friends of odd radio circles
The following is a list of albums by friends and
acquaintances of mine. There's a bit of everything here, from
ambient and experimental electronic music, to various forms of
psychedelia, to hip hop, and a whole lot of heavy metal. See
below for a list of other albums worth listening to.
meanwhile.in.texas
Heimat (2020)
meanwhile.in.texas is the moniker of prolific Brindisi
musician Angelo Guido, active since 2014. Primarily making
ambient music, he has also experimented with drone,
industrial, noise, and everything in between. He has
released music for labels such as Triple Moon Records, Luce
Sia, Sounds Against Humanity, Secret Press, and others.
Alongside his main discography stand a number of
collaborations with other experimental artists from Italy
and abroad,
including Skag
Arcade, Mulo
Muto,
and Rooms
Delayed. Last but not least, he was one half of the
duo Superdad.
Always searching for novel ways to produce atmospheric
sounds, his primary tool is the electric guitar, which he
uses with a great number of effects pedals (many of them
built by himself) and unconventional playing and production
techniques to create lush and evocative soundscapes. His
sound is further enriched by several curious experimental
sound-generators and percussion instruments (these also
self-built), synthesizers, and field recordings.
One of my closest friends, it is Angelo who first taught me
the basics of field recording, and over the years we've been
on many a recording session together around the outskirts of
his home town of Brindisi.
We have also collaborated on a short-lived live project
called Bright Noise Motel, with Angelo handling electronics
and soundscapes and myself on bass guitar.
His entire discography is a gem and I highly encourage you
to give all of his releases a listen. If I had to choose a
single album of his to recommend, that would be Heimat,
released in 2020 (but I can't resist an honourable
mention, Endless
Decay).
Organic and warm, the mix of abstract guitar loops, field
recordings and synthesizers depict hazy scenes that blur the
distinctions between memories and imagination. Heimat means
homeland in German. The album is thus an introspective
reflection on one's origins, exploring the relationship
between person and birthplace, childhood and present.
Be sure to check
out Sant'Andrea
and Conca.
To sum up the music of meanwhile.in.texas in a single
phrase, these are soundtracks for films that don't exist.
Hetrem
Monster at Heart (2023)
Hetrem are from my home town of Široki Brijeg. In an area of
the world where there is very little new music being made
— alternative or otherwise — they are a bastion of
resistance, offering something far different and far more
intense than what
is usually
heard around our neck of the woods. They play death metal
with strong progressive and melodic influences. The
intertwined guitar riffs are sweet and intricate. The drums
are impeccably precise. The vocals are brutal.
Monster at Heart is their second album, released a
decade after the debut, and their musical and conceptual
growth is perfectly realised at this point. The typical
death metal intensity is nicely contrasted with atmospheric
synthesizer sections and even some acoustic guitar
on The
Heredity of Taste, which makes the heavier tracks all
the more impactful. Their Balkan origins shine through in
the main riff
on Gemini.
My favourite track on this record is most
probably The
Thorn.
Guitarist Pipo built his own guitar which was used to record
on this album. Zvone, the band's vocalist is also a
published author, and the first volume of a fantasy saga he
is writing was
recently translated
to English, so if that's your cup of tea be sure to
check it out.
Last Resistance
A World Painted Grey (2017)
Last Resistance are an alternative metal band from Brindisi
formed a few years before this release by my university buddy
Lorenzo. A World Painted Grey is their debut EP
and was preceded and followed by a steady flow of live
activity around the Salento and Bari areas.
Lorenzo is a great guitarist, and although short, this EP is a
flurry of riffs both heavy and melodic.
The band have been slowly but surely working on their first
full-length record ever since this EP was released and I'm
told it's coming some time soon. In the mean time, feast
yourselves on this very satisfying taster of what Last
Resistance have to offer.
Maverick Persona
In the Name Of (2024)
Maverick Persona is the brainchild of Amerigo Verardi and
Matteo D'Astore. The former, singer-songwriter and producer,
is a darling of the Italian alternative music underground
since the 1980s, and arguably the only musician from Brindisi
to make a name and career for himself on the national scene.
The latter is one of Brindisi's finest young electronic
musicians and producers.
This unlikely pairing of two generations and musical
backgrounds that are very far apart has birthed one of the
most eclectic albums to ever emerge from the Apulian
hinterlands. In the Name Of, like
their debut
album before it, is a melting pot of jazzy, psychedelic
electronica, pop, and many other styles, bursting with
colourful chords, inventive synthesizer sounds, and rhythms
both groovy and unconventional. The vocals often sound as
though they were transmitted from an offshore pirate radio
station from the 1970s.
While the entire album is excellent, the opening tracks
Complete
the Task
and Somewhere
We
Have Landed are particularly strong, but be sure to also
give a listen
to Bite
for Freedom
and Dreaming
Laurel Canyon, the latter of which
reminds me a lot of Boards of Canada.
Kaleidoscopic music if ever there was any.
Deje
Rākṣasa - Side A (2022)
Deje is Matteo D'Astore's moniker. As mentioned in the above
section on Maverick Persona,
he is one of Brindisi's most promising musicians. A
multi-instrumentalist, he started out on drums and percussion
before moving on to keyboards and bass as well as producing.
We have a bit of shared musical history, since he was the
drummer of the second band I ever played in (Starfleet, led by
Simon Chiatante on guitar, I was on bass) and we had our first
experiences in a recording studio working on an EP for said
band.
