Cudù: Delivery (Materiali sonori, 1988)

Decadence can be lush, even without much overabundance. "Waterplay" is voluptuous, and layered, but its sound is essentially barren. The tracks float in some uninhabited ambient/jazz sea, secretly braced by the most diverse post-punk currents. Where they emerge, they draw the music close to no wave, or A Certain Ratio's punk/funk. Most of the times, though, it's the sonic imprint of Tuxedomoon, Brian Eno and David Torn that dominates.
Rarefied - yet omnipresent - synthetizers and sudden free-jazz zigzags: these are the antipodal souls the album masterly conciliates, never sacrificing atmosphere to obliqueness or vice versa.
And the cover version of The Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane" is simply prodigious.

Cudù are a band from the Florence area. This is their second album, after the MiniLP "Neck".
The album was first posted on the blog Pinzillacchere musicali, which made it available on the net for the very first time after a long time of unobtainability.

Tracklist:

1. I Saw
2. Delivery
3. España
4. The Whistling of Time
5. The Bright Side of the Moon
6. Sweet Jane
7. Apocalypse Blues
8. No Result

Download (192 kbps)


Similar music on the blog:
Nicola Alesini, Pier Luigi Andreoni: Marco Polo (Materiali sonori, 1996)
Minox: Lazare (Industrie Discografiche Lacerba, 1986)

Ivano Fossati: La pianta del tè (CBS, 1988)

When the elusive humanism of the singer/songwriter school meets the scents of world music. When Africa and South-America blend together, and their blend is called "Mediterranean". When a Piedmontese accordion can seduce the shimmery guitars of South-African Mbaqanga and wave to the beat of a reggae beat.

It's an album of joy, "La pianta del tè", and an album of melancholy. It's suffused and springy, and pensive, and ecstatic. It's an album of lush arrangements and exceptional rhythmic refinement. The grooves are vigorous, but sparse, infectious, but subtly askew.

There are the songs, then, and Ivano Fossati's envelopping voice - his husky grain, and his quintessential prolonged vocals. And guests: Fabrizio De André, Francesco De Gregori and Teresa De Sio, all of them contributing to the unique mood of Fossati's tenth solo record.

Tracklist:

1. La pianta del té
2. Terra dove andare
3. L'uomo coi capelli da ragazzo
4. La volpe
5. La pianta del té (parte seconda)
6. Questi posti davanti al mare
7. La signora del ponte-lance
8. Chi guarda Genova
9. La costruzione di un amore
10. Caffè lontano

Download (112 kbps)

Similar albums on the blog:
L'orchestra di Piazza Vittorio: Sona (RadioFandango/Edel, 2006)
Radiodervish: In acustico (Cosmasola, 2001)