Zarko

Of course I do... Just don't expect me to love it or anything

4ZZZ

Who is this riff raff! Ignore him Zarko.



Get onto that Trurart album Obom. Impressive in my not so humble opinion. So's Zarkos thread but don't tell him.

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Zarko

Black Rubber Exotica – Macelleria Mobile di Mezzanotte (2004)


GENRES – Electronic, Experimental, Jazz

Sexxxy – 5:27
Via Veneto Strip Tease – 3:42
She Stirs My Cocktail – 3:40
Katia (Piazzola Di Vicchio) – 3:13
Hot Heels – 3:27
From Las Vegas To Hell – 6:45
Black Rubber Exotica – 4:12
Black Dalia – 5:23
Martini Girl – 4:27
Deathorama – 5:59
Miss Exotique Tana Luise – 4:26
My Sweet Betty – 2:45
Mature Is Better – 3:39
Dancing Mistress – 4:30
Adesso È Buio – 7:22

Sometimes I really don’t know why I bother with some of these albums… I know that 99.9% of Music Banter will hate them, so it all seems a bit pointless. To make it blunt, this is the ‘snuff film’ of my music collection. It isn’t just random samples of people having sex, but the subject matter, the sounds; it just fits into that category. I have introduced many of you to Macelleria Mobile di Mezzanotte before, through the compilation where I submitted a soft tune of theirs. A few of you liked it; however, this is the polar opposite of that song. That was simply darker neoclassical, this is depraved electronics and jazz to the fullest extent. I don’t even know if I like the bloody thing after 5-6 listens, it’s just that sort of album I guess.

The album opens with ‘Sexxxy’, which warily begins with what sounds like glasses being *****ed together and some background light electronics, as we enter the dark and seedy underground. The tone is set, as we are in this world by our own freewill, thinking we fully understanding the nature of this place before it hits us like a brick wall. This brick wall is of course made up of power electronic sounds, as sonic pulses and waves of feedback attack the senses. There is no leeway, and the once ‘pleasant’ backing noise is a distorted mutation of itself. A heavily distorted voice enters the scene, so ****ed up that we can’t understand what it is saying to us, but it is carrying a sinister, maniacal quality.

‘Via Veneto Strip Tease’ captures the sound of feedback, a female screaming and what sounds like a pounding, and turns these sinister sound into an almost ‘sinister latin’ drum beat. It’s almost scary as the drum beats, which are construed as fun is made to symbolise violence with the female screaming continuing. It is again covered in power electronic sounds; however they are much ‘quieter’, and is accompanied with a sordid vocalist whom turns into some odd preacher. ‘She Stirs My Cocktail’ is the introduction to the jazz I suggested was on the album. To match the tone, the group resembles the tine jazz quartet, packed into a corner, pretty much playing to themselves as everyone else is preoccupied. They play a smooth-swing jazz in a smoke packed area with poor instruments, microphones and amps, the whole lot. The melancholic vocals return from the previous two tracks but they carry a more miserable hatred rather than a maniacal feature.

‘Katia’ picks up the pace quite quickly, which is an odd turnaround for the album on the whole. The piece is constructed by electronics and some xylophone sounding work, and to me it represents the increase in blood pressure and the speed of the heart when you lay your eyes on a beautiful woman. It almost makes you forget the squalid world that is present in every other song on the album, and it is almost ingenious the way he has implemented this feeling before we are interrupted again by the dirty underbelly. ‘Hot Heels’ carries a jazz-pop sound, and reminds me of the film noir down tempo jazz from the 40’s and 50’s. The piece is driven by a monotonous drum line with some obvious but not prominent brass instrumentation. This song is almost the ‘coming down’ period after the voracious highs experienced in the last track. For a while it is the ‘purest’ sounding track on the album, before the polluted electronics send off the song.

‘From Las Vegas To Hell’ offers exactly what the name suggests. Entering the intensity of ‘The Strip’, with colours, lights and sounds attacking you from all sides, only send it down to hell for a bit, and notch up the noise elements ten fold. It sometimes feels like you are getting accustomed to the hostility, but when you lull into a sense of security, it hits you again. The title track, ‘Black Rubber Exotica’ is full of the seedy jazz you would expect from such a world. It just carries that suggestive, lustful tone that I guess the title points to.

‘Black Dalia’ draws upon its name sake (The murders obviously) with a deep and down tempo resentment, as the early parts are dominated by some whispering and the intense screech of a rusty gate closing. The pulsating waves continue to increase in volume as some jazzy elements enter the piece. It is almost daunting, listening to the depressing jazz, as if someone’s murder is their fate, and they cannot avoid it. It is best described funeral jazz/electronic before the actual death. ‘Martini Girl’ is another weird amalgamation of styles, as a drawl New Orleans Jazz sound is mixed with jazz-lounge/smoking room vocals and electronic elements. The vocals are as seedy as ever, as the lyrics revolve around ‘owning’ your woman, to the point where it almost becomes a nonchalant bragging game between mates.

