Mannequin

Adriani, Alessandro

Program & Rhythm

Mannequin

***Alessandro Adriani marks his comeback on Mannequin Records with an impressive body of work on this 2xLP 'Program & Rhythm', inspired by the Italian library music and soundtrack composers. Italian composers from the 60s to the 80s seemed limitless in their experiments and endlessly colorful, despite being a hidden part in the history of music. Library music takes weird and fantastic detours, between garish drum machines, seedy guitars, synthesizers gone haywire, and fractious brass sections. The scene’s big names included Ennio Morricone, Piero Umiliani, Alessandro Alessandroni, Giampiero Boneschi, Egisto Macchi, A.R. Luciani and Bruno Nicolai, just to name a few. After spending weeks on end in an improvised-by-covid home studio recording hours and hours of music every day, Alessandro was turning and shaping his analog machines into an experimental synth pop, psychedelic funky jazz and weird ambient fusion, making up six different releases called simply 'Program & Rhythm' from the Roland CR-78 programming buttons. The final selection of 42 tracks out of the six releases - originally intended to be put out as tapes - would finally compose the tracklist of the double vinyl presented here, with the catalog number PR and roman numerals used for the track titles. An exceptional document of music in Alessandro's discography, 'Program & Rhythm' enters into an ultimate unknown journey, creating music for films that do not yet exist, putting his steps deeper into a faceless obscure music.

Bourbonese Qualk

Bourbonese Qualk

Mannequin

***Reissue, originally released in 1987. The self-named LP marked the fifth album and end of the first incarnation of Bourbonese Qualk. Julian Gilbert left the group after The Spike (1986) to concentrate on writing and theatre, leaving Steven Tanza and Simon Crab who parted ways after touring in Europe in early 1986 and recording this album. Steven Tanza went on to found the group The State and while Crab continued as Bourbonese Qualk (with the new line-up of Miles Miles, Crab and Owen If ), dissolved the Recloose Organisation label and founded New International as the outlet for future Bourbonese Qualk and Recloose Org releases. Bourbonese Qualk were an experimental music group from England, active from 1979 through 2003. They were always obsessively and uncompromisingly focused on controlling their work: they ran their own record label, recording studio, tour organization, and music venue (the notorious Ambulance Station). They refused to integrate into the commercial music racket and turned down publishing deals from major labels, stubbornly opting for total independence. They're also known for their political activism, formed in the crucible of 1980s Britain amid such influences as the UK miners' strike, The Falklands War, Thatcherism, monetarism, local government corruption, squatting, anti-capitalism, anti-fascism, and anarchism. Their work was often ambiguous and directly critical of cynical power-politics of any color, often irritating members of the traditional organized left. In 1984 Bourbonese Qualk occupied a large empty building—The Ambulance Station—on the Old Kent Road in South London, which they turned into a base...

Metronomes, The

The Ballad Of The Metronomes

Mannequin

***Mannequin is more than enthusiastic to announce the re-release of both the LPs (Multiple Choice from 1980 and Regular Guys from 1985) plus the two single 7"s Saturday Night/Sunday Morning and A Circuit Like Me from this legendary minimal synth band from Australia. The group was an integral part of the early electronic music scene in Australia and their releases have become collector's items in Europe, as they are mostly impossible to find. The Metronomes first appeared in Melbourne in 1979 and initial members were rock journo/synth player Al Webb, bass player Andrew Picouleau (Secret Police, Sacred Cowboys) and synth-pioneer Ash Wednesday, nowadays a live tour member of Einstürzende Neubauten. Al himself will admit later that Ash's ingenuity in creating something out of very little was the key to the Metronomes sounding as "produced" as they did. Their first 7'' single Saturday Night/Sunday Morning came out in 1980, featuring a real metronome as rhythm section with instrumentals layered over, and the second A Circuit Like Me/Closed Circuit from 1980 featured more experimentation with drum machines and rhythm sections recorded using a borrowed Roland CR 78. It was the first time in their compositions that a vocal had been used, courtesy of a lady called Talking Judy. The first full-length Multiple Choice was recorded in the winter of 1980, using Roland Strings, a mini-Korg, some Arp synthesizers and a Boss Dr-55 -- a drum machine that was intensively used by many minimal synth bands during the '80s. The second album Regular...