Passionate seekers and regular consumers of stuff like Dusseldorf based electro-punk project D.A.F. (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft), Australian group Severed Heads, legendary Liaisons Dangereuses or (another) Australian band Single Gun Theory, or even early Throbbing Gristle / Cabaret Voltaire, they would totally get along with this super rare recordings of the obscure Italian minimal synth band, Musumeci.
The group started in Turin, in 1985. It was Mauro M. (synthesizers - ex guitar player of Rude Pravo) and Franco G. (programming - ex noise maker of Errata-S-Corrige) who set up the project. Half a year later, one Laura G. (ex-keyboardist of Rude Pravo) and Paul C. (voice of K Position) teamed up; they played several shows and recorded two albums, one in 1985 (Schwarz Morgen) and another one in 1986 - Zusammen. The albums were released on very limited edition, on their own label, Zeltweg. Embracing a philosophical punk attitude, Musumeci’ shows were preceded by long monologues, in which you could find rumorism, electrical scans, voices, screams.
Berlin-based independent record label Mannequin Records got their hands on these very rare, dusted and unknown recordings and spread them into the wide world, under a 2 LPs format, with artwork designed by Mushy and Alessandro Adriani.
At first, I got confused to find out there is another Musumeci project; some Italian deep house music producer and DJ, which I don’t know what to believe about, after listening his ‘Gemini’ project. Actually, Musumeci is a quite common name in Italy (but not only there), so you’ll probably stumble upon some other musicians by this name: Angelo Musumeci, Antonino Musumeci, Edoardo, Tuccio, Debora, Dora, Ferdinando, Chiara, Ivano, even Michael; and the list goes on. No pun intended, but try to sneak out, when probing this Italian band.
I found out about Musumeci, while minding my own business and browsing through the second volume of Danza Meccanica Italian synth wave compilation, released in 2012 on Mannequin. The featured track, Harry Batasura, is probably one of the most known of the band. The energy evoked throughout a lethal percussion and a powerful, yet repetitive synth line, instantly mesmerized me. That’s definitely the good stuff from the electronics. Meanwhile, the track was already doing damages on the dance floors of big festivals or clubs all over Europe, smashed by champions like Mick Wills, John Scheffer aka Intergalactic Gary, Inter Ferrence from Intergalactic FM, Traxx from Nation (who made an edit to the joy-divisionesque track Tag Fur Tag) and loads more. So there was no big, yet lovely surprise, when two years later, the inspiring label Mannequin Records released this entire box of unearthed songs from the short music carreer of the misterious Musumeci.
This is not an easy release to deal with. A distinction can be felt between the two albums. If the first one is more roughly produced and induces a terrifying and dark energy, the second album, Zusammen, made one year later, gets a cleaner sound; it seem a little bit more melodic. There’s even some cool dancy electro stuff on it, a sign that the guys didn't have any plan about what to do, when they were making music; in ’85, it was all new and experimental. Nevertheless, the last track from the second LP, an Untitled project, keeps the stamp of the previous album, so beware of the unleashed percussive beasts which will thoroughly mess up with your mind and body.
Tracklist:
Schwarz MorgenA1. Paura
A2. Schwarz Morgen
A3. Tag Fur Tag
A4. Harry Batasuna
A5. Berlino
A6. Lieber
Zusammen
B1. B.F.V.
B2. Zusammen
B3. Sie Ist Vorber
B4. Apocalypse
B5. Challenger
B6. Haguenau
B6. Untitled