‘Deathorama’ is a pretty simple piece, consisting only of a small and repetitive drumming line as some overlaid electronics that initially sounds like horns from a ship, until their repetitive nature almost turns it into a very intense clock chiming. Unfortunately, it is the first song I felt ‘bored with’ across the album so far. Even if I didn’t love earlier tracks I found them quite interesting, but this one was just there. ‘Miss Exotique Tana Luise’ starts out a bit weird, as there is a rapid use of power electronics (Don’t know the name for the specific noise), and it continues on for a good minute before some other electronics and sounds start emanating from below, with some intensely distorted bass drum that interrupt and warps the other sounds. There is a hint of clarinet before it becomes more fluent, with the electronic elements slowly melting away until the clarinet becomes more out standing. It’s an odd track, I am not sure if I like it not either.

‘My Sweet Betty’ is full of an almost lounge jazz chilled nature that is heavily warped by the electronics, before it enters another bout of leisurely New Orleans sound that only gets more and more distorted as the track goes on. I don’t particularly know why, but I loved this track. Maybe it is the way the electronics and the background jazz interact, but the variety created is a treat. It doesn’t change much over time, but it doesn’t need to. It ends with a high frequency looping squeal, which is carried over to the next track, ‘Mature is Better’. The brunt of this track comes with the vocals, which are insanely aggressive along with some extreme electronic distortion. It is probably the one track that made me the most ‘uncomfortable’ with the album.

‘Dancing Mistress’ changes from a random loop to a minimal neoclassical sound, but for a moment I thought it could almost be a slow dancing classical track. However, the combination of sounds quickly overrides this possibility, as the pace and tone is carried over to the final track, ‘Adesso È Buio’, which begins as a random assortment of sounds coming from a fearful female, running away from something. She almost resigns herself to this horrible figure, realising she can never escape as his haunting and echoing voice surrounds everything, as he calls out ‘Adesso È Buio’. More electronics are layered to increase this feeling of being totally enveloped, until only they exist…

I still can’t decide just how much I enjoy this album… Towards the end it probably becomes a little too electronics intense, but this is used in conjunction with the overall change of theme, from sex to murder and death. However, in my opinion the best thing is that even if I didn’t like some aspects of the album, I almost always found it interesting, apart from a track or two. As I said though, most people won’t enjoy this album, and this review probably didn’t give you a good idea of what it is like, but it is different enough and experimental enough to at least be interesting. Also, apologies for the long review, but when something interests me or follows an interesting theme it is generally easier to write about, not to mention the 15 songs.

TOTAL SCORE

7.7/10

– She Stirs My Cocktail
– Black Dalia
– Martini Girl
– My Sweet Betty

jackhammer

Black Rubber Exotica – Macelleria Mobile di Mezzanotte. Sounds awesome. Like a fucked Film noir soundtrack. Some of the best and leftfield choices on MB in this thread. Keep it up mate.

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Zarko

You interested in an upload?

jackhammer

Oh yeah for sure and I have an album that I think you would like so swapsies!

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Zarko

Roma,Wien. – Mushroom’s Patience (2001)


GENRES – Experimental, Electronic, Avant Garde

Zeit – 6:35
Eaten Alive – 5:54
The Butterfly Bites The Hand Of The Thief – 4:27
My Alphabet – 4:30
Pontebba – 2:09
Vertigo – 7:38
Neubaugasse – 1:38
Obsession – 3:08
Traffic Lights – 4:02
Zeit Stop – 10:32
Bef – 4:06
Pontebba II – 2:27
Roma,Wien. – 7:12
Blind – 3:00
Von Unsren Augen Die Illuminierte Stadt – 1:25

This is the first experimental album I remember getting, and to this day it is still one of the few albums I have paid for from overseas after I couldn’t find it in the music stores in my city. Mushroom’s Patience is a project by an Italian trio that began in 1985, and has been part of the Italian Industrial scene for a while now. I introduced the album to most MB members via the competition, where it garnered some interest at least.

The album begins with a rain hammering the streets and bucketing down drains. Thunder crackles in the background, a prologue to the haunting piano that soon enters the track. Early on, the piano’s job is simple, with only a short burst of work, before its output becomes greater and greater. The volume of the piano slowly rises, as if it is a beast getting closer to its prey. The entire 6 minutes is just repeating these same few parts; First, the driving rain and thunder, before the piano does its short tune, and then echoes into nothingness. The piano riff doesn’t change throughout the entire piece. I love it .

‘Eaten Alive’ creates a mood that eventually feels synonymous to the titles suggestion. The heavy, brooding drumming, before the thunder and a deep sigh set the mood before some xylophones enter the track. The whole while, the deep breathing continues, as this beast produced noises of all variety. Some deep bass builds up the layers, until the whole track is vampiric, slowly driving forward but still confident it will catch his prey. It is another amazing track on the album. ‘The Butterfly Bites The Hand Of The Thief’ begins auspiciously, with the sound of a drill cutting into someone, followed by a scream. The whole track seems like a floating cream, much more upbeat that the previous tracks, but the low groaning vocals that display nothing but indifference to everything around them make the track what it is. Guitars take a slightly more important role, with the light and high picking accompanying everything. To me, the host (vocalist Simone Salvatori) is in an imaginary world, all bright but still obviously ‘fake’ and bogus.

