Aucan: Black Rainbow (La Tempesta, 2011)

Let's try something new. As you probably noticed, posts in this blog follow a strict cycle by decade: one album from the 00s, then one from the 90s, then one from the 80s... Until today, the 10s were totally ignored.
Including the current decade in the post cycle is quite a challenge for me for at least three reasons. The most trivial one is that as for now "the 10s" means just two years, so the choice is quite limited; this gets even worse since my policy for the blog is to post only music I really enjoy, and my tastes are quite difficult (and this was the second reason). Finally, there are already some excellent mp3-blogs following Italian latest releases (eg, The Breakfast Jumpers), and they're much richer, better-timed and more read than mine: what can I add? Well, I don't know. Probably nothing. But I'll experiment the same, and see if people like it or not. I'll monitor the downloads, and if they're ok... then I'll just keep on posting new albums alongside old ones.

Just another quick boring note before getting to today's album: have you noticed the fist icon in the left column of the blog? It links to Il Golpe e l'Uva Facebook profile. Subscribing will keep you informed of new posts, provide you some tasty links and videos that don't get published on the blog, and offer a good way to keep in touch, specially if you speak Italian - since the profile is in Italian.

And now, let's launch the new decade with a much hyped release...

I don't know of any Italian artist flirting with UK's dubstep tendencies. Or at least that was true before Aucan started incorporating halftimes in their music and make it sound more and more electronic.
"Black Rainbow" doesn't sound Italian at all. This is the most striking thing about it: it seems to come from London, Bristol or some place like that. It's some sort of eerie, metropolitan trip-hop hijacked into an electro-rock route. It features the same evil broken beats of Milanese or Caspa, deprived of the mud and made dry, massive and abstract. It's like Lightning Bolt goes to the club, with just a slight vocal hint at Portishead or Burial to content discerning palates.
Materpiece? Definitely no, but hey - it's damn good anyway.

Aucan are a trio from Brescia. Their first album came out in 2009 and was welcomed as the Italian response to Battles (it wasn't very good in my opinion, but neither Battles were, after all). 2010 saw them publishing an ep which marked their departure from math-rock, promptly confirmed this January by the release of their second album.

Tracklist:

1. Blurred (feat. Angela Kinczly)
2. Heartless
3. Red Minoga (Short Edit)
4. Sound Pressure Level
5. Storm
6. Embarque
7. Save Yourself
8. Underwater Music
9. In a Land
10. Away!
11. Black Rainbow

Download (320 kbps)


Similar music on the blog:
Dusty Kid: A Raver's Diary (Boxer Recordings, 2009)
Touane: Figura (Persona, 2008)

Mauro Pagani: Self-Titled (Ascolto, 1978)

The late Seventies are one of the most overlooked periods in the history of Italian rock music. Just while our mediocre "punk" scene was slowly mutating into a florid post-punk milieu, the last remnants of the progressive era were evolving into something new and really unique. Some artists would undertake a "new wave" metamorphosis (think of Franco Battiato), some would hybridate with disco music (Goblin's Claudio Simonetti for example), some would delve into the fascinating musical traditions of the Mediterranean, getting closer and closer to the musical resarch of the "Canzonieri" movement.
P.F.M.'s Mauro Pagani's one of the key figures for this latter trend. After quitting P.F.M. in 1976, he ventured in a dense series of projects aimed at a new fusion of jazz-rock, ancient and traditional folk music, avantgarde experimentation. His first solo lp is perhaps the most mature fruit of his new interests and vision. The recording of the album involved three of the most proficient units around at the time in those fields: Area, P.F.M. and Canzoniere del Lazio, which cooperated in many tracks. It also features guest appearances of outstanding musicians such as former Musicanova singer Teresa De Sio and the amazing acoustic trad-folk guitarist Luca Balbo.

The music is outstanding and extremely varied. A mix of Middle-Eastern flavours, Southern Italian melodies, Sardinian dances; all coupled with refinate arrangements blending chamber music, jazz-rock and captivating avantgarde dilatations in a surprisingly light style.
To make it short: this is one of the best Italian albums ever published. Get it.

