Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Cannibal Movie - Avorio 12" (Sound of Cobra Records/ Avorio Dischi)






On this trip, a little Asian Fantasy will do the trick, courtesy of fellow travelers, Ganja Gourmet



Cloaked in ominous clouds and a sense of inevitability, the moon, of late, has sent shudders down my spine.  This type of environment is appropriate for many different forms of music.  Sometimes a little Dave Bixby or Ben Chasny will do the trick; maybe some heavy psych riffage from Comets on Fire; other times, the senses can be elevated by the minimalism of Robert Turman.

The other night I decided to give my spine the shake that it desperately required.   It was time to harvest one of the finest nugs from thee tree: Avorio, from Cannibal Movie, recently re-issued on vinyl by Sound of Cobra Records and Avorio Dischi.  The mysterious and beautiful artwork is just one pillar of this excellent release.  Cannibal films, initially popular during the 1970’s and 80’s, are a subset of exploitation films made by Italian filmmakers.  According to a few sources, these movies are generally gory graphically and depict cannibalism along with acts of violence by primitive denizens, deep in the Asian and South American rainforests.  While the music refers to the films, I am not going to infer the robustness of the connection.

 Cannibal Movie is the organ and drums duo comprised of Donato Epiro and Gaspare Sammartano.  The sound can be characterized as a type of psychedelia, infused with organ and hypnotic, tribal drums. These late night, ritualistic, rocking zoners will make you make you thrash uninhibitedly one moment, and then contemplate the unknown in the next – the approaching second, shrouded in an organ treated with heavy effects and opaque.   Only a few seconds into “Teste Mozzate” and already one can feel the buzz within the music: An organ that echoes into the night, treated with heavy effects and bursts of tribal percussion, pierced with intermittent cymbal crashes.  “Fame” spins through your head with hypnotic drumming and glowing, fried tones emanating from the organ - as the chords bellow into the night, they seem fray into the mysterious air.  The organ sounds distorted and drums unrelenting, until a really nice transition occurs nearly midway through.  “Mangiati Vivi!” has a much different feel from the previous tracks – feels like being present at a ritual.  The flip starts off with, “Django”.  Donato’s work with the organ on this track is sublime.  The drumming –some of the best from the album - combines with an eerie tones and other notes – it has that feel of walking alone in the dark.  Several times during the track, Donato’s organ hangs heavy in the air, producing a hazy effect inculcated with mysticism. “Schiave Bianche” closes out the flipside properly, with its relatively tranquil, calming effect and shades of Sun Araw.

Cheers to Sound of Cobra and Avorio Dischi; and to more music from this project in the near future!  Once you have caught your breath, buy this limited lp directly from the band or through Experimedia

Peace to you, bro :)