*100 copies limited edition* Ix Tab is an album dedicated to the mysterious Mayan deity, goddess of ropes and snares, and patroness of those who hang themselves. Originally released on cassette, the album was influenced not only by Mayan mysteries but also by Western and medieval esotericism (I.A.O., The Inquisition, etc.) and vampirism (Akhkharu). The artwork features glyphs and images of demons taken from the Dresden Codex, and the cover image specifically is a representation of Ix Tab, likely the only existing visual depiction of the deity. At the time, the cassette was distributed through underground channels and in a well-known esoteric bookstore in Milan, where, following the interest generated by CP I, Al-Azif, and the Zos-Kia zine, rumors began to circulate, though it’s unclear who started them, that Capricorni Pneumatici was a mysterious secret Californian group devoted to unspeakable cults and somehow connected to Anton LaVey’s Church.
Ix Tab was recorded between November 1987 and January 1988, and it is the first full-length album by Capricorni Pneumatici to make extensive use of the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, which had previously been used in the creation of the two tracks A-Thele-Ber-Set / A-Ro-Go-Go-Ru for Zos-Kia II (first released on CD by Eighth Tower in the album Witchcraft). Alongside the DX7, the Revox A77 was used as an echo/effect unit and to manipulate vocals, as no digital effects were available at the time. The recordings involved experimental techniques, including the use of glass bottles as wind instruments and a 50Hz sine wave captured by moving a cardioid microphone within the space between two speakers emitting the frequency. This album includes some vocal parts attributed in the credits to an entity called Soda Caustica.