Rākṣasa is the first volume of a collaboration with
Simon Chiatante, with whom I also worked on
the first Odd Radio
Circles album at around the same time.
This is dark and brooding electronic music influenced by
Oriental poetry and philosophy. The reverbs, synthesizer
patches, and electric piano used throughout the work evoke a
strong night-time atmosphere, so much so that I suggest
listening to it as late as possible in a desolate area on the
outskirts of town, ideally with a couple of beers.
The highlights of this work
are Mimi-nashi
Hōichi, Rokurokubi
and album
closer Heart.
Check out the wonky drums on the latter, I can't get enough of
that one beat that keeps coming a split-second too late!
Edoardo Cammisa
Flux (2020)
Edoardo Cammisa, also known as Banished Pills is a sound
artist from Turin, Italy, active since 2013. He also heads the
record
label Sounds
Against Humanity with which I released two albums for my
former project, Transmissions.
While starting off producing ambient and drone music, over the
years he grew increasingly interested in the relationship
between sound and silence, culminating in his most recent
avant-garde works that might even be described
as non-music.
Flux is as much a meditation as it is an album, and
in place of more traditional musical instruments, Edoardo used
the signals and feedback produced by contact microphones
recorded to tape and broken walkmans in order to focus the
listener towards the very essence of recorded sound.
Paco Maddalena
Panorami verticali (2021)
Paco Maddalena is a filmmaker from Brindisi. It shouldn't come
as a surprise then that his music is very cinematic. Like his
compatriot meanwhile.in.texas,
Paco also makes ambient music, albeit with an even heavier
focus on field recordings, and with synthesizers much more in
the forefront.
Starting off extremely minimal with the field recordings in
full focus and barely perceptible synthesizer drones
underneath, Panorami verticali initially transmits a
sense of gravity and density, which then blossoms into an
airy, weightless, and hazy scene on the
track Troppe
trame, before it morphs into something dark and menacing.
The record ends on a very warbly and emotionally ambiguous
tone.
Mindwarp
Mindwarp EP (2014)
Mindwarp were a band from Brindisi which showed immense
promise, but alas broke up too soon to really live up to their
full potential (they lasted no more than 3 years). Thankfully
they left us this EP which gives the listener a glimpse of
what they had to offer. Although the production on this, their
only published work is regrettably a little bit flat, their
creativity can be heard regardless — a delightful mix of
stoner metal, progressive, and psychedelic rock, nothing less
than what their name promises. They were bigger than the sum
of their parts, an instrumental trio of guitar, bass, and
drums which sounded massive both live and in the rehearsal
space. Mindwarp had a couple of other tracks written by the time
this EP was released which were even more far-out than these
— shame they never managed to record them.
The drumming and bass playing on this record are excellent,
as is the guitar work. What I appreciated about this band was
that nobody tried to steal the spotlight from the others. They
were perfectly synchronised between each other, and worked
together in service of the music they played.
The highlight of this EP is most certainly the closing
track Iramocram.
Here's a video of them
performing live
in Brindisi.
Funeral Boogie
A Mournful Ground (2022)
Funeral Boogie are a very raw doom metal band from Lecce,
Italy. Unlike many doom metal bands, they aren't slow except
when slowness is needed. The drumming is primitive, the guitar
riffs are dirty, the bass is big, and the vocals are harsh.
This is their debut full-length album, but they also have a
demo
EP out which is worth a listen.
I played bass with them for a year, an experience that
culminated in the band's first live performance at the sorely
missed Istanbul Café in the tiny town of Squinzano,
which used to be a Mecca for metalheads across the Salento
area before it was forced to close.
This album will pummel you into oblivion with its relentless
riffing, hoarse shouting, and Neanderthal drumming. Be sure to
listen to the
exceptional Riding
Rats, which channels the spirit of the late, great Lemmy
and his Motörhead. This one was so much fun to play! We
wrote Black
Hole Truth together based on guitarist/vocalist Stefano's
intro guitar riff, and although I left the band before work on
A Mournful Ground started, I'm delighted to finally
hear it on record. My favourite track on this album is without
a
doubt Cult
of Barroth.
Soulcrux
Glass Doll (2024)
Ethereal and heavy, Soulcrux are a symphonic metal band from
Oslo, Norway. They have yet to release a full-length album,
but a few singles have been published over the last couple of
years. The vocals on this track soar through the air like an
eagle. The intense guitars and rhythms are juxtaposed with
airy keyboards and strings performed by the Symphonic Bratislava.
Lead guitars in this band are handled
by Toni
Grbešić from Široki Brijeg, one of the finest
guitarists I've ever met.
Noti Limun
Gan Barsi (2021)
If you've ever wondered what hip hop from Herzegovina sounds
like, just listen to Gan Barsi. Noti Limun is from
Široki Brijeg and I've known him since he was a teenager. Even
back then he had a knack for free-styling and inventing rhymes
on the spot, and I was always inspired by the limitless energy
he constantly displayed. This album doesn't follow popular
trends. There are a couple of quasi-trap beats here
and there but you will find no trace of auto-tune, and
the sound is firmly rooted in the darker hip hop of the late
2000s and early 2010s. Noti Limun's beats and lyrics burst
with testosterone and the rhymes are both inventive and witty,
though of course you'd need to understand Croatian (or
Bosnian, Serbian, or Montenegrin). Nevertheless, even if you
can't speak a word of the Yugoslav family of languages, you
can still appreciate the flow, for flow is universal.
