Not Moving: Sinnermen (Spittle Records, 1986)

The idea behind "Sinnermen" is quite simple: Let's play some sort of new wave with loads of Morricone-like flangers'n'reverbs. The result could have sounded just as elegant and minimal as Wall of Voodoo, or as deviant and funny as Man or Astro-Man, but is actually quite dissimilar to both.
The point is that "Sinnermen" is so poorly recorded and awfully played that it sounds like nothing else. The songs are some sort of primeval cherokee-rock dirges. Organ's everywhere, the mood is rather dark and psychedelic and this would probably remind of The Stranglers (or The Doors), if only the guitars didn't desperately try to imitate The Shadows and the English pronounciation weren't so ridiculous.
So clumsy, so original and so provincial, "Sinnermen" is definitely funnier than the average Italian post-punk album. Even beautiful, here and there.

Not Moving were founded in 1981, taking their name from a DNA song. "Sinnermen" is their first LP, produced by the renown music journalist Federico Guglielmi.


Tracklist:

1. Sinnerman
2. Catman
3. I Know Your Feelings
4. The Lost Bay
5. My Lovely Loved
6. Pray For Your God
7. You Really Got Me Babe
8. A Wonderful Night to Die
9. Land of Nothing
10. A Life Long
11. Sucide Temple
12. Mr. Nothing
13. Ice Eyes Baby
14. In the Batland
15. Cocksucker Blues

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Lucio Battisti: Don Giovanni (Numero Uno, 1986)

The songs in "Don Giovanni" sound lopsided and aloof. They obey the synth-pop rule in a lunar, idiosincratic manner. They seem totally lifeless, artificial, made of plastic despite some sparse velvety warmth in the basslines, in the saxophone seductions and in the rainy, breathy synth tides. The melodies are quirky, meandery, undoubtably "pop" and refined but hardly catchy. The lyrics, well, the lyrics are a closed book: almost nonsensical, blatantly post-modern and sardonic, they're captivating nevertheless and - once you've partly got into them - even evocative. With its jaunty and polished synth-funky grooves and its obliterating lyrics framed into the melodies with a total disdain for the meter, "Don Giovanni" is one of the most abstract and undeciphrable works of Italian pop music.

Lucio Battisti was the most celebrated Italian pop artist of the 60s/70s. "Don Giovanni" is his first collaboration with lyricist Pasquale Panella, and a complete departure from his previous style, which had become more and more experimental but never appeared so tough and detached before.


Tracklist:

1. Le cose che pensano
2. Fatti un pianto
3. Il doppio del gioco
4. Madre pennuta
5. Equivoci amici
6. Don Giovanni
7. Che vita ha fatto
8. Il diluvio

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Piero Milesi: The Nuclear Observatory of Mr. Nanof (Cuneiform, 1986)

Milanese composer Piero Milesi is probably best known for his work as the arranger of Fabrizio De André albums "Le nuvole" and "Anime salve". He is in fact one of the most prominent Italian artists in the field of electronic minimalism.
After having studied cello, he graduated in experimental and electronic composition in Milan conservatory. Then he joined the Gruppo Folk Internazionale entourage and got a degree in architecture with a thesis on the relations between space and sound.

"The Nuclear Observatory of Mr. Nanof" is his first work to be published by the quintessential American avant-prog label Cuneiform Records. It's the soundtrack of the homonym experimental film directed by Paolo Rosa and produced by Studio Azzurro. The film was a surreal exploration of an enormous graffiti engraved on the outside wall of Volterra mental hospital by resident Oreste Fernando Nannetti - a self-proclaimed "Astronautic Mineral Engineer of the Mental System" who referenced to himself as NANOF11 when talking about the author of the graffiti.
Milesi's music is extremely evocative. Though very repetitive, it subtly breaks the typical staticity of minimalist compositions. Thanks to a cautius use of the melodic element, it shows a mild linear evolution, while the soggy synth sounds give the music an autumnal, moisty mood. Circularity and fluctuation are not the key sensations created by the music, which rather arouses a sense of stagnation, claustrophobic idleness.


Tracklist:

1. Mr. Nanof's Tango
2. Tom Thumb
3. Between the Scale and the Apple
4. Scene of the Madmen
5. Waiting for the Fete
6. My Dad Had Two Mommies and Two Daddies
7. Graffiti
8. Towards the Tree in front of the House
9. The Procession
10. Three Figurations: The Braid, the Rhombus, the Star
11. The Presence of the City
12. Pantelleria
    
13. Questa non è la mia voce
14. Writing on the Glass
15. In the Car with Mr. Felsen
16. Let Ninusk Be
17. Waterfall

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Minox: Lazare (Industrie Discografiche Lacerba, 1986)

In the beginning were San Francisco and the new wave experimentators Tuxedomoon. Then Tuxedomoon relocated to Belgium and they began influencing the European scene (evetually setting the premises for the advent of English post-rock).
Minox's debut album "Lazare" was produced by Tuxedomoon leader Steven Brown and the sound evidently owes much to the Belgian-American band.

The record is sung in English, but the vocals are not central for the music. The main focus is on the suspended, rarified atmospheres evocated by thick synth layers, velvety saxophone wanderings and occasional clean guitar drops. The mood is soggy, rainy, decadent - in tune with the aesthetics of English bands Durutti Column, Dif Juz and, partly, Japan or Cocteau Twins.


Tracklist:

1. Purgatoryo
2. Preludio
3. Hybrid (of a tight laugh)
4. Lazare
5. Psiche

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