Le Stelle di Mario Schifano cd

cd
2011/1967
new
Mario Schifano was an Italian visual artist, who made scribblier answers to pop art & exhibited with Lichenstein & Warhol in Europe. Inspired by Warhol's connections to the Velvets, he recruited some muicians to be his rock band. They duly jammed, played in local clubs with psychedelic light shows, hung out with Gerard Malanga & the Rolling Stones (Schifano schtupped both Anita Pallenburg & Marianne Faithfull briefly), and did lots of horse. After some random banging, 1st song here works itself into a gargantuan & evil fuzz jam. Although the idea is clearly to sound like the Velvets, there's something about their looser, poppier timing & the female vocalist (guest Franscesca Camerana) that always reminds me of the Airplane too. Left to their own devices the band makes perfectly plasticene fuzzpop, and it's all about the combo of Urbano Orlandi's guitar & Nello Marini's organ blasts (inspired by Henry Cowell they say!). They also add flute, & had a ton of orchestral musicians hang out in the studio during their recording just to add to the general melee, which revives at the end for a minute or two. Tracklisting: Le Ultime Parole de Brandimante Dall'Orlando Furioso Ospite Peter Hartman e Fine, Molto Alto, Susan Song, E Dopo, Intervallo, Molto Iontano.