MAMA
DIRTY DUOS
INTERVIEW BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON
T
he free-swinging, anonymous sibling duo, Mamaleek, paint their canvas with hues of violent outbursts. A periphery of neo-jazz subdues the listener, while the total vision drips quick and free. The band’s newest work, Come & See, drops March 27, 2020, via The Flenser. It’s another step in another direction for the group, the distance traveled relative to the wide expanse of their eternal monologue. Mamaleek is different because they echo a looseness that feels dangerous, their consumption of frequency, a sort of time travel to a lost planet known as the inner-creative, human experience.
“There once was a notorious video store on Kearny Street in San Francisco,� the band relays. “Pre-tech colonization, called North Beach Video. Its name sounds innocuous enough, but the store featured home-recorded VHS videos of people shitting and pissing on other people, with Polaroids of the act crowning the cover sleeves. I remember a strong resistance and bewilderment overcoming me while ‘browsing,’ the type of aisle-traipsing you can’t find anywhere else. A part of me mourns the loss of this San Francisco, replaced now with its high-cost monoculture.� Come & See sparkles in the way old, free jazz does: hard and painful, darting and uncompromising. Its purpose is circular,
reinventing itself because it has to. It flows in a negative and positive way, and, therefore, is free to choose its direction, which it does in a multitude of ways. There is a country, a continent this album lands on, yet it is homeless, possession-less. Its intent is to persuade misdirection, confusion, all for the sake of freedom, or feeling of place. “You can look to the example of Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, and other free jazz pioneers who were initially treated with insidious disrespect for producing music that wasn’t serviceable to the drinking and dancing club clientele,� the group says. “That’s why many of these musicians ditched America for Europe.�
Everyone recorded live to tape, including vocals. We did about two takes of each song and had a first mix the next day. There were no punch-ins and only one or two overdubs. But, I do think it’s wrong to characterize this recording as a strictly ‘live’ recording. It is still a studio recording, with very specific recording choices and mixing techniques between Jack [Shirley, engineer] and us. And it was all over before we knew it, just like life itself.� The pain of memory. Rawness has always clung close to the heart of Mamaleek, a primordial originality bouncing around the parallel universe. Where some bands treat compositions as opportunities, Mamaleek treat them as life itself: deranged, perpetual, and horror-stricken. That is why there is nothing like this band. Indifference reigns
because indifference is at the heart of survival, nothing can capture the moment if it is true. It's a once in a lifetime sort of thing. “The noises produced by animals create mental images or impressions that trigger a response,â€? the band explains. “Whether to attract mates or warn predators. Other animals are able to interpret these noises to mean something that might affect them. The church bell or call-to-prayer signals that it’s time to head to a sanctified space to perform prayer, and yet the associated images of the deity that they might conjure are considered idols. Music is a kind of idolatry. It seems to hold that whatever integrity or core presumed of a sound withdraws as soon as you approach it. A mental image of music is just a snapshot of you trying to sneak up on it, but it ain’t it.â€? đ&#x;’Ł
Count Come & See as part of the pilgrimage. Its heart is a Western-turned spiritual reckoning, its compartments shuffled and spun, a sort of repetitious chant. The album was captured live on tape, and has the feel of spontaneity that many of the great, early psychedelic records do. Timelessness is its genesis, an odd placement and dangerous vibe surrounds it. It’s crafted wisely, but freely. “There was a lot of preparation and rehearsal leading up to the recording,� Mamaleek note. “But the recording process was entirely different than [on] previous albums.
INTERVIEW WITH FOUNDING MEMBER BRUNO DORELLA BY MARIKA ZORZI
C
elebrating their 20th anniversary in 2020, OvO is a singular force in the underground. They have released a thrilling new piece of work in their anniversary year, a ninth full-length, Miasma, out now on Artoffact records.
Using a mix of electronic and acoustic instruments, founding members Stefania Pedretti and Bruno Dorella have faced many challenges throughout the years. “We really never even considered quitting, even during the hardest moments,� Dorella says. “We’ve always been curious and creative, we never got bored. And I think we’re still getting better and
better as a band.� “We started as an open improv collective back in 2000, and now we’re a heavy duo,� he continues. “We found a whole new inspiration when we added electronic elements to our tribalistic approach in 2013. And we began as a couple in life, and we’re not anymore. It has all made us stronger and more focused.� Miasma sees OvO continue down their path, mixing tribalism and futurism by way of radical cross-contaminations of sounds, rhythms, and genres. “Before we started to work on it, we were sure it was going to be radically different: even a fully electronic album, maybe,� Dorella admits. “But then our punk/ hardcore roots took over, and there was no way to stop them. As usual, the composition took its own way, no matter what we meant to do, and we just followed it.� The title Miasma was chosen to represent every massive center of power in society, such as corporations, religion, or the right wing. It was chosen as something dark and terrifying that tries to take control over people.
PHOTO BY ERICA SCHNEIDER
10 NEW NOISE
“While we were working on the tracks, we realized that we were achieving the dirtiest sound, yet the clearest vision, in our
career,â€? Dorella says. “But Giulio Favero [engineer] had the hardest task when he had to mix it. He was able to keep both things: dirty sound and clear vision. Then we really had this crazy, morbid, apocalyptic sound that you can almost smell and touch. It’s poisonous, sick. But glorious, somehow.â€? The political situation of their home country of Italy also inspired the new album, Dorella says. “There’s a serious fascist thing going on. People are tired and angry, and they go for the bad guy, because it’s easier, it’s something everybody can understand. There’s so much ignorance, hate, populism. Representing evil, and at the same time fighting this distorted society in our everyday life, are things that definitely go into our music.â€? “We do believe that music can make a lot for a positive change,â€? he continues. “Our first contact with rebellion and political statements was through punk music, and history says that music has always been a powerful way to communicate to large amounts of people and, consequentially, to influence some political decisions. These times aren’t very strong in terms of a united scene. But it has to come back, we’re sure it’ll be one of the ways to fight for this positive change.â€? đ&#x;’Ł
