MoRkObOt: MoStRo (Supernatural Cat, 2006)

A trip through sonic magma. Red-heated basslines, basaltic bass bursts (there are two basses in here), and eerie ambient vapours. Unsettling and hypnotic, "MoStRo" is not the ordinary jazz/noise/core stuff with a harder edge. Here and there you can find the dominant "sparsely angular" sound of the Italian underground, but the main element here is the deeply enthralling flow and its evocative power. Anarchic, but surprisingly "narrative", geometric though blatantly psychedelic, the album fuses the dragon-lairs of early Pink Floyd, the swamps of Melvins and the esoteric wedges of math-metallers Tool with a distinct Zu-esque (or should I call it "Zornesque"?) vibe. I know the description would fit for many unexciting bands, but trust me: "MoStRo"'s better than them all. 

A somehow misterious band, MoRkObOt is a trio whose elements are disguised under the names Lin, Lan and Len (presenting as "messengers" of MoRkObOt). This is their second album.

Tracklist:

1. Tobokrom
2. Zorgongollac
3. Kaklaipus
4. Cammut
5. Skrotocolm
6. Poldon

Download (192 kbps)

Similar albums on the blog:
Transgender: Sen Soj Trumàs (Snowdonia/New LM Record, 2003)
Taras Bul'ba: Incisione (Wallace, 2005)

L'orchestra di Piazza Vittorio: Sona (RadioFandango/Edel, 2006)

World music. Literally: there's the whole world, in this album. Music from everywhere, blended in a charming melting pot aesthetics. As in the most refinate recipes (or the most genuine), the flavours preserve their own identity. Fused, but not confused, the multiplicity of musical cultures animating "Sona" gives rise to a rich fresco. Or maybe a colorful and intricated tapestry, portraying the many faces the music can take around the world.
Tracks like life scenes - music for dancing, music for relaxing or to get blithe, moody music and sing-along music. African percussions, jazzy layerings and orchestral elegance. Maghrebi seductiveness, Brazilian saudade.

And a bit of Italian song craftmanship. The man behind this oversized multi-ethnic ensemble (16 elements from all over the world) is Mario Tronco from Avion Travel. In league with the documentarist Agostino Ferrente, he started the project as a way to make people from the different cultures living in Rome know each other.
The experience is documented on the feature film "L'orchestra di Piazza Vittorio".



Tracklist:

1. Sona
2. Ena Fintidaarh'k
3. Fela
4. Helo Rama Per
5. Laila
6. Balesh Tebsni
7. Ena Andi
8. Sandina
9. Vagabundo Soy

Download (256 kbps)


Similar albums on the blog:
Radiodervish: In acustico (Cosmasola, 2001)
Ritmia: Forse il mare (New Tone, 1986)

Mina: Tutto Mina (Warner, 2006)

Mina Anna Mazzini is the most famous Italian female pop singer ever. She owes her popularity to her frequent TV apparitions during the Sixties, to her stunning vocal personality and to the great songs many composers wrote for her in those years.
"Tutto Mina" is much probably the most complete collection featuring her Sixties hits. The styles range from easy-going r'n'r-inspired tracks ("Tintarella di luna", "Una zebra a pois", "Serafino campanaro", some of the first ones in Italy) to extraordinary and sophisticated love songs signed by some of the greatest Italian authors of that time ("Il cielo in una stanza" - Gino Paoli, "Stringimi forte i polsi" - Fiorenzo Carpi/Dario Fo, "Se telefonando" - Ennio Morricone/Maurizio Costanzo).
The impressing vocal performance in "Brava" - a song explicitly conceived to show Mina's thecnical ability - gives an account of the singer's personality as an interpreter. An Italian pop monument, for a good reason.

Tracklist:
CD 1:

1. Il cielo in una stanza
2. Tintarella di luna
3. Nessuno
4. Due note
5. È vero
6. Coriandoli
7. Piano
8. Una zebra a pois
9. La notte
10. Folle banderuola
11. Serafino campanaro
12. Le mille bolle blu
13. Vorrei sapere perché
14. Come sinfonia
15. Cubetti di ghiaccio
16. Sabato notte
17. Moliendo cafè
18. Renato
19. Eclisse twist
20. Prendi una matita
21. Stringimi forte i polsi
22. Chihuahua
23. Stessa spiaggia stesso mare

CD 2:

1. È l'uomo per me
2. Un buco nella sabbia
3. Un anno d'amore
4. Città vuota
5. Ora o mai più
6. Io sono quel che sono
7. L'ultima occasione
8. Soli
9. Brava
10. Una casa in cima al mondo
11. Ta ra ta ta
12. Se telefonando
13. Se tu non fossi qui
14. Breve amore
15. Mi sei scoppiato dentro il cuore
16. Se piangi se ridi
17. E se domani
18. L'immensità
19. Conversazione
20. Se c'è una cosa che mi fa impazzire
21. So che non è così
22. Sono come tu mi vuoi
23. La banda

Download:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Å: omonimo (2006)

Free-rock trio Å's first (and only, at least until now) CD was also the first release for the series "Zeit" by the new cult label Die Schachtel, specialised in improvised and experimental, border-line music. It was received extremely well by indie rock press, to the point that the band's even been considered over-hyped.
Just two years later, there's not that much talk about the band, but the music's still as good as it were when it was released. Some passages may remind either This Heat, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, AMM or other radical electroacoustic improvisers, but even if it's a bit unfocused, the album is quite original and pleasurable (if you like the genre).

Here's an interview to the band (in Italian).


Tracklist:

1. My Memory Is Like A Film. That Is Why
2. I Am Really Good At Remembering Things, Like The Conversation I Have Written Down In This Book, And What People Were Wearing, And What They Smelled Like, Because
3. My Memory Has A Smell Track Which Is Like A Soundtrack. And When People Ask Me To Remember Something I Can Simply
4. Press Rewind And Fast Forward And Pause Like On A Video Recorder, But More Like A Dvd Because I Don't Have To
5. Rewind Through Everything In Between To Get To A Memory Of
6. Something A Long Time Ago. And There Are No Buttons, Either, Because
7. It Is Happening In My Head

Download