The Saxophones’ Alexi Erenkov on Vittorio Impiglia – New York Town

Draped in a velvet fog of forgotten glamour, the latest album from spousal duo The Saxophones hides a sly disquiet underneath their lacquered leather demeanor. Don’t let the smooth taste fool ya, the band sets up the smokescreen of lounge as a distraction from their dystopian themes. It’s a fitting soundtrack to the dismantling of society, not through force and fury, but through the incessant sanding of boardroom sycophants and lobbyists doped up on spineless self-interest. The band’s new album has quietly crept out from Full Time Hobby this month, and in its wake, the band’s Alexi Erenkov has offered up a pick for the Hidden Gems series. Check out Alexi’s take on a ‘70s lounge treasure.

“When we lived in New York, there was a super tiny shop in our neighborhood called Black Gold. They sold coffee, vintage oddities, and records. Alison plucked this Vittorio Impiglia album, New York Town, out of their dollar record bin solely because of the cute ’70s illustration on the cover. We put it on with zero expectations — I completely fell in love with it,” recalls Alexi

“The album has such a pleasant groove throughout. The tracks are all anchored by simple drum machine beats and a thin electric bass groove. Several chorus guitar tracks float over that foundation. Then there’s Vittorio’s singing. He’s an Italian songwriter singing in English on this album, so it sounds slightly off-kilter but very charming. The album came into my life in 2014 while I was writing the songs that made up our first EP, If You’re on the Water. The economy of Impiglia’s record influenced my own choices on those early recordings and is a sound I intend to return to. I seem to forget this lesson, but doing more with less is almost always the answer—in music and in life. It’s no wonder this album is basically unknown; it’s nearly impossible to find! I actually hadn’t realized how obscure it was until I started trying to show it to people and couldn’t find it anywhere online. That being said, it’s not an album that really broke any molds. It’s just a very pleasant record.”

As Alexi mentions, the record isn’t always the easiest to track down, though you can at least get a listen to this one digitally. Searching it out in person will probably set you back more than the dollar they paid for it, but Discogs digging might send you in the right direciton. It’s a nice companion to The Saxophones new LP, No Time For Poetry, out now from Full Time Hobby.