DEADBURGER

have to admit, I'm a bit of a laggard when it comes to accepting that music may not always come with a physical product these days, so it absolutely fills my heart with joy when a release like Deadburger's La Chiamata comes along. The Italian band has provided a magnificent feast for the eyes as well as the ears, with this beautifully presented album. Upon opening the almost 70-page book that comes with the CD, one of the first things I came across was one of the gorgeous illustrations with a small handful of text. The illustration appeared to be of Alice coming through the looking glass ? and sure enough, thanks to Google Translate, I found out that La Chiamata is the second part of the "Mirrorburger Diptych". The other side of the mirror from the previous album (or, perhaps more correctly, albums) La Fisica Delle Nuvole - a lavishly presented three CD boxset, with another 70-odd page book.

As with the first part of the diptych, Deadburger present themselves as Deadburger Factory - perhaps in recognition that the band performs apart, together, and augmented by an assortment of guest musicians? Perhaps an allusion to Andy Warhol's famous multimedia Factory? A more conventional title might have been Deadburger Collective, but apart from the fact that Deadburger are anything but conventional, the Factory title seems particularly appropriate for La Chiamata, with its emphasis on drums giving it a constant industrial thrum and rhythm. Every track on La Chiamata features double drums, with different pairings of drums on (and sometimes within) the seven tracks that make up the album.

By the art and articles within the accompanying book, it is clear that the drumming relates especially to shamans, and the way that they often begin their shamanic journeys by way of drums. That the band also portray Alice coming through the looking glass is surely no coincidence - as Alice's trips to Wonderland are often given as an analogy for a shamanic journey. If taken allegorically, all the elements a shaman might encounter are represented during Alice's adventures, from puzzles, to transformations, to guides and guardians and the journey itself. So, if not through a mirror, I've certainly fallen down a rabbit hole, and allowed La Chiamata to take me on a wonderful trip.

The album begins with the shortest song - a short song about a solider who fought a long war. Onoda Hiroo was, of course, the infamous second last soldier of the Imperial Japanese Army to surrender after the end of the Second World War. Although he definitely lived apart from the surrounding society, Onoda was perhaps not a shaman (and given that one possible etymology of the word shaman is "He Who Knows", an extra layer or irony is added since he refused to acknowledge the war was over until his superior officer informed him), but with his guerrilla tactics, he was similar in many ways to revolutionaries throughout history. For shamanism is only one part of the story that Deadburger has set out to tell us. Another of the articles in the book is all about revolutions, or rather the end of revolutions. In a sense, Onoda Hiroo fits this role, too, giving a strangely workable introduction to the album and the concept.

As an introductory song, it's almost a conceptual, if not instrumental, overture. We have the idea of the shaman, almost the dissident, mocked by the crowd. What Onoda Hiroo also does extremely well, is provide the contrast with what came before. Hiroo dramatically demonstrates that La Chiamata really is the other side of the mirror, of the diptych - physically pounding and brutally bruising, in a way La Fisica Delle Nuvole was not. It seems deliberately discouraging and confrontational, and you can't ignore it. This is an assault of avant designed to elicit a fight or flight response. You'll know by the end of this track, and probably well before then, whether you are going to enjoy this album or not. I was head over heels (down that rabbit hole) in love.

The following song is no less intense, even if it starts fairly demurely in comparison, with some quite lovely piano and double bass. The drums, of course, are ever present. And then we have the title track, which is absolutely superb, with its minimal lyrics shouted out in staccato bursts over those wonderful drums. Or perhaps I should say the drums are superb, over the minimal lyrics, as the drums are absolutely front of stage and centre of attention. Throughout the album there's sometimes a sense of the music being almost a race, as the drums, vocals and other instruments chase each other, and this becomes quite palpable during Deadburger's reinterpretation (I hesitate to call it a cover) of Max Roach's Triptych. The band describe it as "a reinvention, or re-writing, of Roach's song. The original was a revolution song for drums and vocals only. The Deadburger version is also based exclusively on percussion and vocals: the two primeval ranges of musical events. But both have been expanded and taken elsewhere by electronics." This all sounds a lot more challenging a listen than it really is, and it works particularly well after the title track. I can see this being a difficult listen for some, but I love it, even when at its most intense and extreme (and it does reach those heady peaks).

The listening perhaps doesn't get any easier with Tamburo Sei Pazzo, which begins with a passage spoken, perhaps changed, over a shamanic drum, in ancient Sicilian. I love the brass in this song, which becomes quite funky and groovy, accompanied, of course, by that wall of drums. It's an adventurous and unpredictable song that feels far shorter than its length, and which I always wish could carry on, but it's over too soon with a rat-a-tat-tat. It is followed by Manifesto Cannibale which might just be the only song that could be said to look back at La Fisica Delle Nuvole, with a (relatively speaking) gentler sound. There's even some acoustic guitar. But, the quieter passages only lull one into a false sense of security, as there's as much restless chaos and cacophony here as within the rest of the album.

La Fisica Delle Nuvole was abstract, ambient and acoustic, where La Chiamata is concrete ? a concrete breeze block to the side of the head, to a willing victim who comes back, bloodied and beaten, for more. And more we shall have, for the album has one final delight; the closing number is absolutely brilliant. It's as angry as the rest of the album, but the anger is restrained and reasoned. The protagonist is aware of the anger, and that makes anger, as told by Aristotle, Rage Against The Machine and many others in between, a gift. It's a noticeable contrast to the uncontrolled and invective anger of the title track. The album leaves the listener to decide if they want to side with the crowd, happy in their shopping mall, or the shaman - the only free man.

The first reference that I have in mind, but this regards this album only, not the full discogrphy, it's the effects on the lead vocals. Very similar to an Italian pop-band called SUBSONICA. The main difference stays in some noisy inserts, in partcular in the middle of the "longest" songs, like "Magnesio".

There is much melody, even if well hidden behind electronic sounds and distorted voice, and going ahead with the album, the Subsonica flavor is gradually replaced by something closer to NICHELODEON. than to pop. An example is "Nibor Dooh" with its intrusions into noisi metal.

Vittorio NISTRI makes a great job with the electronics. The sounds that he obtains from his equipent are sometimes weird. There are metal explosions to enrich repetitive themes, obsessive percussion, all mixed up with some pop. In brief, a very interesting album from a very interesting band.

It's a pity that the vocal effects make understanding the lyrics quite dfficult, even for an Italuan. An interesting mixture of sounds works very well with ". Come Tagliare Le Mani a Un Fantasma". (How to cut a phantom's hands off). Not too different from IOSONOUNCANE (recently rejected from PA).

So it's a good album. Maybe a bit difficult for who is not particualrily into Avant, but it's approachable by everybody. The lyrics are in Italian, but I must admit that in this album the voice is more an additional instrument.

As often happens in prog, the longest track is the best. It has many different elements and its 5 minutes are enough to let the band develop it.

If you have a taste for high quality adventurous music in general, then this 3 CD box set by Deadburger, in this case using the name Deadburger Factory, is a production that merits an inspection. There's something for just about anyone at hand here, as long as adventurous music of some kind or other is within your field of interest, but those with a liberal and wide taste in music that includes electronic music, jazz, avant-garde and folk may arguably be the audience that will appreciate the total package best of all. If you read or understand Italian that will be a bonus, especially considering the contents of the 70 plus-page booklet that is a part of this package. Overall, highly recommended!