VV.AA.: Polizziotteschi Graffiti (GDM Music, 2005)

Let's make another step in the world of Italian soundtracks of the 70s. As I wrote in a previous post, this is one of the most experimental territories ever explored by Italian musicians, and one of the most varied too. A stunning trait of the genre - but rather obvious, indeed - is its "easy listening" element: though daring, often electronic, or dissonant, or fostering composite rhythms, the tracks always have a strong cynematic flow which makes them immediate and thrilling.
Most of the tracks feature exciting jazz/funk jams, impulsive and lucid, combined with captivating keyboard themes. The deep "semantic" nature of the music relies on the intuitions of composers such as Ennio Morricone, and on a series of cliché associations: horns and action, staccato figures and suspence... These standard solutions are always reworked and recombinated to form a very broad spectrum of inventions, ranging from the Moroder-like pace of "Delitto al ristorante cinese" to the uber-groovy basslines of "Nucleo antirapina".

"Poliziotteschi graffiti" is one of the many compilations recently devoted to the genre. Despite the cover, I think it's one of the best. I will post some more in the future, if you like.

Tracklist:

1. Stelvio Cipriani - Mark il poliziotto (Mark il poliziotto, 1975)
2. Luis Bacalov - The Summertime Killer (Ricatto alla Mala, 1972)
3. Armando Trovajoli - Blazing Magnum (Una Magnum Speciale per Tony Saitta, 1976)
4. Detto Mariano - Delitto al ristorante cinese (Delitto al ristorante cinese, 1981)
5. Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - Goodbye My Friend (Il cittadino si ribella, 1974)
6. Bixio, Fabio Frizzi, Vince Tempera - Nucleo antirapina (Operazione Kappa: Sparate a vista, 1977)
7. Franco Micalizzi - Delitto sull'autostrada (Delitto sull'autostrada, 1982) 
8. Goblin - Trumpet's Flight (Squadra antigangsters, 1979) 
9. Franco Micalizzi - Special Cop (Italia a mano armata, 1976)
10. Luis Bacalov - La polizia è al servizio del cittadino? (new edit) (La polizia è al servizio del cittadino?, 1973)
11. Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - The Life of a Policeman (La polizia incrimina, la legge assolve, 1973) 
12. Stelvio Cipriani - La polizia sta a guardare (La polizia sta a guardare, 1973)
13. Goblin - La via della droga (La via della droga, 1977)
14. Franco Campanino - Napoli si ribella (Napoli si ribella, 1977)
15. Franco Micalizzi - Special Agents (Napoli violenta, 1976)
16. Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - Car Chase at Margellina (Piedone lo sbirro, 1973)
17. Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - New Special Squad (Roma violenta, 1975)
18. Luis Bacalov - Montreal Non Stop (L'ultima chance, 1975)

Download (192 kbps)


Similar albums on the blog:
Calibro 35: s/t (Cinedelic/Self, 2008)
Ennio Morricone: Crime and Dissonance (Ipecac, 2005)

Corleone: Wei Wu Wei (Etnagigante / V2 Records Italia, 2005)

Trumpeter Roy Paci is one of the most ubiquitous protagonists of the contemporary Italian music scene. Though he's known mainly for his ska/jazz band Aretuska and his work with many artists in the left-field area of Italian pop music, he's also very active in the experimentation on traditional music and quite renown abroad for his collaboration with such diverse artists as Peter Gabriel, Manu Chao, the Flying Luttenbachers and some Senegalese and South American world music ensembles.

Corleone is a jazzcore band chiefly in the vein of John Zorn's most genre-grinding projects. Prodigal jazz soloing, askew rhythm interlockings and occasional electronic meddlings meet ever-present references to Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota soundtrack styles, African music forays, hip-hop assaults, Southern Italian folklore and more atmospheric episodes. Fantômas's well-known vocal terrorist Mike Patton, jazz accordion player Antonello Salis and noir bookwriter Carlo Lucarelli have some guest apparitions which contribute to enrich the style kaleidoscope of the record.

