Putiferio
Ate Ate Ate

Some veterans of disappointing experiences within the Italian underground find themselves under the protective wing of Giulio Ragno Favero: Putiferio is born. This is certainly the most experimental project of the Midas King of our independent scene who, after taking up guitar and bass respectively in One Dimensional Man and Teatro degli Orrori, here sits behind the drums. Their music is internationally minded, looting heavily from the nineties' heavy-rock (Melvins and Neurosis above all) to blend it with the experimental madness à la US Maple, but some, those with more trained ears, might even hear the Can due to their daring rhythmic solutions.

“Ate Ate Ate” (’08, Robotradio Records) is the soundtrack of the end of the world, of the post-atomic apocalypse, narrated with ferocious ruthlessness. But, if Charon was perhaps a bit gruff with that recommended greenhorn Dante, Putiferio will act with much more cruelty towards the listener, who will be ferried into these dark, shadowy scenarios to the sound of sick odd times and infernal labyrinthine sounds; the opener "Give Peace a Chancer," besides its grotesque quote, is emblematic: it seems like the deconstruction, almost at an atomic level, of the visceral violence of King Buzzo & co. leaving room only for a deafening noise-rock led by Favero's perpetually off-beat drumming. Listening to the following "Aristocatastrophism" and "Cannibal Corpse for Severs" instead means empathizing with the viewer of the conflict: his terrified stream of consciousness is sonically drawn to perfection by the schizophrenic performance of the singer, followed closely by his very noisy companions who continue their fierce process of rhythmic and sound deconstruction.

The highlight arrives with "Putiferio Goes to War," the central track, a summary of the Putiferio-thought as well as a carefree declaration of love from Favero to Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till: 13 minutes of post-core digressions alternating, like in the good old days of "Through Silver in Blood," noise-core bombardments, industrial manipulations, and the most impalpable psychedelic drifts. In "Hate Ate 8" you hear the plea for peace from the exhausted planet, while in "Where Have All The Razors Gone?," written in collaboration with Luca Mai of Zu, there is another lethal dose of decibels that seems to trace the devastating path of some post-nuclear marauder. The final "Holes Holes Holes" is the return to humanity's primitivism after the atomic age, marked by a progression of percussion and tribalism, in the wake of the rhythmic experimentalism that permeates the entire work.

In short, these Putiferio have projected their little creature, born with the limited means of the Italian indie-rocker, onto the international scene to jostle with foreign giants, whether American or European.

“Ate Ate Ate” is your album of the year, it's just that you haven't listened to it yet. So? In that case, keep the Fleet Foxes.