“Pale Fear” has a downward tumbling guitar melody paired with plodding drums and plaintive vocals delivering soul searching lyrics, yearning for personal transformation in order to survive modern city life, all of which is uplifted by a revolutionary hook with fuzz-blast guitar and dreamily droning synth. The theme is underscored by Giulia Mazza’s video, as a veiled figure rambles and flails about a city over the course of a day, turning into a Lost Boys extra as the daylight fades at the song’s bridge
Check out Whitney K‘s video for Ode To The Old Ways. TinyMixTapes says
“Ode to the Old Ways” is a perfect representation of his rambling spirit. Though the whole album was recorded on a four-track called “Moth Insurance” at his old house on Kingsway, the song sounds bigger than it is, with his honest vocals and lysergic guitar at the core of flirtations with warm rolling bass, simple drums, harmonica, whistling, and feminine backing vocals that infinitely expand his universe. Directed by the flamboyant Johnny de Courcy, showing road trip footage and nostalgic scenes from the greater Vancouver area alongside headshots and band performances warped by general tape-worn distortion and ancient VHS effects reminiscent of Bill Baird, the video is the perfect accompaniment.
Noisey France says “Hallelujah! et Holiday Inn remettent l’Italie sur la carte du punk rock à grands coups de pompes”. We could not agree more. Now get it in your house.
Listen to Pale Fear by His Clancyness from their upcoming 7″ over at Brooklyn Vegan. Recorded in Bristol at Portishead’s Invada Studios by Stu Matthews (Beak, Anika, Portishead), Pale Fear’s cassette-recorded beat rumbles through neon-lit streets of analogue synth noise and sleazy fuzz guitar and is steered with a pulsating, unshakeable Red Crayola-style bass line.
Relentless drum machine beats, harsh yet hypnotic vocals, and shrill synths drive “Mob Mob Mob,” an anti-mafia track that references the chant from a demonstration held in Calabria. Also drawing inspiration from the unauthorized development of buildings in the Roman suburbs, Gabor straightforwardly sings “fuck the power” towards the end until the track begins to loudly dissolve, its once concrete bleakness turning into a caustic, noisy squeal.
Aquarium Drunkard on Krano‘s album Requiescat In Plavem:
Luckily, Maple Death has rescued and reissued this gem, laden with Morricone dread and Shakey looseness; it’s low key and deeply-felt, and after recording the album Spigariol hung up his music hat, leaving behind this spooky thing, suitably humid listening as we ease into summer.
He’s coming for you. Whitney K, from Vancouver Canada. Brooklyn Vegan previewed Swans, opening track off Goodnight. The real deal is coming soon. Pre-order and read all about it here, catalog number 007. Just sayin’.
We’re happy to present Krano‘s video for Mi e Ti, a short movie directed by Samuele Gottardello and filmed beautifully in the Piave region. It was previewed yesterday by Noisey Italy, Noisey France and Noisey Usa. The track opens the album Requiescat In Plavem.
Synopsis Mi E Ti is the story of an Italian soldier, set during the World War I. Dispersed after an assault that turns out to be a massacre, he takes refuge in a forest and gets lost. He starts a journey that leads him to get rid of his clothes and everything that defines being a soldier; what remains is a man that want to leave the horrors of war behind him and return to home.
Director Samuele Gottardello says
Mi E Ti has been ringing in my ears since 2012, when Krano played it for me the first time. It’s music that came to me and just never really left me, it just started translating instantly into a river of confused images that slowly worked their way into sense. For this reason when I was asked to work on this video, I naturally thought about setting it in the Piave and Monte Grappa area, stage for the 1915-1918 war. This is where the image of a soldier trying to escape the horrors of war came to me, a deserter, a soldier who, with a gesture – finally – of courage, decides to escape from the madness of a massacre. I always liked defectors and have for a long time wanted to tell the First World War in my own way, without the hero’s rhetoric and sacrifice for their country. Without the myth of the river Piave “stopping the foreigners.” Instead it represents what, in my opinion, was the first World War for those who participated in it: their suffering, the senselessness, loss and sadness. The dreams and shattered love.Mi E Ti is the story of a soldier who flees, who decides to escape and return to his woman. Along the way he is stripped of the layers that make soldiers return to being human beings and is reminded of the warmth of the summer and the smell of straw from his bar. Mi E Ti. And like all defectors, the soldier Krano ends badly. His story goes especially wrong: he did not really defect, his escape was in the form of his spirit. In fact the protagonist died earlier and the video is the story, perhaps, a trip made only with the mind, a journey taken perhaps in one of those moments before everything gets dark. I also like to think that maybe the forests, mushroom ,the animal deities of the Monte Grappa – filled with pity – have decided, for once, to allow a brave man to make the last trip to greet his beloved for one last time. I am sure that all soldiers of all wars and nationalities, sooner or later, wanted to be at home, away from the horrors, from the senseless madness, from decisions taken for them by nations and politicians. Even if just with their mind, even just for once, I’m sure that they have fled, have deserted the terrible reality that surrounded them. This is what my video is about.
Very proud to finally present Krano‘s Requiescat In Plavem. NPR says “No rock ‘n’ roll record has felt this mysterious and free-spirited in years”. We could not agree more, LISTEN to the whole album below, read more about it here and if you wanna take some music home, do it.
When I received this record I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It came with no notes, just a letter in broken English. For days I made up lyrics to it trying to crack and uncover the language, dreaming of some Latin American retreat. Little did I know I was actually taking a stroll up the Piave river, plunging through pre-war cascades, seeing feverish trees set mountains in motion and a Veneto valley full of psychedelic beauty naked in front of my eyes. If only this river could talk I’m sure the stories from the 1918 battles would ring bloody loud and clear. 2012: Birds watched as Krano recorded R.I.P up in the hills behind Valdobbiadene, armed with a trusty 8-track tape machine. Then he disappeared into silence. As always it took a faithful caring friend to deliver the goods. Four years later here we are, music on wax, a man that deserves to be heard and a river that is still flowing.
Listen to Tosca from Krano‘s Requiescat In Plavem directly over at NPR.
They say: “No rock ‘n’ roll record has felt this mysterious and free-spirited in years.R.I.P. channels Jorge Ben’s late-night, alcohol-soaked vibes (heard on 1970’s Fôrça Bruta) and the rambling country-blues of Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline. Or, to offer a more recent example, the wily and loose psych-folk of Skygreen Leopards. Throughout, Spigariol sings in the Veneto dialect, slurring and speeding up phrases like a broken tape deck. In the honky-tonkin’ “Tosca,” the piano and guitar spiral like rolls of parchment, curling in and out of rhythm. It’s wild and nostalgic, and Spigariol writes that it captures a happy time in his childhood:
It’s not a love song, but a song about a time when I was a little boy and my godmother Tosca used to take me to the Venice Film Festival to see motion pictures and to see the inside of the Hotel Excelsior where all the stars and VIPs stayed. We would watch the boats arrive full of important people directly from the beach of the Venice Lido.”
Aquarium Drunkard on Krano‘s album Requiescat In Plavem:
