Jennifer Gentle - Concentric CD

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ASP39 - A Silent Place 2010
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Better known as purveyors of quirky, semi-sleazy avant pop gems on their Sub Pop albums, Jennifer Gentle and their leader Marco Fasolo have also issued through the years a series of weirder releases (mostly through Italian label A Silent Place) running the gamut from out-there psychedelic rock to “crunching and hefty slab of tripped out musique concrète worthy of Joji Yuasa, Kunihara Akayima or one of their equivalent early ‘60s greats”, as Julian Cope eloquently put it reviewing JG’s Sacramento Session/ 5 of 3 Lp. Concentric is the last one and also their bleakest, most uncompromising and probably best “experimental” album to date. This time Fasolo took his live band in his own Ectoplasmic Studio, recorded them and then spent hours painstakingly editing the material, adding here and there the odd effect and generally directing what sounds like a nightmarish Surrealist movie perversely shot in lush Cinemascope - or a hellish version of Lumpy Gravy as played by a freaked-out jazz combo. If 2007 The Midnight Room combined 50’s rock & roll with the more out-there approach of composers like Krysztof Komeda, Concentric is a step further into controlled mayhem. Using only analogue recording techniques, Fasolo & co. sprayed hugely detailed canvas of sound that are best experienced at loud volume, carving a monstrous landscape reminiscent of Igor Wakhevich’s luciferian visions, Coil’s gothic oneirism or a particularly devilish Taj Mahal Travellers’ performance. After a couple of short, atmospheric introductory pieces, the album takes off with Neon, a gargantuan trip soaked in burbling synths and icy guitar figures, while in the backdrop an immense, almost early industrial beat plays incessantly. Scar is a short, furious Jap noise blast, with Fasolo’s guitar battling Paolo Mongardi’s drums; Hunt is a hysterical composition for piano (played with forks!), intricate drum parts and Liviano Mos’ warbling electronic keyboards.
Finally, Halos is a Jodorowskyan ritualistic suite for scratched cymbals and morbid penny whistles that sounds like it was recorded in a labyrinthic dungeon. And the Lovecraftian, grotesquely unintelligible borborygms straight from the belly of the Beast that wrap up the record are probably the best possible seal for this arcane, unnerving journey.
Limited edition of 500 copies only.

Recorded, mixed, produced with completely analogue equipment by Marco Fasolo at Ectoplasmic Studio.
Control room assistant: Liviano Mos

Personnel:
Marco Fasolo: Electric Guitar, Up-Right Piano, Vocal.
Liviano Mos: Synthesizers, Keyboards, Flute à Coulissee.
Paolo Mongardi played drums and Andrea Garbo did vocals on "YELL"