NASTRO
21 GIUGNO 2012 - LIVE @ CRACK! - FORTE PRENESTINO, ROMA.
INFO
N A S T R O
"3 0 0 mq"
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300mq is the second album from NASTRO, a duo from Rome that offers us this ambitious album o synthethic exploration and sampledelia that throw us directly in a parallel world of lost films and misterious locations. Will come on a limited vinyl edition of 100 copies only with hand cut sleeve.
"300mq" is now availaible internationally through BOOMKAT, NORMAN RECORDS, ROUGH TRADE SHOP and many others...
UPSIDE DOWN RECORDINGS PRESS SHEET
- 300 MQ is the second album from NASTRO
- 300 mq is the size of NASTRO's recordings studio where they have recorded the album
and which they had to tear down with their bare hands after finishing the recordings as
part of the contractual obligations.
Behind 300mq (300 squared meters) there are 12 months or recordings, sonic reworkings,
played percusions, than dismembered and reassembled, a carefull work of sampling and
audio architecture.
A frantic mix of electronic synthesis and acoustic, each element is an instable piece,
psichedelia of a future and yet past era, crazy machines repeating themselves always the
same and always different. Two long sides where extract several film themes if today's
cinema would follow the pace of tomorrow.
NASTRO is a duo composed by Manuel Cascone, producer and musician based in Rome
(see also Laser Tag, Cascao & Lady Maru) and Francesco Petricca (see also
TELEfonoBALAfono, Oblomov)
Limited edition 12“ vinyl 100 copies with die-cut cover
credits
releases 10 April 2012
Recorded and mixed by Manuel Cascone and Francesco Petricca
Mastered by Andrea Merlini @ Audio Division, Rome, summer 2011
Ascolta ora il
nuovo album
Ascolto & download gratuito:
http://nastro.bandcamp.com/
http://www.jamendo.com/it/album/98501
http://soundcloud.com/nastro/nastro-300mq
LIVE!
* 06-GIU-2012 - 30 Formiche, Roma w/Le Truc Und Die Maschine
* 08-FEB-2012 - Dal Verme, Roma w/Monster Dead, Wolf Anus
"300mq" - Recensioni/Reviews
If Nastro's debut (2011, To Lose La Track) was something eclectic, this is simply crazy as visionary, a time travel into the finest early 90s experimental cut-up music, travelling a modern past and a vintage future (Crispy outside, soft inside, yet, modern experience, ancient technics). Not sure You get me. Now a duo, Francesco Petricca e Manuel Cascone, revive that kind of sound bridge between trascendental white noise and electronic dub, without giving a fuck of taking a step accidentally into something else (kraut, drone, etc). Synth, old fashioned drum machines, prepared sounds, samples - all mainly instrumental (nothing you can call 'singing'). The title, 300mq refers to the size of their recording studio in Rome: Cascone and Petricca are both friends of mine, I visited their place once, that it is now their ex studio, actually, it was more similar to an abandoned squat house, down in a basement, there was no buzzer or door bell and no stable mobile signal to make a call and get you open the door. The rooms were full of mold and damp patches, there was a dump of musical instruments and various equipment, some used socks too, no heating; maybe Manuel was wearing his pijama, I guess he've been living there for a while, not sure; both were working with a scarf on; one of these rooms, with no windows, was rented to a crazy painter, I've been told; the neighbors, living upstairs, looked at them with a bad opinion. They made me listen to an audio excerpt they were working on, a track of thirty seconds or less, left after a month of strict work. I do not remember if it ended up in this collage of tracks here. But it was pretty cool, and that was right the spectrum of the only thing which occupied their lives: making cool anti-Music. Against orthodoxy. It was like a shot of something pretty enthralling, like this long trip on vinyl. So, double pleasure when I finally grabbed their new record. Give a listen to the player below, and hurry up to get one of those 100 copies. Vinyl, or digital (FREE DOWNLOAD!), it's up to you.
