Nichelodeon

Panoramic, cinematic, classical, prog rock, avant-garde, the varied music of Italy's Nichelodeon is charismatically theatrical. Vocalist Claudio Milano declaims lyrics with intensity and focus. That's because his subject matter ranges across a list of serious human, social and political issues. With the backdrop of slow motion self-euthanasia brought on by the world's bourgeoisie obsessions, Milano takes centre stage. His tenor soars over changing instrumentation, from resonant Renaissance harp to clattering found objects. Unresolved trauma from death by friendly-fire, pedophilic molestation by a priest, mermaids swimming in radioactive waters off Fukushima, revisioningss of Brecht/Weill's "Surabaya Johnny" and "Pirate Jenny," as well as the mind coming to grips with impending mortality, all of these and more are thrashed out, like Hamlet talking to Yorick's skull — a man alone, trying to find meaning. This is combined with the box set's intriguing integration of visual art. The four-CD set is a career-capping swan song for a group whose ambitions were greater than their opportunities for day-to-day survival. The end?