Kind of Cthulhu: Wadjĭwĭng' (Azteco, 1987)

"Obscure"'s the best term to describe this record. It's obscure in a musical sense, for its sound and atmospheres, and in a documentary sense: to be short, almost no information about it can be found on the web.
Let's focus on music first. Wadjĭwĭng' is a quite surprising "progressive" blossom of mid-Eighthies industrial music experimentation. While the mood and approach decidedly reflect the taste for decadence, vagueness and approximation which is a defining trait of some industrial music circles, the musical form and the sound of the tracks are much closer to early-Seventies "dark" psychedelia (long instrumental tracks and digressions, organ, choirs...) and, most amazingly, to full-fledged progressive music. There are sombre, percussive sections reminding of Magma and eerie keyboard ostinatos not far from Goblin stuff. Then chamber-music sketches (Julverne? Maybe even Aksak Maboul), exoteric folk allures (Comus!), airy flute passages and soft openings which even seem to hint at the dreamiest episodes of Italian progressive (Pierrot Lunaire?).
Many comparisons can be traced, but none seems to grasp the essence and singularity of this album, basically a fish out of water, a progressive album made with strictly post-punk sounds, recording techniques, instrumental skills, and mentality. In some sense, is an utterly imprecise work; on the other hand, though, this clumsiness's necessary for its uniqueness and charm.

The few data that are known about the album help to guess its context, but don't enframe it exactly. Kind of Cthulhu was a project based in Parma and signed to the short-lived label Azteco Records, active between 1983 and 1988 and linked to the band T.A.C. (Tomografia Assiale Computerizzata) and its related post-industrial community. Two records were published under the evidently Lovecrafian moniker Kind of Cthulhu: an ep in 1986, and this lp. All of the two featured contributions by T.A.C. founder Simon Balestrazzi (later of Kirlian Camera) and credit a steady core of musicians, which were most probably the members of the band: Andrea Ascenso, Antonio ("Franz"?) Menozzi, Marco Cattabiani, Mario Mascitelli.

Tracklist:

1. Liutelio
2. Overload
   
3. What's This Kind of Cthulhu?
4. A Believer
5. Red Wine
   
6. Wadjĭwĭng'
7. Next Spring
   
8. Thrust of Love
9. Misk Cjezscjesz

Credits:

• Marco Cattabiani: bass, keyboards, harmonica, vocals, effects 
• Patrizia Mattioli: clarinet
• Andrea Azzali: double bass
• Mario Mascitelli: drums, percussion, bass, vocals, indian flute
• Franz Menozzi: guitar, flute, keyboards, percussion, vocals
• Andrea Ascenso: lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion, bass, drums
• Massimo Colonna: saxophone
• Paola Sartori: violin
• Patrizia Mattioli, Simon Balestrazzi: vocals
• Ivano Bizzi: Engineer

Any additional information about the band and the record is welcome, of course!

Download  (320 kbps)


Similar music on the blog:
Tomografia Assiale Computerizzata: omonimo (Azteco, 1983)
Goblin: The Goblin Collection, 1975-1989 (DRG, 1995)

Mauro Pagani: Self-Titled (Ascolto, 1978)

The late Seventies are one of the most overlooked periods in the history of Italian rock music. Just while our mediocre "punk" scene was slowly mutating into a florid post-punk milieu, the last remnants of the progressive era were evolving into something new and really unique. Some artists would undertake a "new wave" metamorphosis (think of Franco Battiato), some would hybridate with disco music (Goblin's Claudio Simonetti for example), some would delve into the fascinating musical traditions of the Mediterranean, getting closer and closer to the musical resarch of the "Canzonieri" movement.
P.F.M.'s Mauro Pagani's one of the key figures for this latter trend. After quitting P.F.M. in 1976, he ventured in a dense series of projects aimed at a new fusion of jazz-rock, ancient and traditional folk music, avantgarde experimentation. His first solo lp is perhaps the most mature fruit of his new interests and vision. The recording of the album involved three of the most proficient units around at the time in those fields: Area, P.F.M. and Canzoniere del Lazio, which cooperated in many tracks. It also features guest appearances of outstanding musicians such as former Musicanova singer Teresa De Sio and the amazing acoustic trad-folk guitarist Luca Balbo.

