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The Potomac Accord - Silver Line on a Black Sea (cd 7+1tx - 1.05'29'' - self-prod. 'o1) - I guess the Potomac, Andrew, Chris & Jerry, are going to be the sound-track Band of my autumn + winter, a melancholy hard to hide by the voice, a lead piano when not replaced by sporadic episodes of a guitar, - then drums, soft pale atmosphere; - if You are into sonorities à la Black Heart Procession, The Potomac Accordor fond of 3 Mile Pilot's title trk Chief Assassin to the Sinister, or of God Speed You Black Emperor's nocturnal sceneries, but less sophisticated.. an excellent production, the Potomac Accord, from St. Louise, own their own lyric and touching pathos, romantic resolutions, - songs as To Portland Maine, a song writing property able to blend depressed anger and style, love and broken hearts, - or the long beautiful instrumental All Eyes On Me, then Maya, sweet ballad_love-song, - i mean, i'm happy to put the band some questions. // Info & mp3: www.potomacaccord.com, potomacaccord@hotmail.com, The Potomac Accord - 418 park charles blvd south - st. peters mo 63376 - USA

Popface - Calling Back/Falling Back (5tx cd, 19'48'' - Trust Me rec 'o1) - Between cover notes this Group writes Loud Is The New Quiet, maybe as adverse answer to the Kings of Convenience? Well, beside the fact They're Norwegian too (but from Stavanger), They have nothing else in common with those fichetti [i have to find the right translation for this word! kind of 'clean, good looking boys']. If You like Motorpsycho's Greener, Cure of Wish, and J Macis, You are on the right way to give a chance to PoPopfacepface, - the cd (ep x preview of the forth-coming full-lenght Michelle I Love You) opens with You Came turning out to have a soaring pathos, especially when the song runs at its highest point on the super-melancholic acoustic guitar arpeggio (a gearing which can give You tears!), the same pathos and fresh song-writing coming back on Snowrose (taken from the Almost Endless album, 98), as well as the indie-hit strenght of You Always Seem Nice (i'd be curious to watch its video, taken from Buck, 95), - to sing out loud at Their concert, - and anyway, saying 'They're pop' is restrictive indeed, - They are a Band able set You free, Their Music run fastly. And yes, You Always.. should be sung running against the wind, to take a jump in to void. And live, i guess there's a wonderfull environment! Everybody smiles and 'pogue' (dance jumping). Belli. // Info: www.popface.net - popface@online.no

Moonbabies - Carina __ MoonbabiesWe're Layabouts Ep (5tx 19'o6'' - 2oo1 Duckweed Rec) - Moonbabies' name should be familiar to who are habitué of komakino, - then reviewed and interviewed, - and if You have had a bit of common taste with who is writing You, You should have already been in touch, so that You have had the opportunity to enjoy Their female/male guitar-driven pop, blending also modern electronic and programming. In case You didn't, or this is the first time for You, - well Moonbabies come from Malmo, Sweden, and They are one of best new indie Groups i met in last 3 years, - particular song-writing, melancholy and a real spark/shining. After the excellent full-lenght June And Novas ('o0) and a beautiful showcase-tour in USA last summer (there should be still a video on the website), They released We're Layabouts ep, - probably the best invitation card to introduce You to Their Music, with unedit and not: the title-track opens with a quick rythm this cd, a pearl indeed (and you know.. how it goes.. and it will be alright), catching already featured on the above mentioned cd, a run in armony of the two voices, together to fly off with the final sharp guitar explosion of polistrumentalist Ola Frick. Then a delicate and sweet song called Blue, rec. in 95, where Carina Johansson (also at casiotone piano, xilofono, polysynth) shines with appeal on a nocturnal guitar arpeggio. Cherry Blossoms e Olymipan Heights are two instrumental based on sampling and soundscapes, - the experimental face of this Band, able to take a trip in outer-pop_space, using also the tech. And to close, the perfect Happy When Smile, a catching chorus in line with most June And Novas moods; - nothing to add, if not a 'beautiful!'. /// Mp3 (also unreleased as Batmobile, or Slowmono (one of my fav's)) on www.mp3.com/moonbaby - homepage on www.moonbabiesuniverse.com - Duckweed Rec - 2442 nw - market st. - box 354 - Seattle - wa 981o7 USA.

Tasaday - Aprirsi Nel Silenzio (10tx cd 48'37'' - Wallace rec 'o1) - Often on italian tv there are some programs with terrible revival shows, about 60s/70s/80s 'official music' - i mean, a lot of crappy 'artists' (or so-called), principally lots of clones or locally made versions of international foreign artists of past, - a sad provincialism in music, - but the horrible fact, is that these people are still on tv nowadTasadayays, since 40 years, and on these tv-shows, compèrers say 'how we were'. Well, i always wondered if they were all such so blind, mediocre/poor, - if, and i say IF, there was a sort of underground Music, that as in our present, it's kind of 'invisible', smothered by the politically-correct media panorama. I mean, i ask my-self if in those years downhere someone ever knew Bands like Stooges, or Velvet Underground, or else the '77 punk scene, the post_punk wave, - and if so, if someone has ever put on a Group playing different Music. But i know, as things are going nowadays, i guess in a future someonelse will put the same question.. - But now we have one of those answers, and the answer is Tasaday. Reading what Wallace rec writes about Them, They were born as two distinct Groups (so answers are now 3!), Die Form and Nulla Ipereale, then They became one. 'Different musicians played here after L'ultimo Tasaday (Beware!), with only Sandro playing in the album, the actual line-up is grown with the partecipation of Paolo Cantù (A Short Apnea), who came back to collaborate with his debut's band. In the new works of the band there are also musicians and friends extern to the band (Flavia and Vonsik of Jasminshock, Mirko Spino and others...)'. - Ok, now our good Wallace rec reprint this album called Aprirsi nel Silenzio, previously released in 1984 (by ADN rec). Their Music makes me think of an excellent collaboration between Death In June, Clock DVA and Tuxedomoon: artistic neurosis, avant-garde, art-wave, intellectual new-wave anger, (an excellent work of) percussions with hypno background, livid sky and autumn atmospheres, sax, beating guitars with particular sounds. Solitude, theather of distress and frustration, - ghosts. Excellent noisers. - Titles are in italina, but voices and lyrics are in english and deutch. The line up on this cd saw 9 elements. Truly recommended. /// Info: www.tasaday.it - Tasaday c/o Alessandro Ripamonti - v. Manzoni 115 - 2oo43 Arcore (Mi) Italy - tel +39 039 616648 // on www.wallacerecords.com/bands/tasaday.html there are some mp3's clicking on 'discografia'.

