This is just an update on a review that has already been published when Daniele Brusaschetto sent us an advance promo of this record. "Poesia Totale dei Muscoli" has now finally come out. The CD comes with a nice color booklet with lyrics in italian and english that is an experiment of modern cut&paste art (the booklet consists of professionally printed pictures of pages that were cut and pasted with adhesive tape). The CD is co-released by Bosco (Daniele's outlet), DSK (http://space.virgilio.it/sandblaster@tin.it), Radon (www.radonstudio.com), Oggetti Volanti (www.oggettivolanti.it) and Bar La Muerte (www.barlamuerte.com). Here is the review that we had written and published: I wonder if I could get away with saying that the new Daniele Brusaschetto album has a more "squat-friendly sound", but if you know what the average offering of that scene is, I think it is really true, at least to some extent. Maybe he was sick of touring places all alone with his machines and seeing those looks in the faces of those who expected some other crappy hardcore trio (I've seen them myself when playing squats with my band) or maybe it's just a natural evolution for somebody who comes from the bands Whip and Mudcake, but it certainly isn't far off from his original sound and its actual soul. With "Poesia Totale dei Muscoli" (Total Poetry of the Muscles) he is turning to his roots and taking a step back from his previous more industrial-loaded sound in order to approach a slightly more easily-listen-able blend of fierce and fiery garagey noise-driven combo playing. The result is strong and powerful. Solid crunchy bass picking, rumbling room-reverberated and heavily compressed live drums, multiple layers of very expressive guitar strumming and up-front deep, doubled and harmonized vocals. I am probably not the ideal person to attempt comparisons in this field, but if you listen to some garage, post-rock, noise-core you'll find plenty of, and considering the affinity with the industrial-electronic sphere you might consider starting from Pitch Shifter or Fudge Tunnel or stuff like that. Lots of the electronics is gone in favor of a more "standard" rock line-up that sometimes sounds Italian, sometimes British, sometimes American. For that matter I think I was more into the older sound but that certainly doesn't mean that the new material isn't worthy of attention, contrariwise I must say I find it quite likable and I appreciate the touch and the tone. Of course he retained his connection with the experimental arts and you can hear that in very ingenious and refreshing ideas sprinkled around the record (such as "Palla Bianca con Scritta Rossa" -White Ball with Red Lettering- where two identical signals feed the board and he occasionally mixes the twin signal in to have that otherwise annoying phasing artifact that is simply cool his way and which I had never heard being used creatively before or thought of using at all) or in the occasional passages of noisy dark ambience and sparkles of floor electronics and distorted sampled sequencing. To honor the past there are even a couple of mainly electronic-experimental pieces, like the last two "Se lo faccio morirei" (If I did it, I'd die) and "Il Bambino Tram" (The Tram Boy). The extended poetic lyricism, the fact that all the vocal parts are in Italian and the way they are singed can't escape from reminding me of C.S.I. (not the American TV show, the Italian band you moron!). It's almost like realizing that he has always possessed some of that specific style but now it really bleeds through and shows big time. If you like Daniele's music you should listen to this because you will find the core of what has always been his signature in terms of vocal style, lyrics and guitar noise-ness, strapped to bone and true in his essence. Minimal in structure, maximal in impact. Less is more. More is Daniele Brusaschetto.

Synth-pop at its best is what Null Device offer us! As some of you might now I am not a great lover of synth-pop (Maurizio is really the man on the team that handles the genre), but Null Device have a really original way to portray their style and port their message. The key of their sound is integration. Their synthetic music for synthetic people intertwines with influences of middle eastern music, electronica, rock and breakbeats. Their instrumentation includes a healthy dose of electronic devices coupled with percussions and traditional instruments such as classical strings, rai instruments, flutes etc. Hence, this will be the cup of tea of all those people who are entertained by a nice blend of Depoche Mode, New Order, Delirium, Taha, Khaled, Faudel, Peter Gabriel, Mesh, Ganymede, Brave New World, Gary Flanagan, Muslimgauze, Gary Numan etc... After their remix for Distorted Realty's record on Nilaihah and their spot on the famous Cohaagen "Living On Video" synth-pop-only DVD, this was the natural progression for Null Device. Welcome to the world of multi-cultural cross-boundry multi-temporal moments!

Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, this limited edition CD EP is already sold out, because it was being sold with the first copies of Manufactura's full lenght CD "Precognitive Dissonance" (out on Hive records - cmp reviews on these pages). But if you are able to get your hands on one, you shall know that it includes exclusive remixes by Converter, Databomb, and Pneumatic Detach. The four tracks feature tense rhythm noise, distorted beats and an industrial wall of sounds that only rarely allows openings to ebm. The CD comes as a 3" disc printed on a 5"-shaped disc, quite stylish.

Sidereal journeys have always been a fascinating thing to men. Man's brain inspired philosophers and a lot of common people. Numbers and numerology could be seen also like a magic discipline and maybe this is the aspect that fascinated Gerald Arend most. THE AGE OF NUMBERS contains ten intrumental suites which take their inspiration directly from '70s space rock and from '70s electronic bands such as Tangerine Dream or from musicians like Jean Michel Jarre, Kitaro or Klaus Schulze. Since the first track you've got the sensation that the room around you it's expanding and the hissing sounds are gathering taking shape and turning into the Milk Way. At a first listening I found the tracks too similar but at a second listening I liked them more. "Topologique", "Infinity + 1" and "The Beauty Of Numbers" are the tracks that convinced me most as they have a certain halo of mistery that made me found them more interesting. Try this CD if you want to loose your senses by falling into deep space...

PSI is a trio of Brooklynites including Chris Forsyth (guitar), Jaime Fennely (electronics) and Fritz Welch (drums, objects) and they just release this two-piece CD, "Black American Flag", featuring 43 minutes of their signature electro-acoustic experimental noise-making. Comparing to their previous works this might be a little creepier and intimate, more on the low-down side of things as opposed to loud and screechy. I like their own definition of «pieces of cathartic, hermetic, meditative noise that slowly evolve into nothing while exploring delicate interplay and course, uneven stasis». I guess it is true what they say: the best knowledge of yourself is yours.