7C - Compartment C

Based in Lanciano (Chieti), 7C were launched by Davide Di Virgilio, drums, and Giuseppe Iubatti, double bass, who enlisted Claudio Carozza on analog noise and debuted with "Discopatia" (2012), a collection of medium-to-long jams for a trio, or rather for three juxtaposed techniques (keyboards and electronic sources in an avant-garde vein, a bass standing in for jazz, and drums ranging from swing to tribalism). The follow-up, "Red Spider" (2013), tries, without much success, to broaden the spectrum with sax and clarinet (Fabio Della Cuna).

Things change fairly drastically on the third album, "Compartment C": back to a trio line-up, Tony Berardinucci's electric guitar, replacing Carozza, almost entirely redefines the project's sound. It's a revolution in intent too, amounting to a (negative) ode to dehumanization. However powerful the jungle ultra-syncopations and Hendrix-like glissando discharges of "Approaching A City" sound, or the distorted punch and vain virtuosity of "Eye And Ear Control" (a double tribute to Ayler, both in the title and in the sample that opens and closes the track), or the mixed post-rock/industrial technique of "Eleven A.M.", it always collapses into free-jazz typhoons or dizzying collective improvisations.

In the second half, the triptych "Yonkers"/"Depression"/"The End Of The Day" delivers the verdict: the machine wins out, overwhelming over man. "Yonkers" opens with a progression almost worthy of Gong, but it mutates, still irrationally, into a dance for cybernetic hominids. A pleasant Jarre-style flourish opens "Depression"; submerged by the distortion pedal's spasms, it ends up as a mix of techno, distorted punctuation and brain-dead laughter. The closer, "The End Of The Day", is however more abstract than robotic, a rasping pulse of rarefied electronics that develops a mysterious, absurdist dialogue, bordering on pure drone-like drapery.

Really hard to file it under instrumental rock, however advanced, even though it does have plenty of the right credentials: metal riffs and solos, curare-laced electronics, interplay that erupts (in place of their original cerebral subtlety). Even more advanced, though, are the trio's compositional urges (or manias), which bring the album close to creative art tout-court, with an imaginative first half – Di Virgilio's complex time signatures, played at breakneck speed, are impressive – and a second half that's visionary, in-depth and rich in detail. Despite its unruly course, it holds together with admirable internal coherence. Performed in full live on "Live Baltar" (2018), a free download, including the previously unreleased "Denti di Dracula".

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13/12/2017