Loop Collective - Smooth (cd 6tx - 28'o4'' autoprod. 2oo1) - I am not into electronic dj music, - You know, i always stay a bit suspicious about technologic music, - software-made music, i mean, - too accessible/reachable for everyone, notwithstanding You can easily distiLoop Collectivenguish who simply presses a couple of bottons, and who knows really how to work with loops. And here You cannot complain: - this alternation of dub, drum n' bass, breakbeat of a lap-top heroe, or better, of a Laptop Soul (as the final track of this cd entitled Smooth), that is Adriano Zanni's anima, touches its point: it wriggles with skill on the multiple possibilities of lo-fi cost programs found (and patched ^_^) on the web, showing off some very good downtempo, ambient, stereo effects, relaxing, groovy, chill-out, - good to absolutely dance, pleasant, - ideal for clubs, squat houses (Lotek Blues), for open-air places, a frozen winter midnight dance (Intifadub). /// Info e mp3: digilander.iol.it/loopcollective - okla@libero.it - Adriano Zanni - v. Soragni, 3 - 481oo Ravenna

Skywave - Don't Say Slow ep (4tx 10'4o'' - 2001 Cherry Coated rec) Skywave- Skywave of this ep are an excellent dive inside acuter Noise of british post punk of middle 8o's, - a sea of reverberation, on beaten guitars (by Paul Backer e Oliver Ackermann), corrosive feedback and acid on amplifiers, - extraordinarily nervous percussions (by John Fedowitz), buzzing heaven, - You cannot stay quiet, - i image that from live They are inevitably involving. There's the shadow of Jesus And Mary Chain (even if not always present, but heavy on Seen It All, Their psychedelic remake of 60's, and Their influence on early My Bloody Valentine. On this 4 songs ep, unfortunaltey, Skywave's visionary face is missing, but You can taste it on several mp3s available on the website mp3.com/skywave, i.e. All I Had, Snow, or Baby It's Just You (featuring also female vocals). Great Music, i need an interview.

AA.VV. - Dby Paco Vlaidovichreams And Nightmares (14tx cd, Frammenti Self-prod. 'o1) - Compilation of eccentric, oddish, to hear, to watch (i.e. beautiful Paco Vlaidovich's collages), and to read (brief novels, verses), 14 sound and noise manipulators, related in their de-construction massima, in the blind frenzy/craze of monitoring/picking up and immortalize, - as the dreams written its loose fotocopied sheets, between minimalism and urban jungle (46'ooo Fibres). Best episodes: Lips Vago, Eniac, Zero Zero, Pentliczek, togheter with others, italians and not. [Fabio Rosso, the fellow after Frammenti Autoprod, is on inkoma with His own wonderful collages] // Info: £ 12000 (s.p.i.) to: Rosso Fabio - V. Cavour 45/13 - 17019 Varazze (SV) - tel: O1996334 - e-mail: fabbio71@virgilio.it

ONONQQ - The Supreme Weight (1otx cd, 29'39'' - OuZel rec 'o0) - Happy i meet You. Taste of these recordings are the top of quality of a home-made, a 8 tracks (as i read), - where a song-writing glows bright into sad atmospheres, by Luca Galoppini and friends, - one more example of local unexpected originality. The title trk together with Reset are owen of a particular way of playing guitar: desperate, a moving pathos in its involvement. Obscure tones, psychich dreams of a dark shoegazer, dissonant chors on Something In My Eye, riff running on winding staircase on Takeover and a successful intervention of a clarinet on a couple of songs. Sort of electric not-folk, hard to classify. The only pity is the constant use of chorus effects on the voice, - on the contrary, it seems Luca doesn't need to. Nice oblong package in green cardboard with a beautiful picture of a a small small tree hiding thick wide roots.. The cd close with a cabaret-jazz Here Come The Nostrils, with also a wind instruments section. // Info + mp3s: www.mp3.com/onq - OuZel Rec - v. moro, 13 - 19o2o Prati (Sp) - Italy - www.ouzel.3ooo.it

ONQ - The Supine Waste (1otx cd e k7, 31'43'' - Tape Mountain 'o1) - This cd contains some outtakes of the above mentioned one, just to confirm ONQ's fertility (on the press-kit You can read the long discography, participation to compilations, with also a past in a grind-core band..). Kill Refrains together with Cleanup, i think they have the best attack wave, - but i say again that he should stop using effects on his voice, - it could dishearten the listener, as on the fairly good Nack Te Häiften, that with drum crashes create a very particular sound. // Info: Tape Mountain - 18o3 SE Washington #2 USA -

Haze - What Frog Eyes Tell (11tx cd, 41'33 Pop Life '99) - Until 99 in italy there were the Haze, north Italy, noteworthy, inner and carefree inspiration, happy to be a Band, and how cool, wandering on Pavement-ish memories without being inured, sonic pop which has what it takes, - some instrumental flight, psychedelic and sweet (the touching arpeggio of A Million & One Night, Like Water). Television Baby would have been a wonderful hit single, nearly-spleen, great attention for song-writing, a chorus worth of memory, - to dance smiling, - there's also an harmonica. Born in the wrong Country. And moreover, the package Emanuele Zatteroni (gtr, bs) made for me is really nice: penguins, star, a child with a toy-guitar. Anyway, They're a Group able to inspire something good, one more evidence that in italy there are not only punks, darks and postrockkers... Info: Emanuele Zatteroni - v. don minzioni, 2/a - 54o33 - Carrara (Ms) - italy.

