In the first song "Funny Life", the voice of this nice electro-pop band from Naples, Tizzy Caliendo, wishes to be crucified from some magazine while he hovers above the listener with a sort of personal hymn to joy. Well, even if I could drive some nail on the board to reproach them about some possible mistakes (particularly their decision to issue an album too late in a scene where other unpraiseworthy "musicians" have already gobbled down most of the cake by winking at the indie-rock followers and other fashion victims after careful marketing make-up), I'm going to disappoint his expectations. Tizzy's powerful voice, whose range is so wide that you could think to the style of many notorious 80ies male voices (Billy Idol and Tony Hadley are the most immediate musical memories Tizzy activated) meeting in his ugola, partially counterbalance a certain narrowness of sounds, which have melted together in a remarkable way by Bachy Del Prete's programming by the way, so that even if the mixed elements are more or less the same, Overmamba manages to change its sloughing very rapidly. From dada-flavoured songs, featuring simple melodies fitted for counting-out rhymes, such as "Funny Life" or "Celebration", to gothic-tinged stuff which looks inspired by dark scene weaponry ("You Know The End When You Feel It", "20th Century Monster" - inspired by the Abominable Dr.Phibes, a notorious fictional character, musically quoted by Overmamba in the melodic line, quite similar to the ones played by Dr.Phibes on his organ - or "Theatre Of Poison", my favorite track for his bizarre fusion of gloomy atmospheres with horror vintage videogames' sounds) and more engaging electro-pop technoid marches, such as the vampiric "Cold Dawn In Vienna" or "Betelgeuse". Overmamba sound can be enhanced, but it doesn't deserve nails yet.

Oneiric. This is the first adjective that comes to my mind thinking about PROSA PROFANA, the latest First Human Ferro CD which features on all the tracks the Italian project Albireon. Davide Borghi already collaborated with on his second Oda Relicta album and on this one took care of the vocals and the lyrics. Olegh made the music parts using old records (ex-Soviet recordings by Ariel, Tsvety, Sinyaya Ptitsa, V.Obodsinskiy) and improvising on Cl.Debaussy and M.Dietrich songs and ex-Soviet 'Autumnal Marathon' and 'The Star Boy' motion pictures. He prepared some sketches and Davide wrote the lyrics. Dedicated to Olegh's father who passed by three years ago, PROSA PROFANA deals with melancholy and nostalgia born also from difficult relationships. The human behavior is under the magnifying lens and what's evident is the feeling of loss and defeat. All the tracks sound like a reversed collage of old tunes where Davide sings giving the impression to be in trance. If you're looking for melody or songs with a classic structure with a refrain, you won't find much of that as they focused their efforts on the album's atmosphere. Try to imagine yourselves floating on the sea at night after something bad happened to you and think about the feelings you could have.

This album from Italy's New Risen Throne try to speak of rebirth. According to the press notes "within the caves and ruins left by the destruction, there begins to form the first foundations and structures of a reconstruction that is in turn in constant evolution." The result is an album that begins with a dark and oppressive mood and slowly change into a brighter mood, at least from a dark ambient perspective :).
"Lungs into declining structures" opens this release with an invocation hidden in the mix to create the atmosphere of some crowd hopelessly confined in structure, prison or even worse. "Echoes from the loss" is an intricate juxtaposition of filtered noises. "Loneliness" is a long atmospherical track based on a relatively high frequence drone an samples of swords and film voices. The titletrack of this album deals with a soundtrack line of synth posed above, probably, field recordings a loose martial beat. "Lands filles with silence and grief" is the longest track of this album and relies on a texture drone beneath filtered gregorian chants. "A vision from the hidden" is an evocative deep soundscape while "Breath of growing structures" close this album trying to lighten the dark mood depicted in this musical journey.
This album feature also two remix: "New Risen Throne (II)" is done by northunt and try to give some resonance and space to the oppressive soundscape while "New Risen Throne (III)", made by Nordvargr, add the notorious evil touch of MZ412's mastermind to the recipe. This two remix has the unusual quality to be a reconstruction that reveals hidden possibilities of the original.
This album is, perhaps, one of the best release of this year and reveal a focused production and clear writing. Recommanded.

This is the second collaborative album by the industrial legend the Polish duo from Torun, and is a sonic postcard from their 2011 tour in May 2011 and is composed of two, supposedly without overdub, livesets: "Live in Turin" is the first set, a long track, and is focused on the resonance of the cymabals and gong notoriously used by the players in the first part of the gig while the development is focused, in the second part, in african percussion that introduce in a meditative and silent third part that end in an oriental like percussion development. The final part of this gig is divided in two section: the first part use some strange flute sounds above the subtle Z'ev percussion and the second end this gig with the same evocative mood of the introduction. "Live in Gdansk" is a smaller, and more predictable, set based almost exclusively in ritual and meditative gong resonance periodically interrupted by atmospherical silence above subtle metallic percussion. The result has a good impact due of the undoubtable craft of the musician involved.
A fine release but only for fans of ritual ambient music.

Listeners who follow the improvisational music scene could have already heard the names of the three talented signers of this release, including the most meaningful moments of a recording session, held in 28th November 2010 in London, mixed and mastered by Wayne Peet without overdubbing. Arguably the most notorious one of this performing trio is Steve Beresdorf, one of the most active musician not only related to this particular stylistical field, even if I remembered him for having been member of the funny combo The Melody Four together with Lol Coxhill and Tony Coe, which released some bizarre stuff on Jean Rochard's Chabada, for his collaborative work with David Toop, named General Strike, and the grotesque madness of Double Indemnity, a collaration with the cellist Triston Honsinger...you will easily find some other stuff by this many-sided musician, who's engaged in electronics on this occasion. In spite of their interesting experiences, Stephen Flinn and Dave Tucker are less known, even if the former is a very creative drummer and percussionist whose highlihgts on his CV is a collaborative experimental/industrial project called The Cutmen with the legendary Z'EV and the latter was member of the great Mark Smith's The Fall in the early 80ies, a seminal band from Manchester who brought what is known as indipendent pop into the fields of a rock who sounded genuinely clumsy, blunt and maybe unaesthetic, but it made sense so that I reccomend to check it if you missed it. In Ink Room, these grown lads scatter their tones on the score. A certain scantiness of phrasing, which is clear since the initial "At Night", as well as the gradual attainment of togetherness - quite normal for collective improvisations - don't entail a lack of expressiveness and even when the sound looks like "squeaking", this comb manages to give a kinematical appeal by evoking a sort of decadent hyperuranium, either they play little gigs (such as in "Mud Club" or "A Torn Couple") by constant decays of musical patterns (an approach which is clearer in the final collage titled "Fragments") or they seems to do their utmost into meaty progressions ("Investigations"). Repeated listenings are going to make you grab more nice preciosities than a first absent-minded one can do.