I talked about the past of Federico De Caroli, a.k.a. Deca on my review to his latest release "Modulectron" which was a collection of unreleased tracks from the 80s, so you can check that one to have an idea about his past thirty years of activity. This time I'm writing about Deca because of his new CD album titled "Onirodrome Apocalypse". The album is part of a wider project that includes a novel having the same title which isn't published yet. The album isn't a soundtrack for the book, Federico sees it as his emotional description to it transposed in music. The only hints we have about the story and the atmosphere that we'll find through the pages of the novel can be found in the eight tracks of the album by reading the titles, by diving into the atmosphere created and by looking with care the booklet graphics. We have red skies, some skyscrapers with Deca wearing strange eyeglasses, another one with red skies and a view of a natural landscape which seems pretty much desolated, another one with an airplane flying through icy mountains, then there'a one that has a blood tinted corridor which is pretty anxiogenic. The last one is the one on the CD and it has and hanged man on a dead tree under a red blood sky. The titles paint a picture of a future pretty much fucked up where cities are changed ("Metamorphic Metropolis"), nature has been raped and nothing will be as usual ("Alba Obscura" and "Apocalypse") and time can be changed for some obscure reason ("Cronotorsione"). Musically, Federico, along his beloved vintage analog synths, used treated fields recordings and vocals that now sounds like synth drones. The tracks sound tense and atmospheric where dilated sounds paint fragile melodies while hisses, reversed synth pads ride lead sounds. The sound seems have a life of its own and evolves. This is a really good album and the first print is sold out. Check out Deca's FB page for the updates.

Deca is the moniker of Federico De Caroli, a guy coming from Liguria, Italy, who is active since the mid eighties with is musical project. Interested into electronic sounds and lover of the German and French music of the seventies, Federico decided to take a different approach on the matter thanks to his piano studies. He started to record his experiments with polyphonic synthesizers and in 1986 he released, for the Video Radio label, his first album "Alkaid", release inspired by a science fiction story he wrote. The following year "Synthetic Lips" followed and this one was mainly inspired by German space electronic music. Things changed in 1989 with the album " Claustrophobia": the atmosphere got darker and obsessive and musically it sounded like a new wave/industrial mix. With 1992's 'Premonizione Humana", he started to collaborate for the visual part with Gianni Bacino, whom took care also of the live side of this aspect. Musically, the atmosphere got more evocative thanks to the use of piano and strings along with the electronic sounds. On 1998, Old Europa Cafe released "Phantom", an experimental electronic album with melodic inserts that you can still easily find on Discogs (all the other releases are quite hard to find). On 2000 we have 'Electronauta', a compilation of unreleased tracks and on 2002, "Simbionte", an album that has been sold only through the website created for the occasion. These are the main releases Deca did, but there are many more on tapes. Now, let's talk about "Modulectron". This album issued by Synthetic Shadows, is a collection of tracks recorded during the 1984/1986 period using only a Roland Jx3p synthesizer, no other instrument involved, not even a drum machine. The twelve tracks of the album sound minimal, experimental and create an atmosphere of their own but most of the time, they sound quite obsessive and alienated. Based on multi layered recordings or on arpeggio/sequencer/filters variations they hypnotize the listener thanks to dissonances, noises and warm sounds which suddenly turn into a cold atmosphere. I enjoyed it and you can check the whole release following this link http://syntheticshadows.bandcamp.com/album/deca-modulectron-ss11

This new release from the project by Alessandro Camilletti is not the proper follow-up of the well received "The Psycho Kinder Tapes" but is a collection of remixes framed by two tracks based on spoken word by Valerio Zecchini and Andrea Chimenti upon the evocative background by Giovanni Leonardi. As almost all these kind of releases, it's a multifaceted release where the choices by the remixers makes the differences.
While the first remixes are roughly dance floor oriented and are a little addition to the framework of this project which, as based on new wave, is reasonably catchy even if it's sometimes experimental. However with the remix of "Oltre il tempo" by Deca there's at least a link to the frame of this release as it takes the voice in the framework upon a dark rhythmic pattern evolving in a final quiet part based on synth. Then two remixes raises the bar: the remix of "il tramonto dell'evidente" by Carnera which add a martial and noisy element to the music and has a audio spectrum of remarkable quality at the cost of almost erasing all the lyrics, and the remix of "Vivo e invisible" by Miro Snejdr which underline a layer of piano and a rhythmic structure to a track originally almost austere in his construction.
As it could be expected, this is essentially a release for fans and collectors and its best moments (Miro Snejder and Carnera) were already present in the previous release. Fans of this project will have some enjoyable track to listen and the others a simpler approach to Camilletti's music which has an uncommon depth, but the best moments are elsewhere.