AA. VV. - We're Not Alone vol. II, III, IV (11tx, 16tx, 14tx, su k7 - Best Kept Secret) - Tapes i have the luck to have received state on the cover Songs For The Lo-Fi Generation. The Best Kept Secret rec is italian, tape-label. Part of Bands it supports, here on komakinoare names already noted. And morover, pictures are clear (yes?): aliens. And often for Yor musical tastes You have to feel an alien. But, as it writes and proves here, We're Not Alone! How beautiful. When (from vol. #4) i listened to SwaySway (po box 567, ventura, CA 93oo2, USA) with Channel - i felt at home, cheered up: paroxysm of ethereal, electrostatic guitar feedback, ultra pure dreampop, apex of intangible, - and the delica voice of a Girl (swaypop.com). Our beloved Clairecords just released an ep for Them [ps. komakino is honoured to feature this song here]. The Chuzzlewit gentle and barely perceptible, audible on the bass guitar distorsion and delay efx, male vocals (www.chuzzlewit.net, po box 14749, Chicago, IL 6o614, USA). The Coastal, romantic, he and she, tender ballad to learn how breathing (coastalrock.com, 14o9 Arthur Drive, Provo, UT 846o1 - USA). I guess i'll get in touch with most these Groups on the next komakino issue. - Beautiful the calm, quiet lyrical voices for GaThe Garlandsrlands (garlands.com - po box 653, cooper station, new york, ny 1o276, usa). Then the canadian innocent Sully (sullyweb.com, 223 queen street east, Toronto, Ontario MSA 152), the Should, the Uncletoe's Portasound with A Far Far Better Place (included one of cd's reviewed on this issue), and others. From vol #3 the Full Of Emptiness (geocities.com/fullofemptin) are near to the Anthony Distefano's instrumental, by the continuos burning sea of distorsion, - while Tea (gottea.com) places a mesmerising drum&bass; - Aether Flux's singer (aetherflux.com) seems to appreciate a lot Thom Yorke's voice. On vol #2 Umbrella Meets The Sky opens, by our dear Moonbabies, unreleased experimental song, with a attractive sampling. Moods of this tape point to the new-wave: listen to Bluescreen (mp3.com/bluescreen), A Beautiful Machine (mp3.com/abeautifulmachine). Worth mentioning is surely Mayumi (jelnet.demon.co.uk/mmo/mayumi - Pale Blue Rec, 32 Como Rd, London SE23 2JW, United Kingdom) with Reverberate, between Helium and My Bloody Valentine, emotiveness, pit of flanger personality. Then we found also here ONQ, with So Long Suckers, already feature on the above reviewed 2nd cd. What can i add more?, this label is an indie pearl, non profit-promotrice. // Info: Best Kept Secret c/o Alessandro Crestani - v. Biron di Sotto, 1o1 - 361oo Vicenza - Italy - bks@telemar.it - www.indiepages.com/bestkeptsecret.

Lumière Electrique - s/t (cd 1otx + 1 shh - 4o'o6 - Autoprod./Wallace Rec 'o1) - Strange band, these Lumière Electrique are sometimes tied to post-rock influences on attacks /opens, then they play different tones where they become kind with melodies and brief parenthesis of a male voice in italian (Ritratto di Donna dell'Estate 1997 - La, Giallo). Then an acceleration recent Sonic Youth style, or extremly docile moments as the short Vista del Lago dall'Alto. Self produced cd, and very well-done, distributed by Wallace rec (in fact You can identify that because of Mirko Spino's art-work), - each thing sounds good, a fairly good knowledge of instruments, - but personally i see everything missing a needed sparkle/shinng, therefore boring, but not only for the use of italian language (except on 23 mt. in Linea d'Aria, but self-same score), - they are feeble, half-hearted, even if they're able to play very good interlacement of guitar riff, as in example on Strumentale (best song?) or on the interesting changes on Quella in Re (where the voice, i think, was not necessary). After the track #1o, that is 24 seconds of silence, this cd closes with a foolish winding, Giovanni Long Drink. // Info: Lumière Electrique - v. moia trav. II, 53 - 25o75 Nava (Bs) - www.geocities.com/lumiereelectrique.

Madrigali Magri - Negarville (cd 11tx 4o'43'' - 2ooo Wallace Rec) - I write this review starting from outside: one of most beautiful packets in digipack i ever seen (artwork by Spino, again), all in grey tones, with inside a booklet of pictures making background to a crude novel. Music: an istrumental intro opens with obscures sensations, drums and guitars stolen by a tremolo, then each thing is flooded by a low frequency, fire, feedback's fire. The second song, title trk, is a narrative, Nergaville, telling of a spoken thought on a simple nervous post-rock riff, theater of a quivering rancour.. The cd of this quartet coming from Nizza Monferrato (north italy) sorts principally out on quiet instrumentals (E' un Giorno Normale, Porto Dentro, Giorno è Notte), perfect sound_tracks for a plain buried alive by the fogg, - with a guitar at center of everything, mermories of Gastr del Sol on Non Hai Mai Pace, - where it seems to witness to a movie without You can watch the screen. The use of italian language is a pity (You know how i think about that..) as Parti Non Mie. But They own a grey melancholy claiming its beauty. I guess from live They're pretty pleasant, - You sat at a table with a drink. // Info: Strada S. Pietro, 27 - 14o49 Nizza Monferrato (At) - www.madrigalimagri.com.

