Born of Italian-descent and raised near Glasgow, Scotland, one would think that industrial artist Rico would provide listeners with an interesting idea of what a fusion of the two cultures would sound like. Actually, he gives us no idea at all.  His influences draw from the likes of The Cure, Public Enemy and David Bowie, artists as diverse as his heritage. His sound is a little heavy, best described as a “bitter blend of metal, techno, loops, industrial beats and soul-bearing lyrics."
Rico’s debut album Sanctuary Medicines is angry, harsh and raspy yet strangely listenable. Pulsating beats and quaking rhythms are part of Rico’s comparison to Nine Inch Nails, a band he greatly admires. Taking up drums at the age of eleven and spending most of his teenage years in disposable punk bands, Rico refers to the release as dark “snapshots from three years of my life." “Shave Your Head" and “Attack me" provide perhaps the best example of what the album represents. Three years of writing and performances have resulted in rave reviews from the UK press who are not always so easy to please.
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Though he has been painfully compared to Marilyn Manson, Rico says of Manson, “It’s all a bit pantomime. There’s a degree of cabaret to it, I don’t know how honest it is, I don’t really get it. He is American, I suppose."
He considers a lot of the work to be snap shots from his life without a lot of analysis. You have to wonder what was going on in his life to produce the lyrics, “Fuck Lois Lane/Fuck Singing in the Rain." Original at best, and daring if anything else. Rico’s Sanctuary Medicines is a good soundtrack for a rainy life. 6out of 10…
Erin Boyle CanEHdian.com, 2000
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