released February 25, 2024
Grubenwehr Freiburg has been amassing an impressive array of releases by highly regarded artists from the noise/industrial scene in a rather short time. This latest addition to their roster, by Italian genre pioneer M.B. (aka Maurizio Bianchi), comes as a co-release with attenuation circuit. The 75-minute CD is accompanied by an oversized 7” artwork insert, which neatly showcases the fact that M.B. is not only a prolific sound artist, but also has something to offer in the visual domain.
The three long tracks „Bacillus“, „Metrial“, and „Endopathogen“, as well as the sound sources „infectronics, muconoises, microbdrones“ point to the concerns with physical defects and decay present in M.B.'s works since its very early stages – the heritage of old school industrial's rather nihilistic outlook. Musically, M.B. makes the most of the underlying concept of inevitability: ambient loops overlap and circulate, pumping sound into the listener's ear like a heart pumps blood into organs, but gradually they slow down and die away. And from track to track the sound textures become harsher and more uncomfortable – not in a harsh noise kind of way, but in a more subliminal manner. Yet somehow the relentless pulsing – as long as it lasts – of the music is strangely comforting: as long as you can still hear these sounds, you are not dead yet.
File under: dark ambient
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BAD ALCHEMY
Als weitere Koproduktion mit Grubenwehr Freiburg entstand Bacillusmetrial Entopathogen (ACGF 1002 w/ 7“ Collage) von M. B.. Maurizio Bianchi doktorte dafür in seinem Emoptyc Studio in Opera, einem Örtchen 10 km südöstl. von Mailand, mit Infectronics, Muconoises und Microbdrones, um die Imagination weiter so zu infizieren wie ähnlich schon mit "Mectpyo Bakterium", "Carcinosi" oder "Carcimetrio". Auf der lebenslangen Flucht von Sodom nach Zoar zeigt seine zwischen 'Vacuum (Beginning State of Void)' und 'Telos (Final State of Annihilation)', zwischen Genesis und Offenbarung, ausgespannte Zeitrechnung 6047 A. M. (Annus Mundi). Vor einem mit "Dekadenz", „Verfall“, „Nullification“, "Armaghedon" gezeichnetem Horizont aus „Blut und Nebel“, der seine Elektronik in "Elegietroniche“ verdüstert, deuten „Avaddohn“, der Engel des Abgrunds, und 'Tubal-Cain', der Waffenschmied, auf eine okkulte oder freimaurerische Gnosis hin. Raunt auf dröhnendem Flow nicht eine Stimme a time to... and a time to... (Ecclesiastes 3)? Dass würgen und heilen von Anfang an in der göttlichen Ruach und im Blutfluss der Mütter amalgamiert sind? Dass im Leben als solchem dieser Wind pfeift und ein Geist dröhnt, der Schwerter und Kanonen schmiedet? Oder die Glocken und Orgelpfeifen, die M. B. hier mit eingeschmolzen hat, in Drones und oszillierenden Wellen aus orgeligen Klängen und rotierendem, schwingendem Wabern in elegischem Moll. Der dritte, wie der erste nochmal gut 28-min. Part betont den fauchenden und treibenden Flow und Bianchis 'Weltanschauung' mit einer postindustrial angedunkelten und ungeschönt anästhetischen Tönung.
www.badalchemy.de
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VITAL WEEKLY
Despite his career in hibernation for many years, Maurizio Bianchi, also known as M.B., has an extensive discography. There is the first, classic phase, from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, followed by silence until 1998, and since then, it has been highly productive. Many fans prefer his first phase over the second, and it's easy to see the differences. In the first years, his music was empty and bleak,
fitting the industrial tag very well. Music for post-nuclear landscapes. In his later work, M.B. diversified into music that became more ambient on one side and noise on the other. Using different kinds of equipment played a part here. The old M.B. had something crude and straightforward, which I always found attractive, and still makes me go for some of his older stuff. In that respect, 'Bacillusmetrial Entopathogen' is an exciting work, harking back to these early days. It is almost as if he dusted off his old equipment and tried to make new music with those machines. It works very well! The bleak sound isn't fully there yet in the opening piece, 'Bacillus, ' which is more of a demented ambient soundtrack. It is bleak but still very pleasant. In the other two pieces, 'Metrial' and 'Entopathogen', one quickly recognises that single sound feeding through some delay pedal, some tape-delay perhaps, some vague, almost erased trace of a melody, and it's reminiscent of, say, 'The Plain
Truth'. The titles refer to diseases and have that dark science-fiction soundtrack quality to them. I admit I didn't hear all of M.B.'s recent (as in post-1998) work, but quite a few and this new one I rank among his best. Look for a CD in an oversized 7" bag, in an edition of 200 copies.
www.vitalweekly.net/number-1429/
