Moggi: Tra scienza e fantascienza (Omicron, 1976)

A peculiar record, bridging bebop mannerism and electronic experimentation. Synthetizer arabesques rise over exquisite double-bass grooves and jazzy drumming. Their use is much varied: from soundtrack-like melodic themes, to minimal-tinged stagnations and proto-techno burbles. The compositions are elegant, lucid, but pleasantly devoid of the bombast of much prog-rock of those years. On the contrary, the tracks are absorbed in a gassy fluctuation, slighthly futuristic, a bit Satiesque, but most of all very light and unpretentious. The imaginative work on percussions is unfortunately spoiled by the bad audio quality.

"Moggi" is an alter ego of composer Piero Umilani's. Born in 1926, he began his career in the field of film soundtracks in the late 50s. In 1964, he founded the Omicron label to publish his quite experimental "sound library" works. They were collections of instrumental tracks, thought as repertoires of possible soundtracks for TV commercials, radio backgrounds and so on. The creation of Sound Work Shop recording studio in 1968 gave a strong push to his production, and he soon began publishing something like ten albums a year. Their dominant style was much varied: for "Tra scienza e fantascienza", the inspiration was evidently sci-fi.

Tracklist:

1. Cowboy spaziale
2. Officina stellare
3. Danza galattica
4. Saltarello marziano
5. Jingle N°1
6. Automa
7. Tarantellaccia
8. Bric brac
9. Soundmaker Blues
10. Gadget
11. Soft Key
12. Happy Accompainment
13. Futuristic Jam N°1
14. Futuristic Jam N°2
15. Killer Robot

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Similar albums on the blog:

Ennio Morricone: Crime and Dissonance (Ipecac, 2005)

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

Fare soldi: Sappiamo dove abiti (Riotmaker, 2008)

The "Riotmaker sound" is one of the most defined of the Italian underground. "Sappiamo dove abiti" is its most iconic representation: italo-disco samples, 80s' synths+glitter everywhere, trendoid house grooves with a massive funky aftertaste. A curious mix of postmodern irony, urban glamour, and the stereotypical indie-pop nostalgism (the overall mood may suggest an ironic version of the recent "hypnagogic pop" trend).
Kitsch? Sure. But playful (first of all), explosive, and irresistably groovy. Colourful and irreducibly quotationist, the songs manage to be both totally inclonclusive and surprisingly well-crafted. Prepare for a funny listening!

Fare soldi are Luca Carnifull (Carnifull Trio) and Pasta (Amari). This is their third record as a duo.

Tracklist:

1. Sappiamo dove abiti
2. Dolo boys
3. Survivor
4. Tribunale midi
5. Puff dandy
6. Il vecchio e il mullet
7. Pagagheddon
8. (Take me to) Zingales
9. Message in Abbado
10. Acid in Abbado
11. Fare soldi va a Milano
12. The radler song
13. Il lato B del mondo
14. Palazzo dei cigni
15. I wanna Feel Collins
16. Fessi vivono

Download (192 kbps)

Similar albums on the blog:
Jolly Music: Jolly Bar (Nature/Wide, 2000)
Üstmamò: omonimo (Virgin, 1991)

Giorgio Moroder: E=mc² (Durion, 1979)

Technopop. Tail-swallowing synth-bass locks are its core; endless, metronomic disco grooves its foundation; programmed keyboard tangles its secret. And then, there are songs - light, inventive, adorably artifact. And refinate, despite their minimalism: "Baby Blue" resurrects the best vocal harmonies of the 60s, and most of the other conceal classical progressions and a kaleidoscope of quotations which take the robotic aesthetics of Kraftwerk to a new, playful and totally de-ideologized level.

Besides being a cornerstone of electronic music, the second ultra-electronic album by Tyrolean Giorgio Moroder is a very funny record and a collection of masterful pop tunes. More accomplished than its groundbreaking precursor "From Here to Eternity", probably. Both the records are inescapable inspirations for the Chicago house music scene and the whole electro-disco/italo-disco genres, which Moroder himself contributed to set up with his cutting-edge work on Donna Summer's "I Feel Love".

