Tomografia Assiale Computerizzata – Ouvrez Vos Auditifs Canaux

LP includes single sided black and white insert. (2 more words... ;)

I recently reviewed 23 SKIDOO, dreading the 'Industrial Funk' tag, but found them quite commercial / enjoyable while remaining experimental enough to be interesting. But the tag they acquired so much better fits the opening track on this album - dark noise which gives way to a shambolic Funky rhythm, complete with brass section. "Uno" is an insane fairground nightmare music, Big Top madness in very much a RESIDENTS vein. "Fallout", on the contrary, is a dark, dread-filled journey through a Hammer Film backdrop - reminds me of the soundtrack to "One Million Years B.C." without the bone percussion, or the scene where the James Mason and his party reach the subterranean ocean in "Journey To The Centre Of The Earth" to find oversized iguanas awaiting them. "Testimoni Oculari" takes over, a sort of post-Medieval Folk thrash blended with voices and a kind of TEST DEPT-does-VARESE-with-Minimalism sound. "Saturnismo" returns us to a more ambient point, reminding me not a little of very early (post-"Brigade" - pre-"White Souls...") CLOCK DVA - that first cassette release by them which seem to exchange hands between a knowing few, but I don't think I have ever seen for sale. Fragmentary sounds, all using ddl (or tape delay, as I guess it may have been). Moments remind me of the Hospital section to the "Silent Hill" game. "F Martinez De Pasqually (R+C)" is irritatingly catchy in it's insane visit to caliope nightmares. Kind of comedic, and disturbing for all those of us who find clowns sinister (which, at last count, was about everyone I know). "La Nascita Dei Desideri Liquidi" takes us down another dark passage, the soundtrack which might accompany a black and white film visiting some gruesome murder scene set in some post-Victorian slum, where dirty ragged carpets cover rotten floorboards and cheap, wormy furniture looks somehow more plush with it's new coat of arterial blood. Heard alone "Andreas Baader Requiem" might appear quite sweet, but following the nightmare of the previous track, it has a tone of darkness to it. A sequence of what might be hammered dulcimer played in an acoustic chamber, then treated with fx forms the centre for this NYMAN-like, fairly passive tune. Peaceful flute harmonises with various horns and strings to form a piece which is more feeling than tune. In many ways this is beautiful - somehow out of place amongst the madness and horror. "Torna La Dea Al Suo Tempio" combines the more experimental side of TEST DEPT (circa "Beating The Retreat") or early EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN with occasional passive passages. Kinda interesting Metal Bashin' with horn section. "Siamo L'Argilla" again has that fast beat sense of urgency a lot of the earlier post-TG Industrial groups had - a kind of cultivated urban primitive sound. "Fiat Lux" follows in a very similar vein - with individual sounds blurred and ever-so-slightly distorted (by reverb, I assume) giving it a hazy, chunky, unfocussed feel. Again this hearkens back to those hazy, crazy, hyperactive days at the beginning of the Eighties, when the Industrial bands took heavy metal objects, pneumatic drills and all sorts of gear out onto stage and proceeded to get themselves banned from ever playing at that venue again by flauting fire regs and bylaws. "Tooth" closes the albums with a kind of Native American primitive drumming overlaid by rockin' cello and various burnt electronics.
That these guys have talent is without doubt. That they choose not to expose it to public scrutiny is. An odd mixture of musical and discordant, metal-bashin' and film soundtrack. Not an easy one to get on with, but worth the work.

Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.