Komakino - 6 June 2012
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I'm constantly amazed at the truly incredible music I somehow manage to keep on unearthing after around thirty years of compulsive exploring. I've never subscribed to the accepted wisdom that a person should just stop listening to new releases when they reach a certain age, nor do I feel the need to retreat into a cocoon of safe listening habits built upon the bands I love the most. No, for me music has always been about originality, experimentalism, envelope pushing, expansion and progression. I love those bands who are constantly striving to make new sounds, whether using the latest recording techniques, obscure reference points or just simply trying something different for the sheer hell of it!
Nastro are an Italian duo comprising Manuel Cascone and Francesco Petricca. According to their press release, the title 300 mq (300 squared meters) alludes to the size of their recording space in Rome which they were contractually obligated to tear down "with their bare hands" some twelve months after starting work on the album.
As Nastro is an Italian word meaning ribbon or tape, its only fitting that this album sounds like some kind of audio tape collage, a head-spinning mesh of disparate sonic sources - fractured loops, slices of various musics, found sound splinters and an array of electro-acoustic experiments.
The album contains two untitled tracks, both clocking in at around sixteen minutes but it would be unnecessary to take each piece as a separate entity. Indeed, this is a release which demands a more holistic listening philosophy.
The approach here is simple, a complete de-structuring of the accepted norms of musical composition. Sounds ricochet and collide with each other whilst fractured loops hang from a decaying framework of rhythmic tics and electronic pulses. The percussive elements are particularly strong throughout the set, many of which sound like samples lifted from the B sides of lost post-Punk 7" singles or antique library music albums.
Upside Down Recordings has delivered something of a small scale masterpiece here, an album that should be heard a lot more widely than it probably ever will be and championed for it's diversity and sheer experimentalism.
Strictly limited physical copies of the album are available from the label and feature clever, die-cut packaging and tessellating artwork insert plus a download code. A digital download version is also available directly from their Bandcamp page.
Recommended listening for adventurous sonic explorers.
So Much Noise To Be heard - 3 June 2012
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Dischi come questo ti fanno credere che sia facile assemblare un tale frullato di patterns, campionamenti, frizzi e lazzi. Poi magari scarichi Audacity, ci dai di cut/copy/paste e salta fuori una stronzata immonda che spammi ovunque stile truffatore nigeriano. Ecco, vedi di star fermino! La roba seria lasciala a gente come Daniel Lopatin o al massimo i romani Nastro, che con questo lavoro ti insegnano come, con una bella dose di gusto e presa per i fondelli, ci si possa stravaccare in poltrona cullati da presse idrauliche e pifferi indemoniati. A nastro!
NINO ZILDJIAN - Vice
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ELECTRO CUT-UP
300mq - LP Upside Down Recordings 2t-32:38
Frutto della collaborazione fra Manuel Cascone [Laser Tag, Boris, Cascao] e l'artista audiovideo Francesco Petricca, il secondo album dei Nastro è disponibile in download e in lp limitato a 100 copie con "die-cut sleeve". Qui però, più che alla copertina, è possibile applicare l'idea di “taglio" direttamente alla musica: un assemblaggio di suoni elettronici che frulla electro, follie alla Residents, cold wave e cultura digitale in un unico contenitore, trasformandole in un succo acido e fluorescente dagli effetti allucinogeni. La storia dietro a "300mq" è bizzarra, almeno per come è descritta nel comunicato stampa. Il titolo indica infatti la dimensione dello studio in cui i Nastro hanno inciso quest'album e che subito dopo loro stessi "hanno dovuto abbattere a mani nude per obblighi contrattuali”. Al di là dell'epilogo drammatico, i due si possono davvero consolare, perché su queste macerie è spuntato un fiore, deforme e venefico ma dai colori straordìnariamente vivi.
