A Short Apnea: Illu Ogod Ellat Rhagedia (Ustrainhustri) (Wallace, 2000)

Though Italo-Basque guitaris Xabier Iriondo founded A Short Apnea while still in Afterhours, no two bands could sound less akin one to the other. The the long, improvised tracks of "Illu Ogod Ellat Rhagedia" sound closer to the so-called "now wave" scene (a post-rock subcurrent based in Chicago) than to anything else.
Rickety guitar shards, processed drum screes, freeform keyboard canvases and occasional, unintelligible psalms create a deconstructed, edgy soundscape which reminds much of Gastr Del Sol, You Fantastic!, Gorge Trio (the band would eventually team up with the latter for the album "...Just Arrived"). The mood's more claustrophobic, cybernetic, but the result fears no comparison with its American inspirers or A Short Apnea's most direct Italian forerunners, Starfuckers.


Tracklist:

1. I
2. II
3. III

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