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)

Tanit: omonimo (Classico, 1992)

The multimedia project "Sonos 'e memoria" towards the rediscovery of the Sardinian cultural legacy started in 1994 and involved many of the most important musicians of the island. Jazz trumpetist Paolo Fresu was among them, but his interest in the revisitation of Sardinian traditional music had already begun some years before with the band Tanit.
A quintet born in 1987, Tanit were Paolo Fresu, Massimo Nardi (guitar), Carlo Mariani (launeddas), Gianluca Ruggeri (marimba) and Fulvio Maras (percussions). Launeddas are a typical instrument of Sardinian folklore, basically a multi-clarinet with two chanter pipes and a bass drone. Its sound may remind of a bagpipe - though the instrument has no bags, circular breathing provides a constant airflow.

The music of Tanit fuses a post-Davis jazz attitude with the complex structures of the traditional launeddas repertoire. The latter are created by a succession (iskala) of standard melodic modules (nodas) connected by an improvised passeggiu which subtly makes the patterns shift from one noda to the next one.
Tanit employ a very bright, lighter-than-air sound, keeping all the brilliance of a style originally conceived for the dance. The modular structure of the music and its fragmented time signatures make the overall result resemble, quite surprisingly, to the work of Terry Riley and other minimalist "masters of suspension", with a levity which has no equivalents in the ethno-jazz territory.

Many thanks to the Italian Folk Music blog, which first posted some months ago this otherwise unfindable record.


Tracklist:

1. Solanas
   
2. Di di do
3. Ninna ninna
4. Ditirambo
5. Bacio
6. Arrepikku strano
7. Lime
8. Mediana
9. Vista Gastriti

Download (~220 kbps)

Fred Buscaglione: Criminalmente Fred (Sugar Music, 1992)

Ferdinando Buscaglione was one of the most known entertainers of the Italian Fifties. Both as an actor and as a singer, he played the character of a Thirties-style gangster: whisky, women and gunfights were his key clichés. From a musical perspective, he was one of the most important Italian jazz/swing players of his era. Relying on the proficient Asternovas septept (Buscaglione himself played the violin), he improved a distinctive night-club style with ironic lyrics and smoky, half-spoken vocals which would later influence many Italian artists, the most prominent being Paolo Conte.
"Criminalmente Fred" is a commemorative compilation which collects Buscaglione's most renown songs.


Tracklist:

1. Eri piccola cosi'
2. Che notte
3. Il dritto di Chicago
4. Porfirio Villarosa
5. Teresa non sparare
6. Sgancia e pedala
7. Whisky facile
8. Che bambola
9. Le rififi
10. Noi duri
11. Nel cielo dei bars
12. Che bella cosa sei
13. A qualcuno piace Fred
14. Ninna nanna del duro
15. Ciao Joe
16. Joe Castagnola
17. Fred's scat
18. Voglio scoprir l'America
19. Carina
20. Buonasera (signorina)
21. Love in Portofino
22. Guarda che luna
23. Tu che ne dici
24. Supermolleggiata
25. Non partir
26. Criminalmente bella
27. Una sigaretta
28. Mi sei rimasta negli occhi
29. Mi sei rimasta negli occhi (stumentale)

Download:
Part 1 | Part 2