Massimiliano Busti - Blow Up #168 [Maggio 2012]
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This is some bonkers mad as spam electronica, the likes of which I’ve not heard in ages. Nastro are 2 Italian dudes and this is their second album and if you’re wondering about the curious title ‘300mq’ it’s the size of their recording studio which they had to tear down (by hand!) after the recording of this album due to contractual reasons. No hammers were used.... Though listening to the music I think they may have used some hammers somewhere along down the line. This is all over the shop! Strange samples, weird percussion, alien synthesizer noises and bizarre electronic sounds all intertwined around bits of melody making it a non stop roller coaster ride of not knowing what is round the corner. Think of Wevie Stonder, Dat Politics, etc but replace the pop with an unhinged maniac with mental health issues and a fascination for blunt instruments and you’re somewhere close to getting an idea of what fun lies ahead. Limited to 100 copies on vinyl, all hand numbered in an extremely fancy sleeve with lots of things cut out of it (its very fetching!)
Norman Records (Phil on 02 May 2012).
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Un lavoro che è inteso come una libraries del futuro, una sterzata netta dal loro stile abituale verso lidi piu' proficui e colmi di anelli di nastro - appunto - magnetico.
http://alpachadistro.blogspot.it/
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A fantastically primordial soup of dismantled and unstable rhythmic electronics and fractal synth patterns by the tightly intuitive duo, Francesco Petricca and Manuel Cascone, aka Nastro. The title of '300 mq' alludes to the size of their recording space in Rome which they were contractually obligated to tear down "with their bare hands" (remember, this was the time of the great Italian glove shortage of 2011) after finishing the album, which cutely dovetails with their collapsed and decimated approach to compositional structure. Analogous to the UK's Sculpture, the more hair-brained post-punk experiments of John Bender or Tara Cross, and the cut-up techniques of Burroughs and Gysin, the result is a Dadaist disassembly of repetition and psychedelic intent - a sound which pulls in all directions, fracturing trains of thought and creating new pathways through electronic and acoustic sounds to odder conclusions.
http://boomkat.com
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Tout court: Godzilla ha spiaccicato tutta la scena dance-punk e questo è stato il loro l’ultimo vagito. Dico sul serio: provatevi a immaginare un coso enorme che salta sopra a synth, kazoo e un mucchio d’altri strumenti e immaginatevi il suono che potrebbe uscire. Okay, magari vi state immaginando un rumore atroce, ma immaginate pure che, in mezzo a quel caos rumoristico, ci sia una misteriosa forza ordinatrice che rimetta a posto tutti quei suoni e gli dia un senso. Ecco, a questo punto, vi siete fatti un’idea del disco qui presente. cioé: trentadue minuti e ventotto secondi di psichedelia in acido- dopo le sbronze indie e prima del rigurgito dance-punk. Loro vengono da Roma, e sono chiaramente dei pazzi scellerati: arrivano al secondo disco e sperimentano quest’oscena amalgama che mi fa rizzare le orecchie e mi fa venire in mente dei Kraftwerk de’ noantri parecchio su di giri che mettono su un progetto a quattro mani con David Thomas. questa è una delle robe più originali, eccentriche e affascinanti che si abbia la possibilità di ascoltare: ecco, non lascietevala sfuggire.
http://parvulescumonamour.wordpress.com, novembre 2011
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Une longue séquence, comme un patchwork, un grand collage kaléidoscopique qui nous fait voyager dans un paysage chaotique où le kazoo côtoie des lignes de basses à la King Crimson ou des réminiscences de Tangerine Dream.
Une vraie recherche, de la créativité, de l'humour, de la légèreté. Tout change en permanence, on va de surprise en surprise sans s'arrêter pendant plus de 30 minutes. C'est peut-être aussi ce qu'on pourrait reprocher à Nastro : on ne sait pas trop où ça va... Mais dans ce domaine de la musique électronique où bien souvent on tourne en rond dans de pauvres boucles de quelques mesures répétées jusqu'à ce que mort s'en suive, ça fait du bien de trouver des gens qui nous font voir du pays.
Merci Nastro !
(Recensione di AirW su Jamendo)