Here we are after a couple of years to talk about a new compilation of the DANZA MECCANICA series with ten "new" tracks coming from the treasure box of 80s Italian synth wave. Mannequin dug hard to find the casket which contained bands that hardly had a vinyl release on their back. The album opens with Suicide Dada, a band coming from Pinerolo, 40Km from my city Torino. They officially released only a side of the double vinyl compilation released with VM #5 but they recorded a couple of demos. The version of "Acque" you can find here is coming from the first demo and if you love deep vocals, simmons pads, bouncy bass lines and atmospheric pads, this is for you. Madaski, their singer, put on his soundcloud page another Suicide Dada track titled "Not Satisfied", if you want to check out that one here's the link http://soundcloud.com/madaski-1. Der Blaue Reiter with "Through Glasses" are next with a track that sounds like Joy Division in love with synths. The bass line is typical of the new wave sound of those years and the dry drum machine sounds help painting a cold scenario. They later became State Of Art and they are back nowadays with a new album. I don't really know who Son Of Science were but "Way Of Life" is a nice upbeat tempo with male/female vocals, analog synth lines. The same goes for Waveform. I don't really know them and their "Creep" is a fast analog synth wave, almost punk song with female vocals, obsessive synth bass lines and essential melodies. Ruins were an artsy duo who a couple of years ago reissued some of their tracks on Minimal Wave. Here you can find "New Record", a track originally included into their 1983 tape "Side Roads" but here the version is a bit longer. They mixed funk, jazz, dance and wave in an experimental way. Side B opens with a different version of one of the most famous Jeunesse D'Ivoire tracks, "A Gift Of Tears". This "Silent Version" is a quasi instrumental version of that great wave gem where they changed a bit some melodic lines, removed the sax part and used Patrizia's vocals to underline some parts here and there and to sung the refrain. LASS Crime were active in mid/late 80s and they self released three tapes and they had another one titled "Electa" out on Energeia. "I'll Merry Go Round" is coming from their 1987 demo "Inanitas" and it's a nice electro/goth tune. Musumeci were an obscure combo coming from Torino. I knew them in the mid 80s and they gave me their demo containing six tracks. "Harry Batasuna" is an instrumental track which recalls me D.A.F. and Cabaret Voltaire and opened the B side of the demo. Years later I tried to contact Mauro Missaglia, the guy who played synths, but with no success, so they kinda slipped into oblivion. Deca with "First Frequency" is here with one of the few tracks he sung. As far as I know this is an unreleased track and it's a nice one which, influenced by Depeche Mode, mix synthpop with new wave. If you love Frozen Autumn, for sure you'll love this one. European Stage is another band I don't know at all. Their "Subterranean Wait" mix experimental cosmic sounds to synth coldness. You can check all the tracks here http://goo.gl/xg8RX. The release will be available from the next week on vinyl and digital download.

This release is a collaboration between two sound artists Tomotsugu Nakamura, focused on micro rhythms, and Yuki Aida, focused on ambient. Even if the linear notes present this as 'an album that overflows with intricate bleeps, unique tones and micro rhythms', it's a release that sounds a little derivative as his influences are clearly perceptible during the listening.
As the song titles suggest, this album sounds like a single track divides in twelve movements. The gentle tones and rhythm of 'Mono' opens this release abruptly ending to let 'Di' continues with a fractured beat that periodically ends. The glitches of 'Tri' evolve into 'Tetra', an hypnotic track based upon the juxtaposition of a small loop and a longer one. The slow development of 'Penta' is based upon the 'classic' glitches of a cd player while 'Hexa' is based on an abstract small sample that is colored by the small beeps of a rhythmic part that is absent of 'Hepta', as it's focused on an abstract sound development, and returns in 'Octa' exalted by the short samples. 'Nona' sounds like a return to the atmospheres of the first track while 'Deca' is a delicate soundscape for a windy day as 'Undeca' for a desert one. 'Dodeca' quietly closes this release returning once again to the gentle tones of 'Mono'.
As it's not a ground-breaking release, his strength lies in the musical writing able to develop a cohesive release out of the single tracks. The careful sound production, meaning a long development, make this release something worth a listen to all fans of glitch. A nice release.