The second Italian band we’ve booked in as many months (JOOKLO DUO). This is a trend that I would not mind seeing continue. I’ve been hearing a decent flow of weird dark and droning takes coming through on the ether via Italy for sometime now. Apparently it’s being called Italian Occult Psychedelia by some prominent music writers, and that gets it pretty right. The music made by CANNIBAL MOVIE, SATAN IS MY BROTHER, SPETTRO FAMILY, and yes FATHER MURPHY (and others) is a brooding porous psychedelia, if it can even be called psychedelia. Post-punk, industrial, krautrock, and the soundtracks to cannibal and Giallo films are some of the shared influences which bind this creative movement. FATHER MURPHY was my intro to the trend, and are still the most prominent purveyors of this approach.
I discovered the band after they released ANYWAY YOUR CHILDREN WILL DENY IT, their last record before this new release PAIN IS ON OUR SIDE NOW. Their mood is dark, nay dusk, and their music is a precarious balance of queasy tension, industrial clank, disharmonious human voice, and droning terror. I find that I’m often turned off by music that occupies and projects this dark region of consciousness, but this duo’s angst, guilt, and terror strikes me in a way that feels personal. That coupled with the wonderfully unorthodox arrangements of this fresh recipe of influences makes for some really otherworldly, at times something like DAVID LYNCH-ian, sounds.
This new recording is a continuation of this band’s powerful stream of releases. From AAGOO RECORDS/ BORING MACHINES (vinyl) and NO FI RECORDINGS (tape) comes PAIN IS ON OUR SIDE NOW, another cheery title. “Let The Wrong Rise With You” starts the four song group of “movements” off on the wrong foot. Jittery industrial rhythms begin the piece following a short episode of weeping saxophone, which gives way to a a chorus of brass and woodwind that herald a dread. One nearby. But it passes as the comfort of a drone settles in, and eventually fades as it always does. At this point we get our first taste of organ, as it dances with snare and guitar, in my favorite part of the track. There’s a really great use of silence on this here.
An absolutely strange band with a sound all of their own, I look forward to each curious new release emanating from that strange place in which they make music. If you are reading this on the day it was published you are in luck, as FATHER MURPHY is playing in Jamaica Plain tonight!!! If you want to see and hear a bright light of Italy’s music underground in action just head over to Bathaus tonight. Get in touch with the folks @ B.O.W. Shows for the address.