The music is outstanding and extremely varied. A mix of Middle-Eastern flavours, Southern Italian melodies, Sardinian dances; all coupled with refinate arrangements blending chamber music, jazz-rock and captivating avantgarde dilatations in a surprisingly light style.
To make it short: this is one of the best Italian albums ever published. Get it.

Tracklist:

1. Europa minor
2. Argiento
3. Violer d'amores
4. La città aromatica
5. L'albero di canto (Parte 1)
6. Choron
7. Il blu comincia davvero
8. L'albero di canto (Parte 2)

Credits:

• Mauro Pagani: violin, viola, mandolin, bouzouki, flute, composer, arranger (all tracks except 7)
• Mario Arcari: oboe (tracks 1, 2)
• Luca Balbo: guitar (track 7)
• Walter Calloni: percussion (tracks 1, 6)
• Teresa De Sio: vocals (track 2)
• Roberto Colombo: polymoog (track 4)
• Area:
  Demetrio Stratos: vocals (tracks 5, 8)
  Patrizio Fariselli: piano (tracks 1, 5)
  Giulio Capiozzo: drums (tracks 1,5)
  Ares Tavolazzi: bass, double bass (track 5)
• P.F.M.:
  Franz Di Cioccio: drums (track 4)
  Patrick Djivas: bass (track 4)
  Franco Mussida: guitar (track 4)
• Canzoniere del Lazio:
  Giorgio Vivaldi: percussion, talking drum (tracks 1, 6)
  Pasquale Minieri: percussion (track 1)
• Allan Goldberg: engineer (tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 8)
• Carlo Martenet: engineer (tracks 4, 7)
• Marco Inzadi: engineer (track 6)
• Piero Bravin: mix (tracks 4, 7)

Download (224 kbps)


Similar music on the blog:
Premiata Forneria Marconi: Passpartù (Zoo Records, 1978)
Area: Maledetti (Cramps, 1976)

La 1919: Jouer, Spielen, To Play (Materiali sonori, 1994)

Let's be sincere: free-improv stuff is usually very chaotic and/or very monotonous. It takes a fan to be fully appreciated. "Jouer, Spielen, To Play" is a bit different. Though entirely ad-libbed, it has very strong structures and dynamics. The reason is probably that its solid rhythm modules are laid by two giants of the avant-prog community: Henry Cow's Chris Cutler and This Heat's Charles Hayward.
The music, indeed, is very much in the spirit of such bands as Massacre or This Heat themselves. Kraut-rock beats (with a jazzier edge), rickety and terribly obliquous guitar lines, and that elusive air of stagnation and rot. Here, the ground-laying drums are supported by La. 1919 - Luciano Margorani (guitar, bass, loops) and Piero Chianura (sampler, synthetizer) - plus guitarist Roberto Zorzi. The tracks are much varied and definitely unmissable for every avant-prog lover.

La 1919, from Milan, published quite a lot of stuff under different names. This should be their fourth album.

Tracklist:

1. Hanno seppellito l'uomo sbagliato
2. Sheffield Wednesday
3. Fate fagotto!
4. Storie del dormiveglia
5. Qua qua qua... Singing Ducks
6. Donne Kamikaze
7. Un mondo invisibile
8. Red Wire
9. The Drumming Talk

Download (320 kbps)

Similar albums on the blog:

Art Fleury: I luoghi del potere (Italian Records, 1980)
Tomografia Assiale Computerizzata: omonimo (Azteco, 1983)

Giuntoli & Meroni: Diabolik e i sette nani (Rombo, 1980)

Idly couched on the confluence of progressive, jazz and "modern classical" experimentation lies "Diabolik e i Sette Nani", and it does not sound as you would expect from these few words. Don't imagine anything difficult, pretentious, or intellectual: just piano and saxophone (or clarinet, sometimes). Placid and spontaneous - even a bit tipsy, I dare say. No apparent direction: the tracks are just take-it-as-it-comes excursions through Satiesque impressions, free-jazz(y) improvisations, and facetious melodic quotations. The overall spirit might remind Robert Wyatt, but the most close comparison I can think about is the lazy melancholy of French avant-prog project ZNR (for the few ones which actually knew them).

