Madteo - Misto Atmosferico E Ad Azione Diretta (UNSURE)

 

Title: Misto Atmosferico E Ad Azione Diretta  

Artist: Madteo

Label: UNSURE

Cat Number: UNSURE004

Genre: Fuck Knows

1: Cans People

2: Motrice Pia

3: To Know Those Who

4: Rave Nite Itz All Right Vox

5: To Know Those Who

6: Nocturnal Palates

7: Rave Nite Itz All Right

8: Luglio Ottantotto

9: Emo G (Sticky Wicket)

10: Metrazol (4 Art Ind Epil Cons)

Coming into this collection blind, one might wonder “what’s that all about then?” I guess I should just refer to the press release, which does all of the hard work for me. 

“Madteo is one of the great eccentric visionaries of electronic music, and his new album Misto Atmosferico E Ad Azione Diretta on Unsure once more happens to be a mind-bending piece of art. Misto Atmosferico E Ad Azione Diretta shifts between focused gritty grooves and the long freeform associative adventures that you haven’t heard before—never static, sometimes overwhelming, always on edge.”

Madteo is obviously going to divide listeners, so let’s cut to the chase and see how I perceive this “piece of work”. It’s quite linear in places: ‘ Cans People’, ‘To Know Those Who’, ‘Metrazol (4 Art Ind Epil Cons)’ (the 5^th track, not the last, as I have written) ‘Luglio Ottantotto’ and ‘Emo G (Sticky Wicket)’. These tracks, with the exception of the 14 minute ‘Emo G . . . ‘ don’t outstay their welcome and collectively feel like dubby, smeared lofi excursions. ‘Luglio Ottantotto’ is 10 minutes long, however it has a little bit more in its spectral, Lynchian armoury. ‘Emo G . . . ‘ does feel like its being made up as it goes along, these last two tracks also have the hauntalogical, disembodied effect of listening to short wave radio. (Those were the days). ‘Metrazol (4 Art Ind Epil Cons)’ stands out as an island of polymorphic rhythm around which everything can coalesce. Like some Sufi hymn brought inot sharp focus by the surrouunding abstraction. ‘Rave Nite Itz All Right’ feels dense and claustraphobic. The vocal version is the title being intoned over its 45 second length and, as such, feels just a little self-indulgent. Having said all of this though, I like the relative unpredictability of what I hear. So there’s that.