(Various) Idroscalo d'Autore - Disco Compatto Numero Uno

(Various) Idroscalo d’Autore
Disco Compatto Numero Uno
Idroscalo

Pity the poor reviewer. Not only is he deluged with odd and difficult music from around the globe in innumerable styles and expected to be able to digest it all. No, that’s too easy. There have to exist labels who take a further step, releasing their product shrouded within an even more impenetrable umbra, giving out scant or conflicting information as to what you’re actually hearing. Does it matter? Not too much, all things considered; you still hear sounds and react to them. But it makes writing about the stuff just that much more of a thistle-infested undertaking.

Thistles. Not so bad an image for many of the tracks collected here in, though their thorniness is often counterbalanced by a degree of rhythm and, almost catchiness. Who’s responsible for a given piece, on the other hand, is open to question. Thirteen pieces by thirteen different individuals or groups, selections of relatively short duration (2-7 minutes) with a strong leaning toward the accessibly gnarly. The CD booklet lists the perpetrators in quasi-alpha order as follows: Anofele, Anton Nikkila, Domenico Sciajno, David Karpenter, Fabio Gionfrida, Kar, Justin Bennett, Mas, Maurizio Martusciallo, Nihil, Noitz, Resina and Tirriddiliu. Ah, thinks I, maybe this is the track order. But then I spy tiny script on the back of the CD following this roster: “this list is not the track list”. OK. Sciajno’s was the only name to register initially, though I subsequently learned that I had heard several others in various contexts. Not that this mattered. Could I mail the label and ask? Sure, but it seems to me that one should accept the presentation as offered. Besides, I imagine readers here in the know will quickly fill in the many gaps.

Of course, it wouldn’t be worth going through all this foofaraw if the music contained wasn’t good; and, by and large, it is. I’ll admit that, had it been presented as the work of a single musician or group, I don’t think I would have raised an eyebrow. There is something of a kindred strain at play in the pieces—all electronic, all fairly noise-oriented though with at least a passing glance here and there to rhythms and melodies. There’s not really a weak track around and several of the pieces are quite fine, beginning with the opening rumble, a cavernous, quietly volcanic work on through the equally mysterious and fascinating third track, continuing past the burbling, cantankerous fourth cut with its massive drones and inklings of industrial rhythms. Track ten, beginning with street recordings of a young child counting (in Italian, I think?) and progressing through a fractured soundscape of crowd noise, what sound like barely-registering-through-static trumpet bleats and other horn-like blares is my pick of this anonymous litter. The sheer welter of noise that’s eventually thrown up is as overwhelming as it is ecstatic. The twelfth cut is also very impressive, brooding and dead serious, soon generating a sputtering rhythm, vague, kora-like pluckings and an urgent whine. The final piece ushers things out with a steady, near dance beat, maybe causing one to think of an updating of the better, African-influenced Laswell or Hector Zazou/Bony Bikaye works from the 80s.

Whoever’s responsible for which pieces, this “No. 1 CD” is good listening.