Acherontia Styx - Secret Revealed Darkness Shall Be (cd ep 3tx, 24'31'' - Self-prod./Eye Of Kephra) - Already met on komakino#6, - now Diego Grossi is back with a new 3 songs ep (ranging from 7 to 1o minutes), lightly less darkly terrified than on former Enter The Kingdom Pupas Fell, - but i state so because of the better care of production, here better indeed, more perfect, and not more industrial recalls, - but always able to describe extremely well one more astral trip, or if You prefer, nightmare even too nitid to be only a fantasyAcherontia Styx - Secret Revealed Darkness Shall Be, apocryphal subjects and wartime madness, - expressed in sonorities and sensations. Exciting and scary sound-track.. He's able to take a picture of shadows turning here and there on his head. I put him a couple of questions.. k: there's an ingredient/element of mute terror inside Yr compositions (how do i have to call them? songs?), it seems to be present to a walking of a witness which open a succession of doors of a dimensional corridor, and through each of these one he leans out of a new nightmare.. music, and sounds we hear are the dreadful sight showed to his disenchanted eyes.. or am i indulging in fancies? Diego: Yours is a pleasing vision of things, let's say that figurately that's the most intuitive. If once i put my self in first person to hear such so ferocius sonorities, trying to see through them a mirror of reality, now i understood it's formed of many splinters, of nightmares precisely, created and forged by men them-selves with their actions, both moral both physical.. maybe it's a sort of catharsis, a strong sense of psycho-logic introspection, maybe only visions of my own ghosts seething in my mind.. anyway that's true, the terror here suggested is deliberately real.. k: i don't like of this ep just one thing (but only i have to find one), the quotation of Battiato [an italian musician - k's note]: 'me, contemporary of the end of the world, i can't see the glare' - but i think that Acherontia Styx is probably a perfect soundtrack for the Apocalypse.. that one of the sky turning suddenly dark and the list of all sins.. D: i'm sorry you don't appreciate Battiato, at least how much i do, - infact the quotation is even too disproportionate with respect to his unbelieveble brilliance.. i don't even dream to be compared of his art.. but i thought it was perfect for the concept i was trying to express, - that is, if we want, the Apocalypse.. many people, i know, examined and broach this theme, - then i tryed to allow the utmost freedom of interpretation as regards my whole work, so that everyone can have a personal visions of things. k: what do You use to record? D: above all i do use software of my pc, but each sonorous source can be useful, i.e. my voice or sometimes a synth. k: Christ, but will all this background horror bring bad luck? (i'm joking). It comes to doubt if who composed this music lives in hell, tormented by voices, - do You ever surrender to the ephemeral joys of life? D: let's say like this.. if i was the protagonist of my music, beside being deeply morbid, i'd be very sad and boring, too, - then i tell you that when i close the door to the horror of my work, i come back to be a person like many others, with his interests, and his limits.. maybe a certain background sensibility stays, but i guess this is also a basic part in the creation of my experimentation that i use to call ACHERONTIA STYX. // Info: www.mp3.com/AcherontiaStyx - www.acherontiastyx.com.

Age - Ralph Macchio 2oo1 (9tx cd, 25'48'' - Loretta rec 'o1) - Oulandish eccentric Group weighing together noisy-pop, post-lo_fi and electronicAge, small robots, keyboards, with some impetus of voices in falsetto/ballshake à la Brainiac (Upload, Cocktail), and brief recals of Pulp (the final of In The Pie Pie Pie); - Their cd contains a couple of hit-singles (Dream Of You, the start of Square Garden, I Saw You Edit) able to make the luck of Loretta rec with a bit of people/media attention. // Info + mp3: see Loretta rec., cd at 9.81 .

Asobi Seksu - s/t ep (6tx 23'o7'' - 2001) - The self-titled Asobi SekYuki Chikudatesu's cd (japanese for Sport F*ck), band from NY, marks out a new start point after the previous oneiric experience named Theta Wave State (interviewed on komakino#2) where the four were involved, even if Yuki Chikudate (at vocals together with James Hanna + keyb) took part only to the closing song of beautiful Freedom Downtime ('o0 - North of January rec), Close Watch; - and now without the other vocalist/guitarist, Rick Hamedani, the Asobi Seksu drive to new directions, with sonorities full of distorsion and louder volume, audible voices (with Theta Wave State voices were often choked down), - as in example on the new version of These Islands (already featured on the above mentioned cd), with a new final blow out, My Bloody Valentine-ish distorsion, owned of its special sadness, - with also more present drums. Now between Pulp, My Bloody Valentine and Pavement if saying like this it can tempt to have a listen. On Tremble voices marriage works well, The Words Live Longer is overflowing with indie brightness, pura disillusione, - on the contrary the song in japanese let me a bit upset, Umi De No Jisohsu. But allow me to suggest You to start with Islands, then Why You Should (maybe my fav's, - it's a pity it's so short), and then get in touch with Keith (drummer) - he'll be surely happy to answer. I heard some sample clips of new recordings, - the Group seem to drive on a very interesting road. Sportf*ck - 31/74 37th Street, Astoria, Ny 11103, Usa. www.sportfck.com - www.mp3.com/sportf_ck.

The Pornography - Car (7tx cd 25'53'' - Wallace Rec) - Nice digipack packet, in grey tones, and hanged people. The Pornography troublesomely scratch the pavilion of the ear, treble/high levels at max, long very long stop (and yawns) & then go (ohmygodwhatabore the final of first song) - nearly post_The Pornographyrock, as well the spoken vocals in english, brand new guitar strings, bass with a super timbre, not more of songs notes per song. Drum machine. - I say these songs are all exactly the same and i dare whoever to prove i'm wrong. This cd is dark pornography for post-rockers early age (= not jazz_ed). Info: The Pornography - traynor@freemail.it - and see Wallace rec.

The Pornography - Write, Read, Cancel (4tx cd 23'o2'' - 2ooo Wallace Rec) - What can i add? Probably on White Youth bass and guitar a better matched, gloomier and more shadowy, - anyway treble and high levels at maximum, forever and ever, - but this cd (no more vocals) is surely (as regards me) more notworthy than the former, even because there's an effort of difference. On My Money, as example, there's a unforeseen dodecaphonic exploit, camera instruments, actually trombones, - and say goodbye to the black industrial post-rock until former Pornography come back to spoil the party. This song, above 1o minutes, presents a contorted jungle of wind-instruments, then nearly erased by restless percussions (not more a machine), low frequency sampling, and a new outburst, as well on Volk, slaughter of drumming and choked feedback.

R.U.N.I. - Il Cucchiaino Infernale (12 tx 46'26'' - cd 2000 Beware/Bar La Muerte/Wallace rec) - But is it possible starting a song saying 'ma tu le schiacci le bottiglie di plastica?' [that is "but do you flatten plastic bottles?"]. The R.U.N.I. do it. In fact, pRastic, not pLastic (Le Bottiglie di Prastica), - but i've not been able to see why. Maybe are they a more underground and complete version of a crappy local band called bluvertigo (arggghhh)? - Anyway, the text of doubtfull ironical illumination seem to answer so (already looking at cd title, translated it would be The Infernal Spoon), - and i'm not doing compliments. - Although that, anyway, there is a big work of mechanical skill, synths, sax 80's style. Monstri Gamordi looks to be the most pleasant one, agreeable, sort of spectral score for a b-movie in b/w, - but there's a little monster spoiling everything. - So, lots of different influences, - pomps of solo's, also a contrabass, violin, french-style accordion on Il Technosiciliano.. not a orchestra, but a kind of skilled citizens' band, sampling/elettronic digressions, and maybe some roots in fusion music? - The last song, which is double, closes the cd with a jazz fog, and one more bullshit, 'è digitale, ad esempio, il risultato di una partita di calcio o il numero di spettatori che ad essa assiste' [translated: 'it's digital, for example, the score of a soccer match or the number of spectators attending to it']. I mean, they range over a lot of fields, but personally they are boring, - and moreover the instrumental tracks (Guilla, In Fondo Siamo Tutti Assistenti Pedagogici..) seem to be as background music before a radio transmission begin. - And three labels together to produce them??? hum. Info: runiruni@katamail.com - www.runi.it - Wallace Rec - v. dante, 49 - 2oo6o Trezzano Rosa (Mi) . BarLaMuerte - v. gioia, 82 - 2o125 Milano http://tijuana.kyuzz.org - Beware rec - v. rocca 3/4 - 17o28 Spotorno - beware@tin.it

