Alessandroni, Alessandro: Industrial LP

Holy Grail territory here from Andy Votel and Demdike Stare's mighty Dead-Cert imprint, who finally bring you this incredible album of previously unreleased industrial-themed recordings made in 1976 by experimental pioneer and Ennio Morricone cohort Alessandro Alessandroni. The concept itself is riveting enough -- the guy who provided that infamous guitar riff for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) delivering utterly bent and synth-heavy recordings previously unheard by the wider world -- but the material and execution is just nothing short of a revelation, unlocking an uncannily prescient suite of rhythmik pieces that sound completely dissimilar to much library music of the same era. Industrial perfectly encapsulates the heightened state of creativity in the mid '70s surrounding Alessandroni and his close peers Giuliano Sorgini -- together known as Braen Raskovich -- and Morricone, for whom Alessandro also famously whistled the theme to A Fistful of Dollars (1964). Recorded at Piero Umiliani's Sound Workshop in Rome, and made with an arsenal of EMS Synthi VCS3 modular systems, tape loops, and a treated Petrof grand piano, plus a bundle of string instruments, the industrial results (coincidentally issued the same year as Throbbing Gristle's debut release) present a pulsating take on this kind of music, breaching tightly-coiled motorik systems and mood percolators with atonal strings and viral oscillations. Most importantly, the sense of minimalist efficiency and the clarity of the recordings are shocking, pushing the envelope of electro-acoustic music and pre-empting the early notions of an entire genre movement. Artwork by Anthony Shallcross. Liner notes by Shallcross, Jr., aka Andy Votel.