‘My Alphabet’ changes up the pace a bit with some alternate rock base, with heavier influence by the drumming particularly. There are two voices in conflict throughout, one grunting throughout and the other remaining soft and ‘angelic’. It is quite a good contrast, and the rolling thunder is present once again in a fine little touch. ‘Pontebba’ is a small ‘reflective piece’, as some light breathing dominates the track and crackles of thunder spread across the sky just outside the window. This man is playing his piano, lonely, despondently, and without much time left in the world. The track picks up with some depth guitar and drumming, but nothing overwhelming that takes away from the main sentiment of the track. ‘Vertigo’ is a slightly jazzier tune, with an electric organ and clarinet providing the bass before drumming and some spoken word/begging vocals begin. Screams, thunder, coins dropping, and other random noises are intermittent throughout the track, and this whole process is repeated over 7 minutes.

‘Neubaugasse’ is the shortest track, but begins with that trusty drilling but it continues this theme of torture throughout, unlike ‘The Thief’ which only uses one sample. Some harsh avant garde piano continues in the background, trying to drown out the sounds as well as some slide guitar by Marcello Fraioli. At only a minute and a half, it is an interesting intermission though nothing amazing. ‘Obsession’ is packed with electronic mixing and psychedelic guitar licks and the return of the clarinet in the depths. It pretty much becomes an odd experimental alt rock song, and the final result is pretty interesting, with a lot of random percussion and vocal variety, with an almost Waits-esque feeling before sounding like they are singing to children. ‘Traffic Lights’ is another guitar strumming alt rock piece, with maniacal screaming taking place of the early vocals. Domenico Vitucci’s vocals are more animalistic than human, sporadic cackling laughter and screaming jumping into and out of the song. This becomes particularly scary and funny at the same time near the end of the track, when only the rains and his hysteria exist.

‘Zeit Stop’ is a continuation of the opening track, virtually exactly the same, but with some driving percussion (What sounds like a steel pipe hitting another) as well as aggressive ghostly vocals. They seem to be everywhere, throwing abuse at the listener before floating away, before coming back to curse their pains. At over 10 minutes it is the longest track on the album, and even if it does rehash many ideas, I still love it. ‘Bef’ has a more controlled electronic jazz beat, as a fairly standard almost light DnB drumming sound works in conjunction with the trumpet of Flavio Rivabella. Mixed into this are more lingering vocals as well as a deep guitar riff and screeching violins. This track has so much packed into a fairly structured area, and it all works. Everything simply works well, and the overall resultant tone is top notch.

‘Pontebba II’ is another continuation, of the earlier Pontebba, and it works well as a 2 minute break before the final long stretch on the album. ‘Roma,Wien.’ Is the standout track on the album. Filled to the brim with melancholic vocals and deep bassy electronics, as well as random feedback sounds, it is a track that I showed many MBers during the compilation. The vocals are distorted to the point of no longer being able to understand them, and yet at the same time they convey so many different emotions. From dishevelled to angry to insane to happy, it has it all. It is the standout vocal performance on the album, and the underlying synth and piano just top off the cake. The track flicks between electronic, rock and avant garde at random times depending on what the prominent instrumentation is. This is without a doubt one of my favourite tracks of all time, and should be experienced. And to top the topped off cake with a cherry, it has whistling… Only a supremely confident artist would do such a thing and know it will work .

‘Blind’ begins with a violin’s beauty being destroyed and eventually sounds like nails on a chalk board. The driving instrument in this track is the trumpet once again, as well as a bass. It certainly is the jazziest tune on the album, but at the same time it is all so painful, with the scratching chalkboard never quite going away. ‘Von Unsren Augen Die Illuminierte Stadt’ is the final track, with a major contribution by ‘Novy Svet’, another Italian underground experimental post-industrial band.

This album personally is the number one experimental electronic out there. Even when it feels like its lagging, it is only doing so in comparison to the gold tracks found elsewhere on the album, and even the repeated sounds don’t discourage from the overall result. What else is there to say? Get this album I guess…

TOTAL SCORE

9.5/10

– Eaten Alive
– Roma,Wien.
- Blind

Zarko

Only 2 downloads for the last comp... Little disappointing but I have enough faith in MB

Bulldog

I downloaded it. Top-drawer stuff, just like the first one you did. The Bim Sherman and Matryoshka tracks were the standouts for me.

I've really gotta hunt down these albums. Judging by the videos, this one sounds brilliant - sounded to me like a cross between Waits, early Nick Cave with a little bit of Vangelis thrown in. Top stuff, and a great review (as always).

jackhammer

I definitely like the sound of this. Have you heard Broadrick's side project Ice? I'm sure you would enjoy that too.

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