Anatrofobia - Uno Scoiattolo in Mezzo ad un'Autostrada (cd 11tx, 59'48'' - Wallace rec 'o0) - I say, what a fucking name for a band [translated: Ducksphobia], and what a fucking name for a cd! [translated: A squirrel in the middle of a highway] - But, forget this very polite introduction, because the music here is pure eclecticism, breakdown 7o's jazz, ferment and relaxation, sax alto and tenore, trombone, bass tuba and flute dolce [sweet?], quality, bass guitar arrangement and framework of percussions solo, excellent ensemble in a alternation of talented musicians from song to song, - improvvisation. And also some sporadic use of synth/samples, - but maybe that seems to break too much respect the rest. Two remakes, one of Bill Evans's Person I Knew, and the latter West Germany of Minutemen. I guess this people enojoy a lot playing together, even in their serious air, - maybe just like on the pictures i'm watching on the booklet (all full of ducks (!!)), and just as they write: living a group as a cheerful lab, where there are always new meetings. Good for reading a book, a cup of tea on the table. Bravi. // Info: www.anatrofobia.com - info@anatrofobia.com - Anatrofobia, v. morano 16, 1oo1o Perosa Canadese (To).

Ljubarosa - The No-sense song (cd single 3tx, 13'o6'' - Autoprod/Dépot rec 'o1) - The day i received Ljubarosa cd, i listened to I'm Walking On at least twenty times, or maybe more, yes, because Pe' (that's his name..), as regards me, is one of most talented vocalist downhere, as regards temper and approach in indie italian Music. The Group wriggles on brit-bristol sonorities and after-tastes à la Depeche Mode (the delicate arpeggio on the single-trk), something of Cure from Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me (hearing the wha_wha), - fairly good work in programming, depressed lyrism, nocturnal, very well recorded, - They could have some success being enough radio-friendly, - but anyway, the calibre of voice stays the diamond point. Before this cd Il paradiso di Flora (1997) and A Nervous Day (1998). Info: www.ljubarosa.com - Dépot c/o Pia Santaläade - v. Riva di Reno, 114 - 4o122 Bologna - Italy.

Prague - I Own Your Favourite Song (cd 8tx, 3o'5o'' - Loretta rec 'o1) The siPraguelent counterattack of italian inDie labelz (is ready!) sees in its army the Loretta rec, label swinging between Geneve and London, deeply into exp_alternative, lo-fi, and post-punk, - somewhat original choices respect the local underground panorama, to keep in cotton wool together with Best Kept Secret and SHADO.. Ok, They publish a cd for Prague, that is Viccaro brothers, two sincere not-heroes of depressed lo-fi, the lower spirit folk of Motorpsycho meeting the range life, - booz-up sung and headache, broken hearts, - beautyful I Went To The Dogs, You Can't See Me and Pizza Dancer indeed, beautiful guitar and bass riffs, - the delicacy to fall tired asleep, - and then the splendid She'll Back Me Up On This, with a chorus actually memorable. And recorded in quality, as each other Loretta's release. Christ, people, italian indie exists!, i swear it. // Info: Loretta cd's cost 9.81  - but You can find info about Yr currency on Their website. Audio tracks always on www.lorettarecords.com - Loretta Rec c/o v. del quadrifoglio, 15/1 - 16o11 Arenzano (Ge) - Italy

