Massimo Amato

Second album from the italian artist Massimo Amato, here with a great ensemble of musicians exploring new forms of ambient music infected by etnic moods and his usual psychedelic approach. A smokey, nocturnal ambience of warm Spooner Oldham, Muscle Shoals keys and electronic fizz. Cymbals doubling for midnight waves crashing. A lazy calm of reverbed guitar, that wouldn`t be out of place on a Cocteau Twins record. The use of melodica nods towards the Dub meditations of Augustus Pablo. While the beats twin it with Trip Hop. In particular a probably forgotten mid-90s collaboration between Percy X and Andrew Weatherall. The whole album carries an air of late night Noir Sleaze that recalls Weatherall`s more stoned productions for Primal Scream. His Sabres Of Paradise project. But I reckon that`s just coincidence, and that In The Mood more likely takes it cues from Jazz and mutations thereof. Material`s Hallucination Engine. Jah Wobble`s Bill Laswell-produced Gone To Earth. Arcs of noise from Laswell`s own A Screaming Comes Across The Sky. The Fourth World swamp of Jon Hassell. Jon Abercrombie`s Timeless on ECM. Miles gone electric. Panthalassa. The strung-out space of He Loved Him Madly. There are classy compositions here that might appeal to fans of Greg Foat. While the Eastern modes also make it a distant cousin of Collocuter`s The Search. Players on bass, clarinet, harmonium, oboe, santoor, saxophone, and singing bowls. The guitar suppling a blinding solo on Meaningful Blue Eyes. Turning the first half of the epic Sleepless Night into a kind of downtempo-ed E2-E4. Before it becomes a deep Attica blue Mo`Wax torch song.