Tracklist:

1. Baby Blue
2. What a Night
3. If You Weren't Afraid
4. I Wanna Rock You
5. In My Wildest Dreams
6. E=mc²
7. Love's in You Love's in Me [Bonus Track]
8. Evolution [Bonus Track]

Download (192 kbps)

Similar albums on the blog:

Jolly Music: Jolly Bar (Nature/Wide, 2000)

Dagada Saf: No Inzro (Rockgarage Records, 1984)

Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici: GMM (Materiali Sonori, 1985)

Unsettling electro-lounge music, cold and detached despite its jazzy and bossa shades. The decadent mood of these mainly instrumental tracks is a combination of breathy (but hardly human-sounding) synthetizers, programmed drumming, saxophone and subdued spoken-word roamings. There are a couple of cover versions, quite faithful as for the score, but totally transfigurated as for the final result: Duke Ellington's "Caravan", Gato Barbieri "Ultimo tango a Parigi", Gilbert Bécaud's "Et maintenant".
The most direct comparisons is easily Tuxedomoon, but "GMM" might also remind Confusional Quartet and some "mutant disco" artists (Material for example).

The music of "GMM" wasn't originally conceived to be released as an album. It's actually just a collection/reworking of the soundtracks which the multimedia art open collective Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici conceived for their installations with the support of a bunch of collaborators. Maurizio Dami (Alexander Robotnick, a renown italo-disco artist) is the man behind the mixer, synths and drum pads of "GMM" and he co-wrote all of the tracks with Andrea Zingoni and Antonio Glessi, the core members of Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici.
The collective was founded in Florence in 1984 and is still active (though it officially disbanded in 1998), mainly in the field of visual art and videoclips.

I have to thank the excellent blog laltritalia.wordpress.com for having posted this album first and making me discover it.
Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici official website reports a chronology of their works.
Their first work, a "computer strip" for the Frigidaire new wave magazine, is available on Youtube together with a "video compilation" of their oeuvre.

The computer strip: 1 | 2 |
Gmm 1984-2001: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12


Tracklist:

1. Love Supreme
2. Caravan
3. Au jour de la séparation
4. Ultimo tango a Parigi (Last Tango)
5. Flashman Swing
6. Back and Forth
7. Don't Ask Me Why
8. Petite soeur
9. No Fear Nor Destination
10. Ghimm' Alid'l Benzin
11. Et maintenant

Download (128 kbps)

Roberto Cacciapaglia: Sei note in logica (Philips, 1979)

After having graduated at Milan conservatory, composer Roberto Cacciapaglia soon began experimenting with computer and electronic music for C.N.R. (National Research Center) and RAI Musical Phonology Studio (founded by Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna).
He collaborated with Franco Battiato for his album "Pollution", then recorded his first album "Sonanze" with the production of German Ohr/Cosmic Couriers labelmmaster Rolf Ulrich Kaiser. "Sonanze" was recently published on the blog laltritalia.wordpress.com.

"Sei note in logica" is his second LP and features one long composition for voice, computer and orchestra. The mood is much more limpid and light than the one of "Sonanze": influence by Steve Reich and Terry Riley's take on minimalism, the work revolves around static, crystalline six-note patterns which are permuted and transmuted throughout the composition creating a heavenly sense of ecstasy. The female choir's utterings and its subtle interlock with electronic electronic elements create the album's most peculiar and captivating component.
"Sei note in logica" is a very rare and mature exemple of Italian ecstatic minimalism, less melodic-driven than the one of Arturo Stalteri and more static than most of Piero Milesi's works, but certainly more abstract and formal than both of them.


Tracklist:

1. Sei note in logica (parte I)
2. Sei note in logica (parte II)

Download (192 kbps)

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

Download (160 kbps)

Musica per bambini: Nascondino coll'assassino (La mia cantina, 1998)

Musica per bambini are the two Italo-Australian twins Manuel and Tim Bongiorni. The roots of their interest in music for children can be traced back to the age of seven, when they debuted with "children" versions of synth-pop classics (Depeche Mode, Duran Duran).
After having relocated to Italy in the end of the Eighties, they began working on a higly idiosyncratic music/theatre show merging pre-recorded backing tracks, gashed nursery rhymes, effected vocals and home-made scenographies.

"Nascondino con l'assassino" is the project's first official release. It's a mini-album featuring just nine tracks. which will unavodably fail to satisfy the majority. Approximative, ostentatiously unkempt, the music couples sick pseudo-folksongs with unpolished electronic beats and punk-metal guitars. It may resemble to a terrorist, mentally ill version of Üstmamò.
Though initially quite disturbing, the record quickly reveals the lucid design of its aesthetics and the limpid levity of its melodies. A curiosity: "La pianta dei chiodi" has the same strophe of XTC's "Sacrifical Bonfire" - the two songs are probably based on the same traditional.


Tracklist:

1. Tana per l'assassino
2. Il bosco di biscotti
3. Morte di una bambola di carta
4. Il lanciatore di coltelli
5. La pianta dei chiodi
6. Morte di un cavallo a dondolo
7. Betoniera
8. Canto popolare dei sacchi di cemento
9. Morte di un orsetto di pelouche

Download (256 kbps)