Rondò veneziano: La Serenissima (Baby Records/BMG, 1981)

Rondò veneziano and their fake disco/baroque music mixture aren't usually much regarded among music fans. They're too prog for non-progsters, not prog enough for progsters, too disco or too classical for rock lovers and too few for disco or classical lovers, and so on. But most of all, they're considered just too kitsch for anyone - whatever one's tastes might be.

I don't want to deny this. Rondò veneziano are definitely kitsch: a perfectly conceived form of extreme kitsch. And that's precisely why they deserve your esteem.
Here's their second album and most famous one. The tracks "La serenissima", "Sinfonia per un addio", "Arlecchino" can't be new to your ears if you happened to watch Italian television in the Eighties or Nineties. If you did not... Well, the kind of music involved here is easily explained.
Take Vivaldi, Albinoni or any other notable Venetian composer of the baroque era, make it a bit more sugary, add some drums and bass guitar with a mild disco-music touch, and there you are.
At times the music - entirely instrumental, of course - sounds as cheesy as Il guardiano del faro (which is quite of an appropriate comparison, after all), but the most lively tracks, with all their counterpoints and strings and winds and canons, are something and no cheesiness can obscure that.

Rondò veneziano are a chamber orchestra lead by maestro Gian Piero Reverberi, one of the foremost arrangers of Italian pop music during the Sixties and Seventies. He worked with Gino Paoli, Le Orme, Fabrizio De André, Lucio Battisti, Luigi Tenco, and many more. The group started in 1979 and is still active and touring.

Tracklist:

1. La Serenissima
2. Rialto
3. Canal Grande
4. Aria di festa
5. Sinfonia per un addio
6. Arlecchino
7. Regata dei Dogi
8. Notturno in gondola
9. Capriccio veneziano
10. Magico incontro

Download (192 kbps)


Similar music on the blog:
Giusto Pio: Legione straniera (EMI, 1982)
Luciano Basso: Voci (1975)

Mat-101: Goodbye, Mum!

Since the early Nineties, Rome has had a florid techno scene, quite renown abroad. Producers Francesco Pierro and Francesco De Bellis are among the foremost representatives of the "second generation" of Roman techno artists, and their excellent release as Jolly Music was already posted on this blog some time ago.

Here's something a bit older instead: the first album of the duo (which back then was actually a trio, comprising fellow producer Emiliano Tortora), which came out in 1999 for their own label Balance Records, under the moniker Mat-101.
It's basically videogame-sounding IDM. Abstract, Detroit-style techno music combined with 8-bit stuff and England's most melodic post-rave experimentations. Despite the coldness of the elements and the overal creepiness of the atmospheres, the tunes are incredibly fanciful and jocose. Sometimes, they even recall some stripped-down version of Daft Punk's OuLiPo-like attitude.
Rhythm obviously plays a fundamental role, and is perhaps the most peculiar aspect of the album. Instead of treading the usual mechanical beat of techno music, it flirts with the most convulsive twists by Aphex Twin and the likes. Without sounding that alienating, though.

"Goodbye Mum!" is one of the most original Italian electronic albums. You will like it.

Tracklist:

1. Intro
2. Level One
3. Arcade
4. Crash Hero
5. English
6. Danni morali e fisici
7. Zilof
8. Spzz
9. Gabber Doze
10. 10
11. Goblin 101
12. Mennen
13. Tecnologia casuale
14. Frakken
15. Phreese

Download  (192 kbps)


Similar music on the blog:
Monomorph: Alternative Fluid (Disturbance, 1994)
Jolly Music: Jolly Bar (Nature/Wide, 2000)

Squarcicatrici: s/t (Wallace, 2009)

It's been quite a while since the last post on this blog, and I can't guarantee I will update it frequently after this new post, but I hope I'll be able to. Anyway: I'm back.

Today's album is the debut record of a very odd chamber/jazzcore/world/whateverelse ensemble, lead by the omnipresent musical factotum Jacopo Andreini (L'Enfance Rouge, Vialka, Ronin, Ovo, Roy Paci, Cerberus Shoal, and many more).
The tracks are quite diverse, both in influences and styles. They range from "jazzified" versions of folkloric traditions (from the Balkans, or from Latin America) to unforseen chamber/electro/hip-hop experiments, and even reckless hommages to classical music ("Gorecky"). Even languages keep on shifting. Rhythm and interplay are excellent, strings as harsh sandpaper, and despite the studied roughness of the mix, the overall result is quite refined.

Fans of The Ex and the likes will surely love it, but I bet the album would sound original, daring and irresistable for many more. Remeber checking out Jacopo Andreini's "Bossa Storta" project if you liked this one, and follow the blog http://afoforomusicclub.blogspot.com for more information and associated artists.

Tracklist:

1. Afrotellacci
2. Macedone
3. Sans races
4. Mbizo
5. Pilhar Fraqueza
6. J'ai faim, Jessie!
7. Izgubljen sambetta
8. Garota
9. Afrocina
10. Gorecky
11. Afoforo
12. Invischiata
13. Izgubeljen sam (Vuneny mix)

Credits:

• Jacopo Andreini: guitar, bendir, drums, alto and baritone sax, voice;
• Andrea Caprara: tenor sax; 
• Matteo Bennici: cello, bass, voice;
• Enrico Antonello: trumpet;
• Erwan Naour: voice;
• Thollem McDonas: piano;
• Samuele Venturin: bass, accordion;
• Piero Spitilli: contrabass;
• Simone Tecla: drums;
• Andrea Belfi: drums;
• Valentino Receputi: violin;
• Uliva Velo: violin;
• Martina Chiaraugi: viola

Download (320 kbps)


Similar music on the blog:
Zu: Igneo (Wide Records, 2002)
L'enfance rouge: Trapani - Halq al Waady (Wallace, 2008)