Senpai - Well (cd 1otx, 39'29'' - Loretta rec 'o1) - And when i said Loretta's choices are fresh and particular, here You are an evidence/pearl called Senpai: two brothers again (!), this is the time of Sala's, 32 and 28 years, skilled polinstrumentalist, with an amazing song-writing as concerns inspiration. I'm not a patriot, but Senpai makes me feel enough porud. Memories of Sunny Day Real Estate (Sun, Small Town Roundabout, or most lyrical moments of Paolo Sala's voice (here You are another good vocalist)), - but in a pop crossroads with british print (the Beatles on Legoland?), Paul Weller (when not rotten), Joe Jackson, - and the Melody Unit of Spy Song, just to call back a good similar Band recently here reviewed. And when i say 'pop' i write it in its purest meaning, - but i fear that letting You reading pop You run away. - The word 'pop' is to be reconsidered when in a honest sphere as this. 'Pop' is a word that majors bought as the the colonists did with american natives, that is with small mirrors and coloured seed pearls. - Here You hear some excellent guitar interlacements, sad as elegant, changes and ideas hard to classify, voices play, enviable control of instruments, - even when They make use of drum machines on Sweet Someone.. And nice lyrics too, so what do You need more? - Sincerely suggested, and with Paolo (vcls, gtrs, bs, drms, keyb) i have an interview. K: Yr style is for me very original, hard to describe, elegant, there's talent. I don't want to label You, but i guess readers need some 'directions' to be involved, - so tell me, what are Your influences? P: It's always difficult talk of influences, because theoretically each thing gives vibrations to my eardrum can be considered as a potential influence in the meanwhile of a composition. In this case you talk of influences surfacing from unconscious when you don't expected: it could be also a radio passage of a 'dance' song i heard on the car radio before tuning off annoyed. Sophisms apart, i have to admit that i often write songs with mimetical, imitative purposes. But i think that's nothing to be ashamed of. Many times with my brother Renzo i said 'this song have to be very Colin Moulding' or also 'i want to put a guitar with a wha wha like that one in Barret's Apples And Oranges' and he answered me 'the voice line sounds a bit Suzanne Vega'. Striking with lightning? I say mere and pure fallings in love, - which are the principal reason of my monographic way of being respect the music, and which didn't allow me to learn an encyclopaedic knowledge of music panorama. I spent too many years in listening the self same band each day, or always the same album. I'm talking above all about me. Renzo is maybe more open minded to the novelty, notwithstanding he lives the music in a visceral way too. I know, you want to me write some names, and here you are: Beatles above all together with XTC. Barret's Pink Floyd. An unknown dutch band, The Nits. A band even more unknown, hungarian (!!!), Kispàl Ès A Borz. These are just some of my loves. And, naturally there are Robyn Hitchcock, Gruppo Sportivo, Nirvana, They Might Be Giants, Joe Jackson, Suzanne Vega, Paolo Conte [... - k's note], Kraftwerk, Inti Illimani (i adore putting them near: an electronic teutonic quartet and an acoustic southamerican sextet). Do you want a self-label? To quote Andy Partridge "this is pop"! k: Do You ever play concerts? You are in two, and on the cd there are lots guitars ando other instruments, - and then i'm curious. P: Honestly i'm curious too. Renzo and me decided not to build a band around us, because our synthony is perfect and we don't want intrusions and interferences hard to manage. the reverse of the medal is that we don't have a line-up for a concert. Solutions are two: we can re-write songs in an 'acoustic duo' version (but it's a too limitative choice), or we have to find a bassist and a drummer accepting the clause "only fot concerts" and then they don't even enter inside our recording studio! - At moment, these are only ideas, but soon we'll find right formula, beacuse we long for playing live on the stage! k: Why do form a band?? When did You start? Some time ago i watched 'the history of sex in rock' or something entitled like that on mtv, and each artist (or so-called) stated the unique real reason is Sex, groupies, lots of dollars.. P: Probably i watched it too on MTV! A fellow said: "Everybody have begun playing in a band to fuck. Who says the contrary is lying'. Poor man. As regards me, i started in preschool age, and my brother, catechized by yours truly, as soon as he can stand. Then i don't think a those times we have sex in mind. It's righter to say that the artistic necessity to like to others has something to do with liking to people. But we could have been painters, writers, acrobats. If we have chosen for music is because we loved music, - that's it. And if this, when you're 15yrs old, can help you to get some girls is out of doubt. But our message is: look at me, listen to me, - this is me, watched from inside. - do you like it? k: (yes i do, excellent answer) Can Music make people happy? And Yrs? P: listening to the music makes me happy, but not only. It electryfies me, it excites me, it speeds my cardiac beats. Playing music is like breathing, eating, making love. All things able to give me satisfactions, - without you'd feel ill. In second place there's the reason i already that mimetic one told you before: 'i want to do a song as beautiful as that one i just came to hear'. I wonder if anyone (also just one, lost on the wide planet) hearing a song of ours, can ever say the same thing. If answer is 'yes'... well, we hit the mark, and the subtile thread tieing the artists of all the world hasn't been broken. //// Audio tracks always on www.lorettarecords.com - Loretta Rec c/o v. del quadrifoglio, 15/1 - 16o11 Arenzano (Ge) - Italy

Bron Y Aur - Between 13 & 16 (cd 8tx, 49'36'' - Wallace/Burp/Beware 'o1) - Dyslexic free-post-rock? At least at early listening, because the Bron Y Aur, from arounds of Milan, north italy, play excellent epileptic crisis of improvisation, kraut rock memories, - then to converge torwards more linear choices from the second track on, - affording free_jazz moods on Terzo Lato, using also a clarinet, sax alto, trombone, trumpet, grey atmosheres. The second part_suite of Getröch: + 3 Gröm breaks the cd diminishing à la Gastr del Sol of Crookt Crackt Or Fly. Ok, probably this cd has been right 4 days of full improvisation, - immortalize since 13th to 16to july. And very well recorded, a mixing enviable indeed, beautiful environments, - probably if They were came from oversea downhere would have been surely idolized, - - anyway, as regards me this music is trite, hackneyed, and rehashed, - i mean: beautiful, beautiful, beautiful BUT stop.. - Beside forbidding people to play Black Sabbath's cover, as well Stairway to Heaven with Your guitar, some should expose a notice saying Do Not Post-rock here, please. - A multi-section package very nice indeed. // Info: x Wallace; Burp - v. guelfa, 5 - 5o129 Firenze - italy - burtenterprise@yahoo.com // Beware! - v. rocca, 3/4 - 17o28 Spotorno (Sv) - italy - beware@tin.it.

Uncletoe's Portasound - Thru The Dark Softly (7tx cd, 26'39'' - A Cactus Killer self-prod 'o1) - Uncletoe's Portasound, New York, are old friends of komakino, - i pleasantly stayed in touch with Lito Vales (here at gtrs, bs, synth, drm beats &tc), and He also made a coil remix of a song of my own Band, My Violent Ego (warning, self-promotion_advisory). Nice fellows i mean, with a constant wish to keep playing Music (wide repertory!), experiment and test new ideas, - and here You are a brand new all black coloured cd, containg Their most recent sonic works, Thru The Dark Softly: post-punk infuences, obscurity of new wave, dreampop, the cool-calm Nerissa Vales's voice: 3 new songs, and 4 remakes of past tracks, - now also with the supply of bassist Ken (also at synth and beatz). Untitled 1978 seems to be recorded in a cellar with mice squeaking (guitar strings??), pitch dark, a disc croaking or burning, - small electronic speckles. So Tired remembers of Bauhaus's Slice of Life guitar style.. Between novelties, Lito's instrumental entitled right to Nerissa seems to be a submarine soundscape, deep stillness and calmness of a guitar and loops, a large breath. With a better production and sound engineering They could be great things.