Though fiercely chaotic, "Wei Wu Wei"'s rich of complex structures and intrications and the classy musicianship of the Corleone crew often gives the album a much more refined (and really jazzy - they often sound actually more Tim Berne than John Zorn) taste than the one of most other iconoclast jazzcore bands. Most of all, Corleone don't take themselves seriously and every track is a very light, fancyful and hilarious surprise.


Tracklist:

1. Come si chiama?
2. Skit#1 "Emigrant Song"
3. Doverosi sballi
4. Skit#2 "Clarimachine"
5. Come Live Your Life With Me
6. Skit#3 "_"
7. Meglio un bombardino oggi, che un bombardino domani
8. Skit#4 "Ghost Ship"
9. 'U Riavulicchiu E I Ciancianedi
10. Skit#5 "Asterisco"
11. Armoniaca
12. Skit#6 "Pattern 21"
13. Tutto Diventerà Rosso
14. Skit#7 "T77"
15. Tromba L'oEil

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Taras Bul'ba: Incisione (Wallace, 2005)

The music of Taras Bul'ba is deeply haunting and blazing. They bridge the compound-meter constructions of math-rock, the ultra-Sabbathian grooves of stoner and sludge metal and the figurative dynamics of the soft/loud post-rock school (Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky), finally combining them with a mesmerizing psychedelic approach. Heavy, harsh and hot-tempered, their second album "Incisione" is dominated by an esoteric, Tool-like spirit propelled by overwhelming bass-drums interlocks. Though entirely instrumental, the music perfectly succeeds in creating a mind-blowing, blistering claustrophobia.


Tracklist:

1. Moder (under Uns)
2. Miyuki
3. Hari
4. Congo
5. Imothep
6. Mrs. Mary St. Aubin
7. Solyaristika
8. Der Golem

Download (224 kbps)

Addamanera: Nella tasca de il zio (Trovarobato/Lizard, 2005)

Addamanera are a band from Messina. Mariposa may be considered their closer relatives: besides recording from the same label, they both advocate they play "compoundable music".
In fact their style is some sort of Canterbury/folk/pop hybrid with a strong nonsensical element. They bear resemblances to Franco Battiato, Ivan Graziani, Picchio dal Pozzo, but the explicit influences would be many more. All of them are fused in a very playful and brisk musical pot pourri which never sounds daffy, pretentious or out of focus. "Nella tasca de il zio" is a very refined and carefully structured album, reflecting a definite progressive spirit and skillful musicianship.

Tracklist:

1. Neurogenesi
2. Gli altri non sapevano niente
3. (Qualcosa a qualcuno) bla bla
4. Il piromane
5. La barca
6. Libellule
7. Lemonjelly
8. La reale forma del vaso
9. Il vaso
10. Viandante
11. Langue

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Aidoru: 13 piccoli singoli radiofonici (Snowdonia, 2005)

Now here we have something very peculiar. Aidoru sound like dozens of bands and like no one else at the same time. Their music is overtly in debt with Kid A-era Radiohead, some post-rock (Disco Inferno? Starfuckers? Gastr Del Sol? I don't know), Air, Robert Wyatt, kraut-like stuff (everyone from Neu! to This Heat), but they rework all these influences into a personal avant-pop pastiche taking all this variety to its best. The 13 "radiophonic" (no radio station would ever play them of course) songs range from Chopin "cover" versions ("Preludio 28 n° 2") to dancey electro-punk ("Ni-Roku"), awkward heavy dilatations ("Ossicine"), Branduardi spoofs ("Angelo-gnomo") and many other oddities.
Guest artists include former Quintorigo singer John De Leo and actresses Morena Tamborrino and Mariangela Gualtieri.


Tracklist:

1. 90 (la paura)
2. Nothing Infinity Reality
3. Io guardo spesso il cielo
4. Giorni
5. Se dormi
6. Ossicine
7. Angelo-gnomo
8. Parole Porte Parole Ali
9. Ni-Roku
10. Preludio op. 28 n° 2
11. Fas 3 Bis
12. Phase Difference
13. Se la parola amore

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