This improvised dark fear-fest of a record is inspired by Charles Bukowski’s text A Copulating Mermaid In Venice. Ah, that explains those track titles then! The names David Kollar and Paolo Raineri may be familiar to you, as the duo seems to be appearing on left-field albums with some regularity these days. The last time I encountered the pair they were teamed up with Pat Mastelotto for the visceral KoMaRa album.
Despite its inspiration, this work, with Simone Cavina replacing Mastelotto on the drum stool, is a mostly more introspective affair, although hardly soothing for all that. Recorded over the course of one day, M I V serves as a document, a snapshot of music making on the hoof as it were. It works better in some places than others, as is often the case with improvised work.
I Feel It In My Blood opens proceedings summoning who knows what devils with its slowly rising shamanic keening and jungle percussive rumbling and clattering. Simone’s drums get centre stage on Doesn’t Look Dead To Me, a feisty little number built on thunderous rhythms and a dirty mutha of a guitar figure from David. Paolo’s echoing trumpet calling around David’s deep sitar-like drone guitar on the marvellously titled Like Garbage Left In The Sink is deeply ruminative, only falling short of meditation owing to the undercurrent of nastiness lurking near the surface of every second of this mesmerising recording. Of course the following track with the longest title is the shortest in length on the album, and of course it is a short feral burst of furious noise making, in the manner of an avant-inclined Napalm Death, what else would you expect?
The Best Fuck I Ever Had is dirty sex as sticky as it can be, as it lurches around grunting like a beast. Obviously there has been no attempt at foreplay. The longest track on the album, Just Like A Mermaid showcases Paolo’s high talent at trumpet balladry, to a quite odd backing that sounds like a bass guitar played backwards. There is an Eastern and elegiac feel to this piece as it swims away, Paolo intoning his prayer over some vaguely aquatic noises and that reversed rhythm, all very intriguing.
Only A Damn Fool Falls In Love is strangely yearning and not at all as cynical as the title may suggest, and is a musically thematic continuation of Just Like A Mermaid. More odd electronica soundscapes form a background for Paolo’s melancholy resignation, as this weird album leaves you feeling none the wiser than when it started. M I V is an intriguing proposition that while it may lack a ‘Wow’ factor is still worthy of our attention.
TRACK LISTING
01. I Feel It In My Blood (7:13)
02. Doesn’t Look Dead To Me (3:42)
03. Like Garbage Left In The Sink (8:55)
04. The First Thing To Come And The Last Thing To Go (0:39)
05. Best Fuck I Ever Had (4:05)
06. Just Like A Mermaid (13:01)
07. You’ve Been Fucking Dead Women All Your Life (1:48)
08. Only A Damn Fool Falls In Love (11:06)
Total time – 50:31
MUSICIANS
David Kollar – Guitar
Simone Cavina – Drums, Electronic Texture
Paolo Raineri – Trumpet
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Hevhetia
Catalogue#: HV 0108-2-331
Year Of Release: 2015
LINKS
The Blessed Beat – Facebook | Hevhetia Page