MUSHY

The synth-DARK/COLD wave of the 80's legends are a good referential to set this artist somewhere for the un-knowing. Gary Numan, Ultravox, Cocteau Twins, Lene Lovich or the 90's *Love Spirals Downwards, *Love Is Colder Than Death, *STOA, *Miranda Sex Garden (*among the female vocalists and bands included in the "Heavenly Voices" three CDs collection ) to name some. Music composition wise, well this path has been quiet travelled, even by very good mainstream performers composers, like Florence and the Machine, FKA Twigs etc etc. Therefore I did not find some new proposals that could really breakthrough and become that relevant to outstand among so many options.

Enjoyable, without never losing its obscure direction, but that is it.

***3 PA stars.

Valentina manages to create a stirringly beautiful nightmarish sounds. Her songwriting may be a notch below that of fellow-cave dwellers like CRANES, CURE or COCTEAU TWINS, but her search for spooky tonalities is equally interesting. An interesting facet from her sound is how it relates to the German electronic innovators from the 70s, this is nowhere as open as on "She Was Elsewhere", which is a clear nod to TANGERINE DREAM, but it is also evident from the arrangements of other songs where cosmic and noisy electronic influences pop up from KRAFTWERKK, CLUSTER or HARMONIA. The remixes at the end show this artist has a much closer affinity with the 80s synthwave movement then with anything related to progressive rock.

This album from MUSHY is only marginally related to progressive rock music for me so I would advise not to approach this with the wrong expectations, but fans of the cold claustrophobic sounds of 80s shouldn't miss this. An excellent album for me but a notch below the 4 stars ratings that I attributed to many works in this progressive electronic sub.

Italian experimental underground electronic artist Mushy generally creates very emotionally affecting music, but this recent Mixxxtape is extremely messy and takes the term "experimental" to random extremes at times, regardless of it being mostly enjoyable. Despite it's odd construction, it's nice to see one of the interesting Italian underground artists working in the mash-up format, made famous by Girl Talk, though I'd be willing to bet money that Mushy has little or no interest in him at all.

Mixxxtape runs as a single hour-long track that starts off well enough with a fuzzy dub- like synth pop sound, but after 8 minutes it morphs into noisy punk riffing with very annoying female yelling. The track then moves into an avant-pop dance number with unpleasantly piercing synths that stab at the ears like knives before again morphing into a rather reasonable coldwave passage a la Depeche Mode courtesy of The Present Moment, and various following passages of coldwave make up the majority of the middle chunk of this album. The last 15 minutes is a huge industrial electronic passage that progresses from relatively stable and danceable to nearly doom metal intensity, maintaining the strong mechanical beat throughout that sounds like pistons and bulldozers working steadily and tirelessly, which is no doubt courtesy of another group present on this mash-up, the infamous Godflesh.

The majority of this Mixxxtape is enjoyable except for the avant-punk passage near the beginning. The coldwave and industrial portions are all well done, which seem to prove to me that Mushy and The Present Moment have some interesting chemistry, and hopefully they decide to work together on a future release, but all of the other artists present in this mash-up don't really stand out in a pleasant way.

Even though most of the individual passages are quite accessible and even danceable, they hour-long song format and the not-so-smooth transitions between the passages make for a somewhat inaccessible mix. Regardless, it's interesting to see how coldwave works when augmented by the typical Italian experimental electronic style, which makes this Mixxxtape a unique listen. Even if this mix was kind of a mess, it at least works well enough for me to be excited about seeing this type of collaboration mash-up from Mushy or similar artists from her circle. A worthy, but odd, experience.