Oblio Electronic & Dance 1 Items

The brand new imprint Oblio - the latest adventure in the Die Schachtel / Blume family - delivers their debut LP, the first ever fully remastered vinyl reissue of Maurizio Bianchi's seminal 1982 album “Regel”. A startling bridge between 1950s and '60s avant-garde electronic music and the legacies of punk, originally released on Bianchi's own Mectpyo Sounds imprint under the moniker M.B., for decades it has been hotly pursued as one of the great cornerstones of early '80s Italian experimentalism and Industrial music. Fully remastered by Andrea Marutti and issued in collaboration with the artist in a very limited edition of 280 copies on black vinyl, the album is housed in a sleeve that fully replicates the original, and contains two inserts and a sticker. It is a rare chance to immerse yourself in one of the remarkable artefacts of its era and Bianchi's singular sound world.

Having begun his career as music journalist attending to the more ambitious trajectories of Kosmische, experimentalism, and early industrial music, in 1979 Maurizio Bianchi turned his focus to making music of his own, initially self-releasing four cassettes under the moniker Sacher-Pelz, before beginning to work under his own name or the abbreviation M.B. in 1980. Regarded as a foundational project in the movements of Italian industrial music and noise, as well as a crucial link between the Milan scene and similar artists working in other parts of the world - Bianchi was in regular correspondence with Merzbow, SPK, Nigel Ayers of Nocturnal Emissions and William Bennett of Whitehouse - between 1980 and 1984, when Bianchi left the music world behind, beginning a decade and a half hiatus, he was caught in one of the most prolific flurries of production to emerge from the noise / Industrial scene, releasing roughly three dozen full-lengths of dazzling dark and bristling music in the short period of time. Of these, M.B.’s 1982 album “Regel”, originally released in a tiny edition of 280 copies by Bianchi's own Mectpyo Sounds imprint, remains one of the most celebrated and sought after.

Comprising two, untitled, side-long compositions, M.B.’s “Regel” stands among the best illuminations of the tangible links between the early electronic avant-garde and certain forms of music that blossomed from the cultural revolution of punk. The first piece draws upon manipulated sound sources, threaded with synthesizer or theremin, which collectively gather an almost post-apocalyptic sensibility. Using a similar sound palette, the album's second side delves toward a more markedly tonal realm, utilising deconstructed melodic elements, striking harmonic collisions and pulses, placed within a cavernous sense of space and texture that achieves thrilling seductiveness.

Remarkably cohesive over the entirety of its length - resembling an expansive and evolving sonorous journey through the darkened depths of visionary creative mind - “Regel” is made up of two sprawling, long-form sides standing in stark contrast to M.B.'s more aggressive, industrial-oriented works. Instead, what unfolds is a classic of austere musical hypnotism, helping add to the spiritual nature of the album as it ebbs and flows, culminating as an unprecedented form of meditation music, pitch perfect for the moment it emerged.

An unquestionable high-water mark in early '80s Italian experimentalism, as well as within the broader movements of Industrial music and noise, Maurizio Bianchi's seminal LP “Regel” remains as fresh, engrossing, and exciting as the day it first appeared in 1982. Issued by Oblio in full collaboration with the artist in a very limited edition of 280 fully remastered copies on black vinyl, housed in a sleeve that fully replicates the original and contains a sticker and two inserts, don’t miss your chance to grab a copy of a truly singular and towering piece of work.