Traumfabrick
Totentanz

I want to give a nice gift to the DeBaser portal for this January: a different page, an additional one, to add to its encyclopedic reserve. I apologize in advance if I am about to review an album practically unavailable both in the market and on the web. Certainly a gap, the unavailability of the work in question, which cannot be filled by the mere curiosity of the reader (to which I nonetheless appeal to give this page some sense) or by compiling a few samples.

Traumfabrick "is not a German name. It's the Italian translation of" Trauma Factory".

Traumfabrick is the project of a Lucanian band (the members are almost all from Policoro) formed in 1995, explicitly devoted to an experimental work based on the combination of sound research and visualization work. Their artistic project was immediately noted as one of the most interesting in the underground music scene, our guys received important recognitions (as can be seen from the small compendium published on the myspace profile, which I recommend reading for more information), releasing several mini CDs (distributed also on vinyl) and a single long-playing, "Totentanz", made in 1997. Unfortunately, despite the attention received, the band breaks up and the imminent dissolution embraces them perhaps too prematurely in the limbo of missed promises.

"Totentanz" (literally "Dance of Death") is the spiritual testament of Traum, a work, albeit not exactly linear, of great intensity and with multiple facets.

Of course, we are not talking about amateur-level production. The quality of the recording is excellent, thanks to the precise and clear overall equalization, essential to extract the beat soul contained in each single note. And each single note given is a brick: clear, defined, powerful.

The excellent work of bass and drums supporting a strongly atonal guitar are the characteristics at the base of the playing, which validates a cryptic form of jazz-rock, dry, mixed and acidic, devoted to the perpetual search for indeterminate and decidedly not cloying strokes. Something that often aligns with funk and fusion shores without neglecting certain veins of math-rock. The whole is brimming with jovial moments that partly betray the main influences (I specify: influences not strictly centered in the musical field, but extended to the passion for comics): to make a rough example, I would say a mix between King Crimson, Primus, Mr. Bungle, John Zorn - from the Naked City -, Frank Zappa, Minutemen, all cited by the band members themselves, in alliance with a good slice of classical culture and its most brilliant and audacious authors. In this sense, it is commendable and praiseworthy the shrewdness with which the group, operating as a cohesive unit, tackles (with incredible mastery of means) what can be considered the archetypes and foundations of the history of experimental rock.

Salvatore Visaggi is the pivot around which the magical alchemy revolves: a guitarist with a very heavy setup (while from Fripp's solos he borrows the symphonic and lyrical taste), he also proves to be an excellent bassist (a role later fully covered by the incoming Matteo Bennici), with a wide mastery of rock phrasing. Supporting him is Giambattista Mele on drums and Stefano Maramarco, second guitar and lead vocals; his voice is simple but can transform, become large and rich with pathos. Another contribution for the final phase of mixing comes from Pierangelo Troiano for the heavy use of samplers and electronic effects.

The backbone of the album can be traced back to four different cycles or moments that are then mixed among themselves: (1) the ensemble playing the Zappa-like humor card, (an amusing example is the surf-rock of "Hole In My Boot"), (2) the paroxysmal moments entrusted to echoes, voices, sibylline sounds ("Entra in un imbuto", "6 macchie di Rorschach", "What's The Secret Word For Tonight"), (3) the thickest ensemble made up of expanded instrumental synergies that go against the canonical song format - worth mentioning are the onomatopoeic recalls of the guitars in "Little Duck On Zebra Crossing", the undulating rhythms of "Fly", "Fantic Frenetik" and "Totentanz", the 'pulp-rock' of "Jumping Fish Is On The Ashes", or the more emphatic "The Thinker". Another great track is "Pumpkin Blus", essentially a 'almost' swinging rocky theme that is literally stripped of its accommodating accents; it starts like a gunshot and sublimates into a scratching funky rock. - (4) And then there is the intimacy with which Visaggi caresses his guitar, closing with elegance and a touch of melancholy the ideal squaring of the work: "Gymnopedia N°1", "My Teacher", and especially "Engram" blend the visionary poetics of the guitar, with the scraps of a world where classical and jazz mix and feed seamlessly.

After "Totentanz" another EP -"Città Violenta"- and finally the dissolution that marks the bitter epilogue.

The story of Traumfabrick reminds me of one of those perfect days that go with nothing and no one. Forgotten days, leaving behind a trail of subdued warmth, and then all of a sudden they resurface, like the rabbit out of the hat, you savor them again, and carry them with you like a creative memory.

Listening to "Totentanz", for me, is like renewing this delicate pleasure every time.

Goodbye Mr. Traum!

"Traumfabrick is not a German name. It's the Italian translation of" Trauma Factory". Traumfabrick no longer exists!"