Honestly I have totally lost count of how many albums Daniele has released so far. He's one of the artists I've known about and have been following on and off for probably two decades now and who he relentlessly continues to release new material on his label Bosco records.
Based in Turin, Italy, Daniele was one of the pioneers of industrial music, and specifically of a sub-genre of industrial music that he probably unwillingly created, where authorship and songwriting seamlessly blend with noises and melodies to create a new style that he is proficient at and almost nobody else seems to play or take part in, most certainly not on his hometurf (read, country!). It's hard to describe but I guess you could try thinking about Einsturzende Neubauten's most melodic releases and replace the German singing with Italian singing. Industrial folk is probably what I'd come up with if I had to put it in two words, but that's always limiting.
The language used probably has a lot to do with the identifiability of his style, granted, but it also has a lot to do with where his style comes from, musically and historically. Italy's tradition of songwriting has roots that go back decades if not centuries, and although in the last '40 years Italian music is often (but not always) synonymous with second grade garbage pop, Daniele willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously draws upon that tradition and, most importantly, develops upon it, taking it further, with sonic vignettes, found sound patterns and rhythms, experimental sounds and more along those most creative lines. Although guitar was very prominently used in the past, this new direction of his hands the lead off to a more avantgarde percussive aesthetic with a lot of samples, house objects and very minimal melodies.
The CD comes in a handmade cardboard sleeve with three semi-transparent sheets that feature titles and lyrics.
If you have never checked him out you owe it to himself, and him, because he's been at it for longer than most of you might have been into this genre, and in that sense, he has a lot to teach and a lot to give. Quite possibly, if you don't speak Italian it might not be as interesting as if you did, but nevertheless his music is a trip. One that you should embark on!

Canadian D-Trash records released one of my own records in 2009 and so when in the mail came the D-Trash release from the label's mastermind Schizoid himself, I could not send it off to my amazing contributors and had to take the time out of my crazy busy days to review it myself.
Thirteen years after his speed core debut "Enough is Enough" and after a long compositional hiatus, Schizoid returns with his 3rd full length album "The Next Extreme", which is basically digital hardcore taken to its most extreme limits of speed and brutality. Verging on black/grind metal and breakcore, "The Next Extreme" is basically about as far you can take the digital hardcore genre and still call it that.
Schizoid throws 16 abrasive, fast, violent and harsh tracks at you with the same delicacy that a charging rhino would panzer-speed through a china shop, the china shop being your life of course. His lyrics (d)evolved from political criticism to misanthropism, with most songs covering the hardship of life, the disdain for the blatantly ignorant bystanders of our civilization and death that is all around us and hovering above us.
The album features a ton of guest appearances by long time D-Trash friends such as Babylon Disco, The First Seed, The Named, Phallus Uber Alles, Angel Enemy, Alex B from Leech Woman, No Brigade, Jul!e D:stroy, DK Dance, Dirty Fingers Licked, Luna Seaux, Junkie Kut, Robot(a), Hansel, Drugzilla, Celebrity Dead; and I believe Schizoid when he explains that these cameos are not for marketing purposes but to highlight the camaraderie that exists in this scene and around this label.
Certainly not for everyone but if you need to be shaken awake or you are looking for the next extreme, look no further!

Arnaldo Pontis has been long active in the Italian, and specifically Sardinian, audio and visual scene. He's also very political, outspokenly libertarian, distinguishably provocative and doesn't believe in mass production of goods, Therefore all of his productions are available freely as a download but also as an unconventionally packaged limited edition physical edition. In this case, Magnetica Arts Lab's self-titled CD comes in a DVD casing with Shepard Fairey artwork, easily recognizable by the yellow, black and red colors that made him famous. The front cover has an almost Nazi Germany SS vibe to it, which nicely adds to the provocation layers of this artist, who is clearly NOT in that world but loves to push people's buttons and provoke visually, and not just sonically.
Musically, this 10 track CD will take you on a pretty low key trip, for the most part, through mellow electronic suites, occasionally juxtaposed by louder and more abrasive industrial tracks. The CD is mostly instrumental, although there are a lot of vocal samples intertwined with the music throughout. There's definitely also a dark veil of somber moodiness being cast over the whole production, which I enjoy.
The listening experience flows nicely and presents plenty of interesting moments but the repetitive nature of this type of anti-song-structure loop-based composition sometimes fails to develop enough to take you from enjoyability to engagement. Nevertheless a good album all in all.
If you like what you read, you can download this album for free from the artist's website but if you want to support or own the beautiful artwork head on over to their website and purchase a copy from them.

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One of Italy's most active and daring composers and performers, is the Bologna-based multi-instrumentalist Vincenzo Vasi. Possibly best known in his home country for being part of Vinicio Capossela's band, Vasi has played with far more important and far reaching artists worldwide (John Zorn, Mike Patton, Alex Gimignani, Butch Morris, Otomo Yoshihide, Roy Paci, Marc Ribot, Vinicius Cantuaria, Jacopo Andreini, Scott Rosenberg, Alvin Curran, Jamie Saft, Ikue Mori, Trevor Dunn, Joey Baron, Cyro Baptista, Lukas Ligeti just to mention a few). Vasi also plays bass and sings but on "Braccio Elettrico" (italian for "electric arm") he prominently and exclusively features his theremin skills, which are outright amazing!. One of the most precise and in-tune theremin players I've had the pleasure to know, Vasi offers a collection of his own compositions which are arrangements for solo or multiple theremins (up to six at a time). As you may imagine the vibe is eerie and ethereal throughout the entire record. The theremin is enchanting and conjures outer-worldly images of bewitching beauty and bewildering mind states. The black and white cut and paste collage of the art work and the diluted atmospheres permeated with mystery and nostalgia all make for a spellbinding trip through time and space that I encourage you to embark on. Except for a couple of songs where he also employs a looper, a magnetic microphone, an omnichord, a tape echo and his voice everything else is theremin only. Of the nine tunes present two are covers by John Carpenter and Neal Hefti/Count Basie. Alessandro "Asso" Stefana (guitar player in Capossela's band) co-produced this CD and put it out on his own label Tremoloa records.