Massimo Giuntoli and Roberto Meroni are both from Milan, where they still live and play today.

Tracklist:

1. I racconti di Canterbury
2. Mastro Antonio
3. Tre movimenti per pianoforte
4. Diabolik e i sette nani
5. Lothrorien

Download (217 kbps, vinyl rip)

nb. The first four tracks are grouped together in one single file

Similar albums on the blog:

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

Ensemble Havadià: '81-'82 (Warner Italia, 2006)

Ensemble Havadià: '81-'82 (Warner Italia, 2006)

Irriverent, jocose and dynamic, this music is one of the highest peaks of the Italian "R.I.O." scene. The songs are exuberant chamber-rock divertissements, full of mockeries, calembours and sharp eccentricities. Nevertheless, the structures are extremely lucid and complicated: ubiquitous North-Italian folklore and fanfare elements clash with flabbergasting tempo shifts and early 900 classical references - daring layerings which unexpectably manage to keep light and funny; miles away from any self-indulgent prog-rock bluster.

Ensemble Havadià was a short-lived project captained by Milanese "jew atheist" Moni Ovadia, now a well-known stage actor and comedian, and closely related to "Gruppo Folk Internazionale" and Stormy Six's label "L'orchestra". "'81-'82" collects the only two records issued by the band: the eponymous 1981 LP and the 1982 EP "Specchi".

Tracklist:

1. Finale
2. I benandanti
3. Aria del serpente
4. Il serpente burocratico
5. Aria del serpente
6. Gocce amare
7. Konik
8. Fuma el camin
9. Sigla
10. Apertoure
11. L'eternità
12. Straziato assai
13. Rumba "An den Leser"
14. Treno

Download (160 kbps)

Similar albums on Il golpe e l'uva:

Gramigna: Gran disordine sotto il cielo

Stormy Six: Macchina maccheronica

Art Fleury: I luoghi del potere (Italian Records, 1980)

Art Fleury were a trio from Brescia devoted to a deeply suburban and experimental progressive rock. Though obviously in debt with King Crimson, especially for the guitar style, their attitude was much closer to more radical and nihilist bands such as Faust, The Residents or This Heat. Their influence is pretty evident on all of the four tracks which compose their debut album: heavily destructured narrations of the industrial gloom, merging tape material, atonal organ or orchestral puddles and restrained arpeggios, occasionally broken by convulsive prog-rock bursts.
The band had indeed more than some contacts with the left-wing R.I.O. scene, having opened several times for Henry Cow concerts and played together with Area and bands from L'Orchestra cooperative (Stormy Six, Art Bears, Etron Fou Leloublan and many more).

"I luoghi del potere" is a fascinating work, pervaded by a dreary, disillusioned mood which constitutes a strong and well-conceived critique of industrial and Cold War alienation. Besides being a masterpiece of Italian progressive rock, it's also one of the very few ones to show a very distinct post-punk leaning: it's an important document of the late-70s transitions.



Tracklist:

1. Uno spettro si aggira per le brigate Hans Eisler
2. Fabbrica rosa
3. E=mc² (la collina del timo)
4. La morte al lavoro

Download (256 kbps)

Tomografia Assiale Computerizzata: omonimo (Azteco, 1983)

Tomografia Assiale Computerizzata began as a one-man-band hiding the multi-instrumentist and sound engineer Simon Balestrazzi, which would later join Kino Glaz, Kirlian Camera, Bron Y Aur.
His first LP under the name T.A.C. came out in 1983 (or maybe in 1982) and features a very peculiar, Nurse With Wound-ish sound interbreeding such diverse styles as no-wave, electronic experimentation, progressive rock, radical improvisation and post-punk.
The rattling, crunchy guitar sound isn't far from Fred Frith's distinctive style in his no-wave project Massacre, and the shattered jazzy orbits it follows are quite close too. The telluric funk-punk basslines contribute creating bony, deconstructed pieces with everchanging rhythms and meters. Then come the electronic incursions of polluted radio frequencies and background buzzes, which give the music an eerie, dismantled feeling.
The lyrics are often quasi-nonsensical, but reflect the aftermath of the strong political engagement of the Seventies. Repetition and obsessive rants are the key elements of Balestrazzi's neurotic vocal style.
T.A.C. sound is completed by occasional free saxophone bursts, atonal piano figures and sparse folkloric remindings. The final result is something between Henry Cow, This Heat, The Work, with a more sinister, industrial mood.


