Ante Nata

Avant chamber rock/spoken word from Italy. Eerie lyrics, I think including poems from Ingeborg Bachmann, Meret Oppenheim, Sylvia Plath, and Simone Weil. Sung/spoken in English, Italian, French and German. Instruments include bass, theremin, electronics, percussion, violin. The spoken word tracks are fabulous and enchanting, and the electronics are often well-done/interesting. FCC clean. My favs: 9, 12, 14.

1. Fastest track - starts with bad English singing, escalates to vitriolic spoken Italian.
2. Starts with distorted sample of Irving Berlin song, goes into scary spoken word.
3. Slow ambient to start, slow jazz with sliding vocals later - in French.
4. Instrumental - funky classical/jazz/rock.
5. Laidback funky, in German.
6. Electronics to start, disjointed violin and bass join, weird vox - ending fades with sparse electronics.
7. Several sections: Rock-ish opening, slow recitative with screechy violin, spoken German with eerie ambient string sounds, Italian spoken word – sampled?
8. Up-tempo, odd lyrics.
*9. Mid-tempo electronics, staccato interweaving vocals, nails-on-chalkboard violin.
10. Starts classical-sounding with the words "My teeth are gnashing my hands are whirling", then kicks into rock. Yeah!
11. Typewriter-esque electronics with staccato humming - gorgeous spoken word. A couple spots add bass, singing, and fuller instrumentation.
*12. Electronics and largely spoken Italian. Rhythmically great. Two 3-second silent spots.
13. Mid-tempo instrumental, nothin’ special.
*14. Spoken word over bass, violin, and percussion - haunting, slightly raspy female voice talking about a witch/creepy woman. Singing starts about 1:40 in, then gorgeous whispering in a different language. The music's not great during the last section, but still a cool track.
-mufaor