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BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & TH26  Arkaeo Planum  CD   (Small Voices)   9.98


One of Maurizio Bianchi's more recent collaborative works, Arkaeo Planum is the combined vision of Bianchi and the somewhat obscure Italian dark-

electronics outfit TH26. Packaged in an eyecatching jacket that features great abstract imagery from the p3 Studio, this album captures the legendary Italian

industrial soundscaper in a much more rhythmic mode than what I had been expecting; Bianchi, whose 80's recordings had him positioned right alongside the

likes of Ramleh and Whitehouse as one of the early Industrial scene's most intense visionaries, here continues to construct the deep, black drone fields and

almost liturgical organ pieces that he has been working with since becoming active again earlier this decade. But working with TH26, the group weaves an

evocative tapestry of bleak, urban wastelands and ghostly electrical frequencies, filled with gooey, fractured slow-motion breakbeats that crawl and stutter

through Maurizio's chilling synthesizer drones and his frequently beautiful organ meditations. Arkaeo Planum is also intensely detailed and

textural, with some brilliant layering of piano, beats, and crackling static pulses appearing throughout the album. It's a strangely grim and entrancing

piece of music that feels fully like a Bianchi work, cold and forbidding, but TH26's contribution of mutant IDM skitter and heavy breakbeats really makes the

material stand out from the rest of Bianchi's collaborations.


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