Tracklist:

1. Un umido
2. I sette piani dell'esperienza
3. Cerco lavoro
4. Microprozessore
5. Citocromo
6. Onde corte
7. Autistico
8. Percussioni
9. Introdotta la scrofa nel mattatoio
10. Quasi pieno
11. El motel electrico
12. 49° parallelo

Download (160 kbps)

Garamond: Quant'altro (Lizard, 2007)

Garamond's debut album is actually some sort of retrospective of their activity: the tracks date to 2001 and 2005. They are an ensemble from Ancona and their style is firmly rooted in the Italian "Rock In Opposition" tradition. The singer Laura Agostinelli's vocal research evidently reminds of Area's Demetrio Stratos, but is definitely more jocose, thus coming close to experimentation of Quintorigo's John De Leo.
The whole album is extremely high-spirited indeed. The lyrics seem to reflect an Ou.Li.Po. aesthetics: they keep on switching among registers, from fairytalesque to nonsense, childish, aulic. The music behaves pretty much in the same way, ranging from chamber music to jazz, band music, electronica... The result is a very dynamic and fanciful work, maybe comparable to Picchio dal pozzo or Stormy Six: highly intricated, kaleidoscopic, but always very light.

Here's a (not so much) more detailed review I wrote in Italian.


Tracklist:

1. Nel sogno di Otfon Brunzig, consumatore di sogni
2. La (proverbiale) fine del Ca' De Luzi
3. Il gesuita millantatore
4. Filastrocca all'oracolo
5. La saga degli immaginari
6. Beatamente plagiati da superstizioni organizzate
7. Omaggio al Dottor Zoidberg
8. Drazil
9. Situazione angolare

Download (320 kbps) re-up

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

Download

Franti: Non classificato (1987)

For the first post on my newborn music blog, I chose the complete works edition of this atypical post-punk band from Turin. They formed in 1982 and published 3 LPs (one was a split), some tapes and 12'' between 1982 and 1986.
Their style was eclectic and mixed a raw hardcore punk attitude with jazz, folk, world music and progressive rock elements. Some of their songs are surprisingly close to the Canterbury-sounding Picchio dal pozzo or later Stormy Six, though the atmosphere is usually rather decadent. They could be compared to Dutch collective The Ex for their experimental, folk-oriented approach.
Most of the tracks are sung in Italian, with male and female vocals, but some other are in English.
The overall quality is definitely impressive.

More informations (in Italian) can be found here.


Tracklist:
Cd # 1
1. No future
2. Preachin' blues
3. Io nella notte
4. Only a new film
5. Le loro voci
6. Chiara realizzazione di Ryonen
7. Joey
8. Lasciateci sentire ora
9. Vento rosso
10. Solidi (strumentale)
11. The week song
12. 1984 / Gates of Eden
13. Questa è l'ora
14. Quesiti da sciogliere
15. Voghera
16. Prete, croce, sedia, morte
17. Io nella notte (live)
18. Gloria (live)
Cd # 2
19. Dopo ci penso
20. Vanni's variations
21. Solidi
22. La mia casa
23. Il battito del cuore
24. Acqua di luna
25. L'uomo sul balcone di Beckett
26. Every time
27. (ai Negazione)
28. Hollywood Army / Big Black Mothers
29. Micrò Micrò
30. Elena 5 e 9
31. Nel giorno secolo
32. À suivre
33. Nel salto dell'ascia sul legno
Cd #3
34. Non sarà
35. Fino a quando
36. Un sorriso nella voce
37. Ogni giorno
38. Buio in tasca
39. Senti
40. Femme fatale

Download (re-up):
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5