This isn't exactly a new Collection D'Arnelle Andrea's album: this is an expanded reissue of their fifth album titled VILLERS AUX VENTS (FEVRIER 1916). On this new version, as bonus features, you can find a remixed version of "Les Cendre"( which has been treated by Objectile, who did a convincing ethereal ebm version of it), a photo gallery and two live videos of "Verdun" and "Deafening Breath". For those of you who don't know the band and the album I can say that VILLERS AUX VENTS (FEVRIER 1916) deals about the first World War and the band tried to put into the songs all the emotions of the people involved in that tragic event. The tracks float between ethereal atmospheres and new wave (with some Joy Division influences) with some classical moments here and there, thanks to the violin parts and to Chloé Saint Liphards' vocals. The tracks I prefer most are "Deaf Or Crazy" or "Deafening Breath" because of their post punk approach which in my opinion reach a better result respect the ethereal ones.

Malaise's last release is an EP consisting of six tracks of which only three are new tunes (the first one "Walking Throught The Wonderland 2k2 Remix" hasalready been released on the "Fifty Two Ways" album and "Assimilate" has been released on the MCD "Secession"). This has been the first time I've the opportunity of listening to this band and for those of you that, like me, are new to the band, I can say that they seemed to me like a Sister Of Mercy meets Fields Of The Nephilim crossover. The only difference is that along with distorted guitars you can find synths and a drum sound similar to Dr Avalanche's one. The songs have got a driving sound and if you are a Sister Of Mercy fan you can find a good atmosphere made of goth, a little bit of ebm and lots of darkness.

Luther Blisset is the man! Oh wait, maybe not? Which man? What was my point? Oh yeah, he's this metropolitan situationist figure that exists in multiple places, multiple times, multiple people, multiple versions. Soccer player, anarchic hero, split-personality, striker, missing person, protester, phone pranker, Monty Cantsin, mail-artists, performance-artist, me, hacker, radio speaker, radio listener, you, publisher, everybody, webmaster, writer, bus ticket scammer, musician and many other things at once... The mind-invading culture-filtering concept was brought to mainstream media's attention in '99 after several years of successful underground guerrilla, but after that year, with few exceptions (such as Baroni's record) I haven't heard much about or from the Debordian character... If you are reading this from Italy you might wanna buy the Castelvecchi published books "Lasciate che i Bimbi" (let that the kids) or "Mind Invaders" or read up on him from the web (houndred of websites available for that). Basically he's everyone and everywhere and he is those who realize they're being fucked with every day on this planet and who want fuck back, oops, I meant, fight back... With the same philosophy (anyone can be anybody and without names there is no control) Luther Blisset takes his new shot at making music on WoT4 with "The Open Pop Star", an album that could have been made by anybody, that is out of control, has no names and where all styles of music are just music. If you work in a record store and you have to file this under something or choose the appropriate shelf, then that's your problem, good luck. For the rest of you with different sucky 9-to-5 day-jobs I suggest you quit your job after you used your job's DSL line to download some mp3's so you know what you're dealing with, because this is the kind of record that you really buy for political reasons or because you like to challenge yourself, certainly not because you like the music, unless of course you like everything from radio pranks to native chants, from folk music to electronic music, from talking macintosh dialogues to speeches about anything and in any language, from techno to synth-pop, from lounge to experimental, from weird to wired...For a complete picture (it'll still be fuzzy) go buy WoT4's collection of Luther Blisset audio documents, all collected for your very convenience in a digipack CD with 20 tracks and 20 pages of booklet. Ya can't go wrong. In fact it is one of the best documents about LB's multi-fold production in the field of music throughout the years.And because everything is being redefined as we speak make sure you take every guy who tells you his name is Seppuku extremely seriously. You owe it to yourself, you owe it to the future generations that will live in a world that is 10 degrees warmer and with a ozone hole as big as Europe and Africa... let me rephrase that: as big as Bush's idiocy (yep, we're definitely talking bigger than at least four continets here!). Don't just reclaim the streets, reclaim the friggin planet already!I could go on and on with this review but then I'd have to pay too much for bandwidth...

I am a big fan of this little nomad label called WoT4. The guy running it makes the ballsy statements (such as "no compromise made for corporate retailers!") that these times call for and sends me anti-war stickers and beautifully packaged nice sounding CDs of mostly unknown artists that other labels have discarded for all the wrong reasons. That is the case with Surya, an eclectic half English half Italian duo based in Rome whose debut has bin trashed by all the labels they sent their demo too because it was too diverse (which, trust me, is bullshit anyway 'coz I've heard a lot more "un-even" albums than this one, but that's another bedtime story...). Anyway, I am glad Charlie Holmes (that's the sticker guy's name) picked 'em up and made it possible for them to have their intense dub-tronic beat-intensive atmospheres on a CD for us to enjoy. As previously stated in Margoo's review, I am glad to say I don't have to deal with recognizing the Italian trademark sound in this one either, instead I wouldn't be surprised at all if I had gotten this CD from Asphodel, Select Cuts/Echo Beach, Different Drummer (not to be confused with the synth-pop label A Different Drum) or even from Sherwood's On-U Sound. Surya's exceptional ability in molding synth-lines, reverbs, delays and beats is comparable to that of some of the best dub record I have reviewed this month. Their ear for melody and sensitivity for groove further enhances the experience, so whether they go down the minimal but spiritual path or they climb up the next psychedelic climax or they expand and flam their way into the delta of reggae roots (which doesn't happen to often anyway), they'll always manage to deliver the goods in a consistent and qualitatively outstanding way. Even though the stylish cover might make you think that this is some masala-spiced yoga-suitable ganga-stoned shiva-inspired goa-trance compilation for stoned flower-power ravers on xtc, the rest of the faces inside will hit the nail on the head and give you the global key of interpreation you're supposed to use when unlocking the mysteries of this sonic journey in Surya's world of dubbed-out groovy electro-ambient. Un-fasten your seat belts (unless you are driving), sit back and enjoy, it's worth it.

Italian composer Margoo's first full-lenght CD (after his EP "Eh?") is a digipack-ed fifteen track work of love released on British/Dutch/Italian label WoT4 (don't ask, I still haven't figured it out myself...). Hard to file under anything specific, Margoo's sophisticated atmospheres deliver a finely woven melange of jazzy warmth, estranged pop culture, experimental dadaism and progressive lounge music (the chill factor is probably what sets this apart). What makes me a happy man (I know I'll be crucified for this) is that not once would I be able to pin this album on the map (geographically speaking that is), which to me is a plus considering much of Italy's music sucks (plenty of due exceptions of course, but usually you can still hear that "Italian" thing somewhere). Margoo's approach is as diverse and global as it gets and I would even go as far as too say that I'd lean towards the UK if I had to take a wild guess, maybe because of the fact that there's a nice Brit-style trumpet (made in Italy too, played by Giorgio Li Calzi) hovering over some of the most interesting pieces or maybe because of the Warp-style lounge-passages the record is filled with. Worthy of mention is the fact that the title track is based exclusively on samples of the artist's squeaky kitchen door. Why am I thinking about Studio Pagol again? oh yes... might just be logo on the CD, but then again, maybe there's more to that... Other Italian references that might help you here could be Margoo's label-mates Deadburger or the great Vittore Baroni's collage project Le Forbici di Manitu'.