THE BACKWARDS "Eerie Thoughts Collection pt. 3"
(Crazy Mannequin 1990)

A quite obscure title and band, which at the time was praised by Italian music journos but largely ignored by buyers. even in later years the Backwards were still highly regarded by someone (check their enthusiastic entry in Timothy Gassen's The Knights Of Fuzz), and yet unknown anywhere else.

So, here's a short history:
Born in 1988 as Chapter 24, and soon rechristened as The Backwards, their first demotape 'Real Life Permanent Dream' had excellent reviews ("The best neo-psych band in Italy nowadays" said C. Sorge), but for some reasons their leader P. Rizzo went solo under the same moniker, and in late 1989 proceeded to tape the Backwards' only LP. Rizzo played most instruments, but fellow musicians helped on various tracks (mostly mates fron The Pow and Peter Sellers & The Hollywood Party).

The result was released in spring 1990 on Crazy Mannequin records: the LP sounded reasonably coherent, although a hodgepodge of older and more recent influences: part Beatles/UK psych, part US garage, part Robyn Hitchcock, part Julian Cope, part acid folk, part power pop, part new wave, and so forth... A rather colorful experience, despite the dull b/w sleeve...

of the 500 copies pressed, some were sold, some were given as a gift, and some were lost.

the Backwards went on for 3 more years, with some cassette-only releases, one of which was produced by Delerium rec. in the UK, and called it a day in 1993.

Song titles:

1 Intro
2 The Backwards Are Here
3 Travellin' Knight
4 She Stared At Her Own Feet
5 Out Of Focus
6 Across Your Mind
7 My Advice For You
8 Pause
9 Your Precious Time
10 Happily Ever After
11 Upstairs
12 In Search For Yourself
13 Portrait (Of An Unbalanced Mind)
14 Evening Conversation
15 Daily Rites
16 Point Of View

Posted by The Man Who Wasn’t There