This is a release that celebrates the founding of both the project at hand and one of the labels involved in its release: Lotte Tribali. There is little information directly available for much of the people involved with the release of this album, labels included, but what is known is that Terra Selvaggia is an Italian duo comprising of a couple of anonymous figures in “M. Leo” and “Painburn”. Though their identities are veiled from the gaze of the public stare, they certainly have no interest in keeping their intentions hidden. The CD-R contains a folded-page booklet that spells out their views of the modern world around us in Italian, and with the end of this paragraph, they simply declare “Rivoluzione – Evoluzione – Terra Selvaggia”, or “Revolution – Evolution – Savage Land”. Their beliefs seem to at least somewhat mirror those of the ATWA movement made famous by Charles Manson — simply put, a radical environmental view of the world around us — and given their words, they compare quite well as the industrial / dark ambient shadow to the lyrical works of Galician neofolk outfit Sangre de Muerdago.
It’s easy to label the project as effectively “anti-modern”, and I’m sure that neither of the two behind the helm of the project would argue the point, as you can see: “Surrendering to our dances and our love trying that which lies beyond the concrete, as animal-like children who run away to play and run in the night. Feel the life and the passage of time in the breath and follow the flow of the seasons as the flow of our blood. Discover life in the fire that burns the bulwarks of the modern world, enjoy the danger. Contemplating the existence in the destruction and rebirth. Feel the divine.” To go along with these thoughts of burning down the defenses of modern civilization is the defiant, nocturnal, and, in a way, bestial industrial environment that accompanies it. The first track is cut into two chapters that aren’t apparent from the outset as it opens between the immediate oppressive rise of noise and the atmospheric work of melodic guitar-based drone a la Syndrome though more chaotic in the sense that this work, on a guitar level, is improvised. The second chapter takes the work into industrial territory with a deep drone that hovers in the background while being textured by feedback loops and swelling fuzz. The track marches on, unphased, with the consistent double-hit of a bass drum.
The second track features a subtle apocalyptic minor melody behind the presence of three repeating electronic drum hits and an oscillating and delayed guitar feedback static. This track also features inaudible Italian vocals whose end heralds the coming of an element of harsh noise on the high-end of the mix. The final track brings about more of a traditional post-rock guitar approach through power-chord strums that effectively create another melancholic but determined atmosphere underneath more guitar noise exploration that hits a new level when the actual post-rock influence comes to an end. Experimentation and noise here comes mostly via a fluctuation in volume levels as well as more droning textures lurking in the left side of the stereo mix.
There really isn’t a lot to be said for the album. Unfortunately the experimentation on the final track takes away from the seriousness of the opening strummed performance. The music isn’t overtly tenebrous and honestly it doesn’t find a way to represent through music what the booklet paragraph denotes. Overall, the album is very raw, but it doesn’t always work out to being a positive aspect in the music. It just boils down to one of those unfortunate moments when the words behind the music give the concept a great deal of potential, but unfortunately the artist can’t pull off the manifestation of those words through sound. For fans of guitar-drone and noise experimentation, there may be something here worth salvaging as the music isn’t by any means terrible. The first two tracks are actually quite well-composed and written. But the final track really takes away from the overall effort. Again, it needs to be emphasized that there is a great deal of potential here, this work just hasn’t seen the duo mature to that point of professional song-writing yet. The album is available as both a DIY CD-R and a free digital download, so feel free to check it out.
Track List:
01) Il Peso del Mondo
02) Terra Selvaggia
03) 300.000 Km/s Tra I Rami
Rating: 2.75/5
Written by: Sage
Label: Fallo Dischi (Italy) + Lotte Tribali (Italy) / CD05-010 / CD-R
Industrial / Dark Ambient / Post-rock
