DANI MALE - Trauma Turgido

The obscure singer-songwriter from Modena, Dani Male, has been active since the second half of the 2000s as co-author of Guida Matti (whose only proto-song is the anti-relaxation of "Il colpo di tacco", featured on "Unico spettatore"), and with three solo EPs under his own name: "W la merda", "Ep del male" and "Roba di merda". "W la merda" contains "Lettera a babbo anale", his manifesto track of torrential coprophagic filth set to finely dosed psychedelic folk, "I colossi di Rodi", a hallucinogenic soliloquy for guitar and keyboards, and "Me brucia er bucio", a successful send-up of Afterhours stereotypes. "Ep del male" is even more programmatic, with "Mi chiamo Dani Male", a vaudeville cadenced by subliminal punk-rock (and above all the near-atonal "Duemila fette"), the first dismal version of "Domenica malvagia", and the limping Ramones-style surf of "Oh oh io l'amo oh". "Roba di merda" stands out for the solemn avant-garde exercise of "House of Tedious Lovers", amid putrid wah-wah guitars, dissonant organs, inarticulate voices in horrendous metamorphosis with electronic effects of every kind, and off-kilter percussion. The influence of the finest eras of garage-rock and the masters of dark psychedelia reigns over these abortions. The material from these two EPs was recorded between 2007 and 2008.

After the interlude of Tirana Love Lunch, alongside Sandro Zinani for the underground station Antenna Uno Rockstation (which lasted 30 years) — documented by the shrieking, dissonant wave of "Miele" — Dani Male firmly takes his solo career back in hand, recording a long session from which, first and foremost, the non-live, directly-recorded acoustic "Unico spettatore" would be drawn, a sort of preparatory sketch for his future releases, with the conceptual refinement of the coincidence between author, performer and audience. An insatiable researcher, Dani Male then records his own personal full-length (24-minute) lo-fi version of "Sister Ray", an irresponsible cover of "Fearless", and "Vynavil", a new nauseating little story built on splatter electronic sounds that will pave the way for the creations to come.

Finally, he arrives at the lofty achievement of "Trauma Turgido", at last his first true album, a cunning work that functions roughly as an (implied) gallery of somewhat mad, somewhat nihilistic poet-characters, of chaotic anti-literary quotations, of Dadaist insertions.

As highlighted by his version of "Vegetable Man" by Syd Barrett ("Vegetale", remarkable in its interpretation poised between the martial and the unhinged), the standout tracks on the record are the dazed serenade of "La canzone di Tenco", his tribute to Italian melodicism leaning on a playful drum machine and swirling keyboards, "Cassonetti", a spectral chant with a voice run through electronic filtering and pseudo-orchestral arrangements gone stale, and "Gerry Motti", all deformity and incongruities, with murderous tempo changes between free-form verses and a psychedelic chorus.

The influence of Mariposa can be heard in "Neuia" (perhaps his hit, a synth-pop cadence swapped out for acoustic chords over a raw techno flow, which nonetheless ends up sounding like an alienation statement in the motorik style of Neu), while a style distantly related to Ferretti surfaces in "Reatardo" (a tribute from oblivion to Jay Reatard, built on debauched hip-hop, and once again a mix-up between folk ballad and techno-pop). The atmosphere flowing from the acoustic guitar and its blending with hazy electronic excursions is pushed to its limit in the semantic games of "Spora". Dani Male's songs are anything but sentimental fluff.

The artist also surprises with the long, bitterly deranged confession of "Domenica malvagia", free of the logorrhea of Offlaga Disco Pax and the swagger of Luci Della Centrale Elettrica, and instead anchored to a faint Neil Young-esque ralenti, with gospel touches, concrete sounds and synth punctuation, converging toward an almost choral finale. The ecstasy of "Angadu Pè" (first a tribal muezzin, almost echoing Doobie Brothers and "All Along the Watchtower", then acid-rock in a sprinting jam with dissonant piano) even hints at a spirituality of his own.

A prolific collection of boutades ranging in every direction (from meticulously crafted lyrics to stoned raps to enigmatic jingles, always laced with humor, from spartan arrangements to calculated effects), produced by the artist himself together with Dj Cecc, worthy of an irregular soul and a restless one-man band. A delight of the contemporary Italian underground, in an otherness that lets soul and spirit wander through an original space-time. Dedicated to Iciz, Syd Micious, Iggy Crock, Chicky.

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27/06/2010