“Kinematic desert hypno” rock telling sad stories …
Today a band that we know and appreciate, the hypno psych rock band EX, from Rome, officially releases a new album. The new effort is called Abuse.
Yesterday evening I received the gift from the dangerous duo, the band’s guru, Ex aka Eugenio Di Giacomantonio, and Perkele’s guru Stoned Wizard, aka Alessandro Zoppo.
(Btw, Ex is a busy rocker , as he is also behind the psych doom band Mahatma and the psych garage band Turbomatt.)
Here are the “release notes” for the new album written by Stoner Wizard:
“Abuse, the fourth full length effort by Italian instrumental heavy psych hypno band Ex, marks a great leap forward in the evolution of their sound.
What initially was characterized as "simply" psychedelic or acid rock has now developed to some kind of kinematic desert hypno sound where the band no longer is afraid to use gloomy and intense harmonies.
Eugenio Di Giacomantonio is the man behind the band.
Ex went into the studio during 2010-2011 with the intention to do a recording of nine songs he had written since the release of his last same title album. It later turned out that a whole year would pass before he returned to the world outside with what people have heard Ex himself describes as his «Ennio Morricone scores meet Yawning Man».
Ex played all guitars, basses, organ, violin and samples; drums and some bass lines were played by friends and special guests. As hard record as it is do describe, as easy it is to love.
Enjoy the sonic monstruo!”
So the album is a creature by musician Ex, mainly, with the collaboration of a few friends and guests.
The presence of Stoned Wizard, who is a serious expert of both psychedelic music and cinema, is not casual here, as you will hear, because the new album by EX blends trippy tunes and samples from movies, especially vintage Italian movies.
It is a pity that the spoken samples, in Italian, and often with strong accent, chosen as intros to songs won’t be understood by non-Italian people.
It’s a pity because they are brilliant and very intense. However the choice of the samples has been quite effective even if only sound-wise. And these movie intros create a striking contrast with the definitely soft music following them.
The meaning of these intros is related to the fact that the new release is a concept album about “abuses of power”.
The album includes nine long tracks with an “official” title and a sub-title indicating the type of abuse.
1. INTRO (abuse of power)
2. VELVET & LATEX (abuse of sex)
3. CAPITAL DESERT (abuse of virility)
4. GOD'S SPIRIT (abuse of religion)
5. ABUSE (abuse of police)
6. GOOD WOMAN (abuse of confidence)
7. INTO YOU (abuse of friendship)
8. CHANGE'S BLUES (abuse of ozium)
9. WANDERING MOUNTAIN (abuse of personality)
The samples from movies employed as intros make you uneasy both for what the actors were saying and how they said it. They speak about old and new forms of fascism and oppression, personal violence, selfishness, hyper competition, desperation, mind control, sadism, etc.
The music accompanying the dialogues is quite surprising as it is rather soft and often hypnotic, mixed acoustic and "electric", with many different sounds, related to the variety of instruments employed. Definitely “kinematic desert hypno” rock, as Stoned Wizard wrote.
I was wondering why an album dealing with “abuses” is lead by such a delicate music, but I guess the hypnotic character of this sounds may hint to the fact that abuses may start mellow and can make you numb.
Well, as with the previous releases, the new hypnotic album by EX is available for free download, both at the link below and also, soon, in the band’s new offial website.
A limited number of solid CDs are available for purchase for a few bucks. They are very pretty, mini vinyl-looking CDs, with cool psychedelic cover arts.
At the new website, which is amazing and very “cinematographic”, you’ll also find the other releases, the previous albums by band EX: the self-titled album, Sleep and Cassiopea.
Thanks, dudes!
Check the band’s official website here and get more tunes here
EX – Abuse (2011)
posted by: Mari
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