Tracklist:

1. Europa minor
2. Argiento
3. Violer d'amores
4. La città aromatica
5. L'albero di canto (Parte 1)
6. Choron
7. Il blu comincia davvero
8. L'albero di canto (Parte 2)

Credits:

• Mauro Pagani: violin, viola, mandolin, bouzouki, flute, composer, arranger (all tracks except 7)
• Mario Arcari: oboe (tracks 1, 2)
• Luca Balbo: guitar (track 7)
• Walter Calloni: percussion (tracks 1, 6)
• Teresa De Sio: vocals (track 2)
• Roberto Colombo: polymoog (track 4)
• Area:
  Demetrio Stratos: vocals (tracks 5, 8)
  Patrizio Fariselli: piano (tracks 1, 5)
  Giulio Capiozzo: drums (tracks 1,5)
  Ares Tavolazzi: bass, double bass (track 5)
• P.F.M.:
  Franz Di Cioccio: drums (track 4)
  Patrick Djivas: bass (track 4)
  Franco Mussida: guitar (track 4)
• Canzoniere del Lazio:
  Giorgio Vivaldi: percussion, talking drum (tracks 1, 6)
  Pasquale Minieri: percussion (track 1)
• Allan Goldberg: engineer (tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 8)
• Carlo Martenet: engineer (tracks 4, 7)
• Marco Inzadi: engineer (track 6)
• Piero Bravin: mix (tracks 4, 7)

Download (224 kbps)


Similar music on the blog:
Premiata Forneria Marconi: Passpartù (Zoo Records, 1978)
Area: Maledetti (Cramps, 1976)

Hipnosis: Self-Titled [Memory Records, 1984]

Disco-music for starship parties: an imaginative but suitable description for the music of Hipnosis's first and only album. Its all-electronic style merges Moroder-like disco beats with highly melodic synthesizer lines, much nearer to the ones of "progressive electronic" artists as Vangelis or J.M. Jarre than to the usual soul-music colours of disco music (two tracks, "Pulstar" and "Oxygene", are actually Vangelis/J.M. Jarre covers). No vocals are present, but the music's always very catchy and much more focused on melody and on creating an optimistic sci-fi ambience than on the driving force of rhythm, which serves mostly as a background.

Hipnosis was a short-lived project started in Parma in the early Eighties by producer Stefano Cundari. In 1982 Kirlian Camera's leader and keyboardist Angelo Bergamini joined the band; as far as I know, though, he left the band before the release of their album. Most Hipnosis releases are concentrated around 1983/1984, but in 1987 a cover of Automat track "Droid" was released. In 1992 a lp featuring almost the same tracks of the first album came out under the name "Hypnosis", but the band was composed by different musicians and had no relationship with the original project .

Tracklist:

1. Inesi
2. Windland
3. Argonauts
4. Pulstar
5. Borhaz
6. Astrodance
7. Space Crusaders
8. Oxygene
9. Theme for New Years

Download (192 kbps):
 Badongo
 Megaupload
 Deposit Files
 2shared
 zshare


Similar music on the blog:
Automat: Automat (EMI, 1978)
Giorgio Moroder: E=mc² (Durion, 1979)

Technogod: Hemo Glow Ball (Contempo, 1992)

Hip-hop, techno, industrial: "Hemo Glow Ball" is a crucible of genres. Samples, mechanical beats, acid electronic basslines and distorted guitars are the key components of Technogod's sound alchemy. They serve as a background for angry rapped lyrics (dealing apparently with socio-economical themes) but they are evidently the most important elements of their formula, entirely based on the chemical reactions within them.
Everything from jazz to funk to world music can be traced in the sound, but the atmosphere is firmly dominated by an inhuman, alienating mood which links directly to the band's industrial-music filiation. Some more guitar-laden tracks may parallel with the crossover style of Rage Against the Machine or Asian Dub Foundation, but the album is very varied and quite difficult to compare to anything else (maybe just Foetus or Young Gods would suit). The language chosen for the lyrics is English, but the pronounciation is surprisingly good notwithstanding a slight drawl.

Technogod are Gelo Degli Esposti, George Koulermos and Maurizio Liguori, from Bologna. This is their first Lp, after the Ep "Cola Wars". This is the only record of theirs I successfully managed to get, and I'd be very glad if anyone could provide me any of the others. Thanks in advance (and good listening!).

Tracklist:

1. Cola Wars
2. The Flow
3. Fatwa
4. Pueblocide
5. Policy of Containment
6. Introxigen
7. Never Be the Same
8. Mission
9. Nuclear Prayer
10. Thankful
11. Trauma Remote
12. G.L.A.D. (Part 2)
13. Pueblocide (Federal Mix)
14. Mañana

Download (192 kbps)


Similar music on the blog:
Deca: Claustrophobia (Labyrinth Records, 1989)
Monomorph: Alternative Fluid (Disturbance, 1994)