ Bass, soothing pop melodies, and warm Synth backing parts perfectly crafted by producer Alan Lowles, a theme which is continued throughout. As the tracks progress influences such as Silverchair, Kate Bush, Imogen Heap, and Portishead come through, however they are well hidden among a very distinctive and original sound. This certainly isn’t simplified to any extent, there are constantly different sounds coming through in the mixture, that take place of and making room for each other in swift swells and fades. Each track provides a different beat with layer upon layer or backing instruments and vocals, and melodies to make Andrew Lloyd Webber cry. The delicate melodies and instrumental sway of track 4 ‘Say Hello To My Soul’ are reminiscent of a good musical, the orchestration of Oboe, bongo’s, and strings making it sound like you really could be sat in front of a stage with a soloist standing above a pit of classical musicians. As ‘Saturn Returns’ plays, It’s hard not to think how when ‘Earth meet Heaven’ was recorded Garozzo and Lowles must have been writing and recording this album, thinking how each part works individually but with very little idea of how well this would come together. On paper a sweet voiced female vocal against Drum n Bass beats seems like an obvious no no, but ‘Earth Meet Heaven’ goes on to show just how anything in music is really possible. ‘Angels Lullaby’ is the interval in this rhythmically filled party of sounds, and allows Garozzo’s voice to be exposed. Without the layers of instrumentation and percussive patterns Garozzo’s voice is left to do all the work. Garozzo accompanied by sweeping cello and piano motif’s for support pulls and draws at listening ears. This really could be a B-side ballad from ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ and makes it incredibly hard not to imagine Garozzo standing on stage looking up to the rafters and singing through ankle deep smoke. The second half of ‘Earth Meet Heaven’’s performance is begun with the aptly named ‘Something New’, with the induction of Brazilian style rhythms, Brass, and backing ‘Crowd noise’ all finished off with the all important sparkle effect. ‘Fearless Streak’ shows some real Drum n Bass influence, with an intro happy to embrace likeness to Pendulum’s ‘Slam’. The hard-hitting beat continues to meet Garozzo’s voice and increasing Synth pattern’s. ‘Earth Meet Heaven’ is a great second album from Sarah Garozzo and worth while by for anyone wanting to enjoy a beautifully crafted and well excuted set of songs full of passion, drive and rhythms that will make you move.

Reivew - Toxic Pete - November 2008 by Toxic Pete
"To try to tie Sally Garozzo down with genre labelling is pretty impossible; certainly it's atmospheric something, definitely it's ambient, perhaps it's pop - I really don't know but, it sure is modern!!Garozzo sketches out big string-driven audio soundscapes and decorates them with elements of folk, classical, choral and a few other things in between. Impossible, yes impossible to categorise but, Garozzo comes as a pleasant surprise; hers is a 'pseudo-synthetic' music with a difference - it's a wispy, airy concoction of electro and 'real' instrumental pleasantries, a fluid, nearly organic, tapestry of hypno-sound fronted by Garozzo's unique vocals, strings and horns which are delivered gracefully and with a similarly easy fluidity and sense of Gothic 'fantasy'! 'Earth Meet Heaven!' is dreamy, vocal post-pop; Garozzo's beautifully honed vocals sit superbly empathetically within the music, the result is as if Garozzo's voice becomes yet another instrument in the modernistic 'orchestra'. Very different from the electro 'norm', unlike the often trite outpourings of pure pop, Garozzo's distinctive style is relaxing and yet inspiring; she gently teases the senses with her sonic waves of sensual chill-out music. Sally Garozzo's 'Earth Meet Heaven!' demonstrates the power and beauty of atmospheric sound; nothing here is spiky or angular, it's all just so smooth but within there's a depth and intensity that belies its inherent form. Sally Garozzo's visionary music is as compelling as it is tranquil - with beats that would suit any drum and bass, techno or house music venue and just enough R&B soul and pop heart to give it a commercial edge, 'Earth Meet Heaven!' is multi-facetted and many genred. 'Earth Meet Heaven!' by Sally Garozzo is a wonderfully tantalising work that should entice takers from several modern musical persuasions; a one suits all work with a big heart and friendly nature - wow, it's good and wow' it's different!"
Peter J Brown aka toxic pete - www.toxicpete.com