Uncletoe's Portasound - Late Night (19tx cd, 52'15'' - A Cactus Killer self-prod 'o1) - Here You find a soundtrack to an art show They had, precisely at Cd Café of Santa Fe, - it's not a live show, it's mainly a no_stop of new recordings, to end and stay up late with the second half-hour of Music (hear the drowsy Gone), unitetied by sonorous experimetalisms, acousti guitars into reverberate, delay or ecstasy (i.e. the homonymous Ecstasy), strings drones (the brief title trk).. Nice indeed the delicate Softer, with Lito at vocals, and the disturbed Big Bar. // Info: lito@uncletoe.net - www.uncletoe.net - www.mp3.com/uncletoesportasound - Lito Vales, 31/20 28th rd. #2a, Astoria, New York 11, USA

AA.VV. - Tracce Compilation (13tx cd, 71'12'' - Wallace 'o0) - 13 local groups for 13 songs in total, excellent production, - One Dimensional Man (in last days They released a new album called You Kill Me - by Gammapop) open this sampler with Alalamina!, powerful, fast, 90s dirty noise-rock style, a beautiful male voice, - They would not make a bad impression between early Subpop recordings, - as well as Cleft, with In Spite Of Age, remarkable, They start with angry then they change in to calmness, - who remembers of Calamity Jane?; the Sottopressione sono are one of few local bands who can sing in italian, it suits them, a bit grunge, - but i guess that influences of Seattle together with a bit of hc and post_rock are the supporting journal of this compilation,- as for example the Jesus Lizard for Keen Toy, playing Tellaro's Drops, with a very attractive part in the middle, - i put the volume higher. My Cat Is An Alien: terrible. Harsh noise? Above 13 minutes of mess/row. Hum. A 'hum' also for Starfuckers that withn Rogi forgot the studio tape recorder on. I saw a Crunch's concert once in rome, and i had a better memory, - here they are shamefully struck with grunge. Then Jinx, Atom Pig Neon, Splatterpink, Infranti, Six Minute War Madness, to close with A Short Apnea, with their Heat In June, free instrumental, disquieting for about 14 minutes, not bad. // Info: Wallace rec.

White Tornado/Oxbow (5tx mini_cd, 2o'16'' - 'o0 Wallace rec) - Rough, coarse, acid and dirty, between Jesus Lizard and Steve Albini the former, mad and hallucinated the latter, - They share out together in affinity this cd with 3 and 2 songs per head. The Oxbow [california, Swell, Whipping Boy] with a ultra-fuzzing guitar and its buzzzzing on Pretty Bird, or the sweet riff strings with a nightmare-like distorted background on Pannonica (between notes there's written 'recorded by Jesus Christ, 33'); - our local White Tornado (from catania, south italy), stabbing on Hog Butcher, they rattle off other 2 tracks with harsh guitarsa and rasping voice lost into echo smelling rancid. Massimiliano Sapienza has got also a solo electro-minimal side-project, released by Staalplaat, named right Massimo. Great sound enigneering, nice package in green digipack. // Info: Wallace records.

Salinas - Texcalipoca (12tx cd, 38'1o'' - Loretta rec 'o1) - Catapulted into pure tex-mexico. You have just to wait to hear a old miner with a gold tooth yelling heeeeeuhhhhhhh: recorded in a new-west saloon? Loretta produces one more duo (are They brother too?), that is Dead Man & Morisco [^_^ - k's note]; - i'm not very into Calexico but i think we put them near. Caballeros sounds to be my favorite song, - there are also several nice instrumental tracks (Night Fuego, Sangre Y Muerte), great guitar-work, arpeggio, alt-country? Not folk, but just right country of the old stamp, sound track for bounty killers, - titles in spanish but lyrics in english. - This is the very first time i receive a cd like this, completely lost in these sounds. - Notes on the booklet are very funny, without retracting cowboy's moods. // Info: Loretta rec.

Glorybox - Vacuum (10tx cd, 51'34'' - Sally Forth rec 'o0) + Pale Blue Light (5tx cd, 32'26'' - Sally 4o° 'o1) - I ran into Glorybox thanks Gloryboxto Ola Frick, of Moonbabies, here as a fan, He made me a present of these two wonderful cd's. Moreover They share together one concert or more, - and i cannot but envy people see Them both live. Glorybox on Vacuum are a genius who bursts into electronic trip-hop passages, noisy pop, - the evanescent grace of Sarah Hepburn at guitar, hammond, and above all at vocals, a very beautiful voice whose falling in love. Moreover distorsions, or dissonant chords plays in Sonic Youth terms: attractive, winsome, pleasant, - perfect master of what They are playing (listen to the Je Erik's drums on Magnetic): She from Chicago, then moved in Denmark and Jan Johansen (vcls, gtrs, keyb)'s better half. Involving on Star and Blue(ish), on the ultra-melancholic final slow load of Porcelain (not a lot words to say but i adore you..), astral on the guitars overwhelm by a vortex of echo on Farewall with Jan at vocals, - or yet, the burning (bass guitar) flames of. Autumn (kerosene, i'm in flames). Fairly (indie) radio-frinedly with Vacuum, - nearly utterly different on Pale Blue Light ep, whose introduction is 'Ever witnessed a pale blue light?' It's easy, mellow and it quietly takes care of your soul'. - Well, if Vacuum is passion for a lovely chaos, passing from Digital Lava (album last track) to Drive Me To Ohio (first one of new ep), is like going from the storm to the stillness of the air: now completely delicate and very sweet, with an extremly stirring/inebriating Sarah, - the Honey & Lemon love song, two voices, caresses listener senses, it's a cradle. - No more distortions, no more strong percussions: now a trumpet, no more confusion, if not that hot one owned by who is in loved, - soft moods, emotions, - and the high breathy notes reached by Her (boys' heart thawes). I though of Low, but just to quote someone, useful for readers. Each song of this Ep is a pure pearl, nocturnal warmth. If Vacuum is winsome, this is cd merely charming, more introspective, - it seems to be the after-concert, friends admission only, - or Music to undressing and get togheter sleeping. September 1st is a piano solo. Final track, Goldflake, above 10 minutes of declaration of love sinking into sadness. -- I suggest You to start from this ep. // Info, mp3: www.sallyforthrecords.com.

