Mauthausen Orchestra 'Bloodyminded'
Mauthausen Orchestra 'Bloodyminded'
Urashima, 2012 / 1984 (Italy) • EMA039
Lurching power electronics from Italy circa 1983. Originally released on Pierpaolo Zoppo's (a.k.a. Mauthausen) cassette label, this edition is pressed on vinyl for the first time by Urashima, an extreme music reiussue label that's also out of Italy.
This is a brutal wash of distortion, hiss and fuzz, and just as you're lulled into a white noise trance, you're hit with swells of screaming that sounds like a sick infant. It's not for the faint of heart, but you're even remotely interested in what was an incredibly transgressive, forward-thinking scene, this is a fantastic introduction.
And like many of of today's descendants, these guys were prolific. Aquilifer Sodality, Zoppos's label, put out a slew of releases through the mid-80s, most from him, but also others attributed to projects with names like the New Sadism and the Soldality. What most had in common were some pretty misanthropic album and track names. There's probably some political reason I shouldn't own this.
The packaging is stark, but powerful. Silver silkscreen on black cardboard sleeve, this is one of 199. It also arrives with a "160 gr ivory paper" insert with some unusual imagery.
