MIXXXTAPE X IYEZINE

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.