Heinrich Dressel - Mons Testaceum (strangelife records SLR013)

Osbert Rawlins is on holiday (in Ben Nevis & st.Kitts if you want to spot him!) so this review was done by Eddy Eppstein.

Mons Testaceum is an artificial hill in Rome that is made up out of litter of the ancient Roman empire. Not kitty litter, no this litter consists mostly of broken pots...archeological stuff...wait a minute broken pots that sounds familiar...what... yes oh...cor blimey!!! the Minimal Rome label! Now we finally know were their fascination for broken pots comes from (Their Broken pots hill compilation albums for example), it seems these guys live right next to this hill in the testaccio area. Heinrich Dressel is a psuedonym of one of the guys from the Minimal Rome label crew and he made an enitre album about the Mons Testaceum and released it on Strange Life records. A whole concept album about a hill of old broken pots...zzzz that must be beyond boring?
All eight tracks are beatless, just pure synthesizer sequences featuring a heavy dose of the Elka Synthex, an expensive Italian synthesizer from the early 80s. Designed by the legendary Italian synthesizer engineer Marrio Maggi, the Synthex was the zenith of Italian synthesizer design. A simple yet effective 2 DCO analog polysynth with an inmense powerfull sound and a built in 4 track sequencer, almost like a full on analog proto-workstation.

Anyways, this synthesizer makes some beautifull sounds on this album too, from thick scooffy arpeggiated sequence bass to incredible soulfull leads. Kool and the Gang Summer Madness style leads to be precise, you know the ones that go on and on for inmeasurable amounts of bars and that just go higher and higher!
(click here to listen to the track Journey through the caves under the hill)
Mixed with the typical dark Italian prog-rock/Galio soundtrack style it results into something unique, something that we can only hear coming from Rome...some people call it Roma Funk like some of the records from Nature/Passarani/Pigna who sometimes have a similar soulfull lead sound but the Heinrich Dressel sound is definitely more darker, less "jolly"...and thats good cause we like dark stuff!

The CD comes with a little booklet which sais Diaro di viaggo which probably means something like a diary or a journal..but its all written in Italian so I can't make heads nor tails of it. I really wanted to know what it said so I tried to throw it into a universal language translator (like in Star Trek!) for some un-understandable brabble :

giungo finalmente per la prima volta nella mia vita ai piedi del mons testaceum.
La prima sensazione che provo e quella naufrago di fronte all isola da tanto tempo agognata
Subito noto la grandezza del monte
la sua dominanza sul territorio che lo circonda

This first entry translates as follows:

I reach finally for before the time in my life the feet of mons the testaceum. The first feeling that I try and that one I am shipwrecked of forehead all island from much yearned for time Endured famous the largeness of the mount its dominanza on the territory that encircles it

Bloody brilliant! Territory that encircles it...pure powerfull poetry!
I am shipwrecked of forehead all island from much yearned for time Endured famous the largeness of the mount This is the stuff what Strange Life Records is all about The mood is set...further translation reveals he goes into caves, and all kinds of scary stuff happens to him, a bit like Indiana Jones but then more suave probably. (click here to listen to Night comes in the broken pots forest) If you like electronic soundtracks, italian prog-rock, deep electronic soul whatever...or just want to have some dope jams for driving around in your car go out and order this album inmediately! I ammmoore iiieet as they say in Italy.
********* 9 stars (out of 10)!
Eddy Epstein

You can listen to more mp3's of this album on the StrangeLife Records website