New Interplanetary Melodies Vinyl, CD & Tape 8 Items

Strata-Gemma lands for the first time on Simona Faraone's label, New Interplanetary Melodies, with their third album: Radamanto. The trio, comprised of DJ and record producer Niccolò Bruni, musicians Luca Cacciatore and Andrea Moretti, masterfully blend jazz, electronic music and otherworldly atmospheres. Radamanto is a beautiful album, crooked, dense and vibrant, in which jazz, psychedelia, experimental electronics and more, elegantly merge for a nocturnal journey full of smoky suggestions.

Born in 1989, Daniele Tomassini aka Feel Fly, dj, producer, sound composer (he recently completed the soundtrack for the movie I Santi by Giacomo Abbruzzese, awarded at the prestigious CineMed festival in Montpellier), co-founder of the Afro Templum party, already known for his previous works for labels such as Prins Thomas’ Norwegian Internasjonal or the Ibizenca International Feel, lands on Simona Faraone’s label, New Interplanetary Melodies, with his first EP, after having made his debut on the same label as remixer on the EP signed by Leo Young (nim005).

The entire EP is inspired by the ancient and mysterious Etruscan culture, whose peoples inhabited the historical-geographical region of central Italy: all the tracks that compose it were in fact conceived under the cloister of Manu (National Archaeological Museum of Umbria) in Perugia.

The title track, Sacrificio (a1) opens the album with an ecstatic drum-break on which powerful subs stand out, catapulting you directly into the obscure rituals of the haruspices, intent on interpreting the signs of the divine, with the help of mysterious pads and shimmering synths like fires in the night.

Side A continues with Hypnopedia (a2), House music characterised by pressing rhythms and sharp rides that transport us into a dreamy dimension, a nostalgic, evocative dream of worlds that now belong only to the sphere of memory. While in Aisna (a3), which closes the first side, the atmosphere changes decidedly towards progressive house, a sound that has become topical again in recent years, after having raged in the second half of the 90s in those lands that were once called Etruria. And just as the Aisna was an early morning ritual held in a field or a sacred wood, this track has all the makings of a rave at the crack of dawn.

The B side starts on the same wavelength with which the first side closed, Afro Trance Amnesia (b1), in fact it maintains that feeling with the most sweaty dancefloors thanks to its epic breaks and vaguely Trancey arrangements that rest on dragging and obsessive percussions able to smash any kind of dancefloor. With Thi Rie (b2) the groove becomes decidedly more disco thanks to a rolling bass line interspersed with powerful toms and full of suspense thanks to the skilful use of enigmatic pads.

Étoile Romance (b3) is the title of the beautiful piece of Ambient that closes this first EP by Feel Fly on NIM, 6 minutes and more of dreamy arpeggios that fit perfectly into the groove of that Italian tradition of soundtracks and library music that has produced so many masterpieces.

Less than a year after Botanical Illustration takes patience and Skill EP, Giovanni Natalini aka Co-pilot, comes back on Simona Faraone’s label, New Interplanetary Melodies, with the Green Machine album, which is its natural prosecution: inside it we also find the three tracks previously published by the same label in audio cassette format only (nim001- MC).

Green Machine is a concept album, which takes up and develops the ecological issues already treated by the artist in his previous work, namely the increasingly tricky dichotomy between nature and machine and the harmful impact of humans on it.

The A side opens with the already published Botanical Illustration takes patience and Skill (a1), an 8 minutes suite in which the powerful Live drum breaks are perfectly combined with synths and vocal samples, transporting us to the tops of exotic mountains, to continue with the ecstatic Himawari (a2) that sounds like a “desert session” made on Mount Fuji, for a result of pure musical mysticism and finally, Mother Love Nature pt.1 (a3), a track that takes us back to more familiar territories, winking at the most experimental British trip hop of recent memory and Mother Love Nature pt.2 (a4) characterized by a background of modular synths and nature sounds effects that precede Giovanni’s powerful drums, underlining once again this perfect fusion of organic and synthesized sounds.

Side B opens with the psychedelic choruses of Dancing Like Fela (b1) supported by synthetic arpeggios and a frenetic drumline sounds like a breakbeat. Continuing along this side, we come to the unsettling use of vocal samples on the beautiful Halo (b2), the ethereal and danceable art-pop of Lost You - In Translation - (b3) to conclude with the evocative Playing the Zurna in Ulan Bator (b4), a track with a pressing rhythm and elegant arrangements that once again underlines Giovanni Natalini’s mastery in mixing sounds and suggestions that are apparently far away but that always find the right place.

Green Machine sounds like a valid attempt to finally find a “solid” balance between humans and nature, but it also demonstrates how the continuous mixing of sounds is the most effective way to escape from the homologation that is increasingly widespread in contemporary society.

At the third New Interplanetary Melodies' astral journey stopover, it was mandatory to catch an Italian project deeply inspired by the Sun Ra visionary realm, expressing contemporary trials of hybridising jazz with artful electronica. So Ra Toth and The Brigantes' Orchestra landed on vinyl grooves for the label, after having previously appeared on the likes of Mathematics and Berceuse Heroique. Behind the sound, we find the elusive and unpredictable genius of the well-respected producer Marcello Napoletano.

2024 of New Interplanetary Melodies begins with a new album and an EP signed by Abyssy. The historical producer from Bologna who returns to Simona Faraone’s label after a few years since the release of his previous works, Magnetic Archive (NIM001,2016) under his alias Soulomon, and TWO Scorpions EP (nim002, 2017) under the name Abyssy, which marked NIM’s adventure in the world of contemporary Italian independent record labels. “Extra Meta" was born from the passion for a certain electronic sound ecosystem of the 70s and 80s, a journey that embraces minimalism of the “Berlin school” and extends to the beating heart of the soul/funk of Detroit techno. A journey into the abyss of emotions and the unknown of the human spirit, as the deep darkness of the ocean intertwines with the unfathomable darkness of space. An invitation to explore new sound boundaries, to let yourself be lulled by waves that repeat without ever repeating themselves and to immerse yourself in the reflective mystery of discovery and of evolution, a dance in darkness and light, and where the abyss of emotion merges with the infinity of imagination: Abyssy.

New Interplanetary Melodies, continues its space journey, among the most interesting musical galaxies of the Italian electronic music scene. For this new release, Simona Faraone, relies on the skilful hands of producers and musicians Marco Antonio Spaventi and Enrico Demuro, who return to work together after the experience of The Great Walk [gftdcvltr-007/nim002-mc] to give us this dense musical experience in the imaginary soundtrack form of a retro-futuristic sci-fi movie that embraces the ever more topical theme of survivalism.