AA. VV. - Lunch with a Bouncing Space vol. II (12tx cd, 4o'18'' - A Bouncing Space rec) - Oh yes, a real lunch with A Bouncing Space rec, Portland, Oregon, USA, appetizing lunch, with 12 courses. How nice, this compilation comes with a paper menù, divided up in appetizers, entrées, desserts, - a variety of Bands from all over the world, débuts and not, different styles. I press play and here You are Lenola, Philadelphia, - with a surprise, a Cure's cover, Catch, here with indie-rock taste, very well done and myelosis, then Burnside Project, New Jersey, with Scratch (Goes the Dj), a guitar and its dissonant sad arpeggio, - a voice on some break-beat and dj excursus. Hunnypal are sweden, a singer with a very elegiac nature, a slow-fast run on tones à la The Smiths. Then we meet up Moonbabies (again!), with a double song, a classic formula They use to do often, intro+song: Serpentine, that is a quiet lightly sad piano framed into chorus efx and soft percussions, - giving way to Epileptic, where we hear one more time the bright Ola's guitar song-writing and Carina's I Don't Care + pa-ppa-pa-ppa-paaaAAaa, in a swirling pop which confirms again Their lucky fecundity. 99cent Dream from Portland (visit label's website) with Nominal Friends inaugurate les entrées: a riff of piano to draw a calm walk followed by a guitar, - low drums and a shy depressed voice, very agreeable. Very hearty. Jchurch from San Francisco come to break the peacefulness weaved until now, with a powerpop-punk style song, early Wipers: You're on Your Own (demo vers), - fast, they kick, i put the volume higher. Luckily Ross & the Hellpets come to re-establish order, - the song is It's Enough, girl/boy vocals, - as relaxing as australian Hydroplane with New World Of Sound, near to the quietness of Clinic, but with a sweet female hallmark. As desserts there are The Silver Screen (hallmon@lycos.com), North Carolina, accelerated drumming, succession of interesting guitars, multilayered, fuzzy and dizzy distortions, on the good wave of Hazel, - an experimental punk rock style?; The Dandelion Clocks: lovely Girl and her guitar, always from Portland, her dreamy voice, sense of taste, very nice to hear. Shy Rights Movement (great name!), scottish, acousti guitar and a simple drums-line, moving moods. To close, The Savie Island Moon Rocket Factory, local, live broadcast, - very nice, pop with 5os memories (!), extremly agreeable. // Info: cd costs 1o$ and 5$ for wholesalers. More info on www.abouncingspace.com, info@abouncingspace.com, - 172o nw lovejoy st. #21o - Portland, Or 972o9 USA.

Estel - Angelpie, I Think I Ate Your Face (1otx cd, 44'38'' - Self Prod. 'o0) - From Ireland with sweetness, exactly from Roscommon and Dublino, Estel are young art_rock heroes, spleen made Music, dividing up this cd between instrumental (the most) and not. Homebase has been the ever first song i heard, brilliant, cleverly simple in its melancholy, the tender affection of a girl, on few guitar notes, a delicate piano, and the final load of percussions. A song like that has been sufficient to convince me They are a deeply inspired Group, - and anyway, the mastered cd i got is proof of that: released last year, distributed by Cargo in UK and by No Idea rec in USA, it collects some inner indie Music, with new-wave background (especially on bass and keyb), - as with The Langoliers, One Deep Breath, un_happy nocturnal flowers, - Musique look promising. Info: www.thumped.com/estel

Vinyl Bill - What Lo-Fi (13tx k7 - 1998), Controlled Trucking (2otx k7), Too Lazy To Rock (15tx k7 - 1998) - BKS releases on tape the prolific even if short Vinyl Bill discography, that is the (initially) two scottish Neil Scollay and Shawn J. Skinner, both polinstrumentalists, and now with a line-up enlarged at 5. Paladin of a very warm lo-fi on What Lo-Fi [oops], but the background buzz doesn't spoil Their creativity: candid on Midnight Ray, nearly majestic live song, - dreamers, silent, - quiet folk dreampop halo on Sometimes, attractive voices for the chorus. Sometimes they recalled me some early Blur-ish moods, or some Psychedelic Breakfast, - hard to classify, as on When He Laughed, closing with sound loops, or on the electro-casio beat of What You Are. The rest digresses on alternative 8o's pop lymphes, someway boring in some episodes. On Controlled Trucking, recordings are better, but sonorities change too: desertic and maybe colder, - music turns ambient-influenced guitar driven, - great electronic percussions-work. Mine Evermore has got a very pleasant refrain, even if digital effects impose a sort of handicap. Lots of instrumental tracks, some of spanish taste (Banderas), and some guitar solo are really ugly. Anyway Vinyl Bill know how playing, and on Too Lazy To Rock, with a cowboy taste blended to pysch-pop, as on Still, No One To Blame the folk spirit e-emerges, - suddenly smothered by the out of tuned distortion of beautiful Slow Attack, ora Mimosa drums. This tape is the better point of meeting between others (it features also Salt Rain, already included inside former). And start playing the B-side. Carpenters Theme show Their psych(o) face, Tiger and Illustrated Boy are lysergical nocturnes, - very delicate indeed the ladder. - And to close, an unexpected final, between Middle Eastern flavours, ambient.. // Info: www.vinylbill.com - vinylbill@aol.com - Vinyl Bill, 18 Towerview Wynd, Peterculter, Aberdeen, AB14 ORW, UK. Per Best Kept Secret vedi altre recensioni.

Things In Herds - I Can Dancing and Walking (1otx cd, 36'o7'' - Self-produced/G-Folk 'o1) - From UK Things In Herds, pleasant indeed swinging between Pavement and Belle and Sebastian as regards sonorities and calmness, acoustic lone songs, together with exquisitely pop compositions (about 'pop', read Senpai review), some synth with miaow sounds (theremin on keyb?), original and fresh guitar arpeggio, drum machine beats, - and overall the inevitably touching Pete's voice (listen to Please Don't Put Out The Light). Always Disappear is a sad-song able to stay long time inside Yr head;- Now We Slide, one more indie sonic gem, on the same line of The People Trap, owner of a refrain making a hole in Yr brain to get its place (wonderful to whistle!). If reading former komakino issue You like Jindra's inner music (mp3.com/jindra), then You are on the right road to give a chance to Things In Herds, because i think They have something in common, even if here there's not a Blues background: the lyrical effect of a skilled singer and his guitar. Strange cover picture: there drawn some small pigs going to a chinese takeaway, then in a school, and also at the Great Wall of China (!!!). I say splendid. // Info: www.thingsinherds.co.uk - www.mp3.com/thingsinherds.