Backwords Tre

Tre, the third release from Italyʼs BACKWORDS, is an intimate, muscle-and-sinew-deep exploration of the mysterious meeting point of man and machine – here, Pardo and vintage synths, drum machines and miscellany from the second half of the last century. Twitchy beats, crackling textures and layers of tape distortion conjure a hallucinogenic universe that owes as much to heavy dub as it does to the techno-futurist optimism of the early modular synth pioneers.

Recorded over a period of two years, Tre is the result of an intimate process that is strongly connected to an image of a bigger body, a complex sound ecosystem, where analog debris take shape through subtraction and precise layering. Below/Above and Arpoon begin with one “movimento” before slipping into another, approaching different time/space perceptions and juxtaposition of timbres and sounds with playful experimentation. The woozy looped basslines, distorted vocals and overstretched strings of Wait! suggest, in fleeting glimpses, the shadowy figure from whom all of these sounds flow. Pas de Chance clashes old samples against new granular synthesis and sequenced acid bass trying to find a meeting point between alien elements. Tanzania is a first take improvisation, simple and wild, in which static fuzz, sandpaper hisses and percussive clangs are cloaked in analogue warmth from a 1970s Amek BCII mixer and a Moog Prodigy…

BACKWORDS is the solo project of Pardo (Michele Pauli), a founding member of Milanese dub/electronic outfit Casino Royale, Italyʼs single-handed riposte to the Bristol trip-hop scene (1995 album Sempre più vicini prod. by Massive Attack remixer Ben Young was named by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 greatest Italian records of all time). He now runs the Florence-based electronic label OOH-sounds and curates the experimental festival Hand Signed, which has featured Bill Kouligas, Beatrice Dillon, Philip Jeck and Masayoshi Fujita, amongst others.

About the cover-art: ʻSTAY GOLDʼ is a new mixed-media piece by the New York artist duo Lovett/Codagnone commissioned specially for the albumʼs cover. With a practice that draws on radical criticism, literature, cinema and punk music, Lovett/Codagnone work across different art forms to examine identity, power structures and underground resistance tactics.