MAMUTHONES - Mamuthones

Alessio Gastaldello is no longer alone at the helm of the Mamuthones project, with the arrival of fellow Jennifer Gentle alumnus Marco Fasolo on guitar and old fox Maurizio Boldrin on drums. New additions that, among other things, also represent a (relative) broadening of the band's sonic possibilities.

Here, then, the material grows even murkier, moving from the krautish, imaginative plains of the past towards spiritual panoramas in which tolling bells and instrumental breaths hint at other planes of perception ("The Call"), while the band also works around the idea of a hypnotic, tribal-like ritualism ("The First Born"), one that can equally unsettle by glorifying dis-order (the Sun Ra-scented keyboards, the jagged guitar and bestial vocals of "Ota Benga", already featured on "Sator").

The Popol Vuh-like enchantment of "A New Start" ultimately arrives like a small oasis, a way to reset the unease, before plunging back into the fray with a "Kash-O-Kashak" that adds doses of Middle Eastern visionariness to its krautrock heritage, moving through territory not unlike the recent work of Sam Shalabi & co. (Land Of Kush).

Composed and recorded by Boldrin all the way back in 1974, "MJ74", on the other hand, is a nightmare of pitch-black drones, raga vocalisations and bells scattered through space.

Ultimately, this self-titled Mamuthones record is a largely middling work, since even its seemingly most exhilarating or ecstatic moments (including the thirteen minutes of the closing black ascent of "Ave Maria") end up, once properly decoded, settling into a "pleasant" anonymity.

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11/03/2011