This is hammer and horror material, tracks that have grown out of the industrial traditions without becoming subsumed into the duller side of modern Techno.
Instruments of Discipline and Love Blast have been painting in ash and grey since they opened their wind-burnt doors. These Italian imprints are not searching for the sun, instead shadow and sin are the foundations. Following on from LL/MMM are Assalti Industriali, the cloak and dagger triumvirate of Damiano Capoccia, Damiano Colosimo and Luciano Lamanna, joining the blackened music organizations.
The three men trudge in with two slabs of wax, six “Assalto” in total. Light is purged from the the room, a thick sackcloth of sound descends. These are works of oil soaked electronics. Pneumatic grease squeaks. Smoke and soot cling to piston pounding beats. Melodies are dipped in tar and dowsed in slag. Cruelty, as was seen in the first outing on Instruments of Discipline, is proudly on display. The factory floor is the focus. Ghosts haunt with the pain of mechanized employment, their wail given form in machine music. There is no relief, no let up. Scorn is scorched into vinyl. Hope is ground beneath the leaden cogs of discontent as the needle clacks onward.
This is hammer and horror material, tracks that have grown out of the industrial traditions without becoming subsumed into the duller side of modern Techno. An embittered primal nature runs through this sextet. Abrasion and piled atop friction. But there is the loop, the cycle of sound that is the tonic. Within the circles, as layers and tones are built there is an escape. Yes, echoes of Birmingham Techno are in here, Berlin too, but there’s a little something else, a dash more despair. Heavy on thump, heavy on hardship.
Assalto Primero is available on Instruments of Discipline.
Related posts ::
Lunar Lodge / Mai Mai Mai :: LL/MMM (Love Blast / Instruments of Discipline)
Balance / Lucianno Lamanna :: Double review (Scudiera / Subsound)
Aphex Twin :: Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 EP (Warp)
V/A & Phooka :: Double review (Love Blast)
Beneath the surface of Blackwater :: Interview and Mix
