Punctual and waited, here is the new sonic creation designed by the genius of Gianluca Becuzzi which is again in the form of Noise Trade Company, project globally circumscribed in a multi-faceted form of industrial-experimental-electro harsh, whose biography and deeds are mentioned in detail on Vox Empirea between the lines of the previous review of “Post Post Post”. This new, fourth album “Reformation” is proposed this time to transport the listener into a sonic time retro-dimension set between the decade of 80’s and 90’s through the use of analog equipment and producing a sound electronically bruise, the which main references are explicitly addressed to Massive Attack and Scorn regarding the automated sections, and the icy new wave of Joy Division for what concerns instead the connexion of guitar and bass operated by Fabrizio Biscontri. The full-lenght, released as the previous one by the label EK Product, proposes a concept thematically direct to the design of an innovative sound era within which to create narratives of annihilation and atonement, anxiety and pride, everything, beginning by the irreverent but symbolic image pictured on the sleeve, interpretable into a view sometimes coldly ironic, however hopeful in an imminent, drastic change of the urban society and its fragile awareness. As widely verified in the discography of the mastermind Gianluca Becuzzi, the experimentation proves to be a constant essential in the conception of his music: “Reformation” confirms one more time this presenting itself as an alienating, variable mixture of styles 80’s synth/minimal-wave, dark-ambient, dub and darkwave, made using only the force of an essential instrumentation and singing forms equally haggard. Regarding this last particular, it is worth of reporting the contribution given by the faithful vocalist and songwriter Elena De Angeli, from the second album always present in the works of Noise Trade Company, who enhances the sounds pouring in it in a bloodless chant and often interwoven with that of Gianluca, forming in this way obsessive polyphonies that lead structures in a state of total bewilderment. “Fate” is the episode that starts the tracklist through the persistence of dark-ambient expansions gravitating close to the rhythmic mechanism, whose skeletal beats merge with the hypnotic guitar background and with the oppression audible in the chorus raised by Gianluca and Elena . “Alternative” increases the number of bpm proposing a dark/synth-wave supported by sharp rhythms of drum machines and sequencing together with electric guitar non-melodies and a polyphonic chant full of faded modulations, like a deconsecrated liturgy. The introduction of the subsequent “Fall” makes the sound as a spiral reducing it into an ethereal as an obscure mantle within which resonate a dark pulse sonar, solemn key chords, programmed downtempo fractionations, arpeggios post-Joy Division processed by Fabrizio and the singing that the two vocalist sing with depressed accents. “Endless” is merely an extension of the previous configuration but totally private of its physical instrumentation: the result is a dark-ambient of lysergic resonances and vaporous movement, as if it were slowly channeled into a long tubular structure with subsequent release to the opposite end of cold sound material able to obscure the brightes lights too. “Ice” is the deconstruction of a track that belongs to Michael John Harris, aka Scorn, now redesigned by Noise Trade Company by echoed voice and darkened that Gianluca put with coldness between mercurial keyboard flows and propagations of electronic minimalism on midtempo drumming. A second remake inspired to masterpieces made by important underground artists is “Evening”, a song taken from the repertoire of Nico now listenable on this shadowy transfiguration that the protagonists approach on slow cycles of drum machines and modular guitar replications, all this subjected to a process of further darkening with low, strict key tones and a funeral, apocalyptic-folker spectrality, raised by the choral combination between Gianluca and Elena. Above the expansion of “Seven” encumbers the soporific action of a dark-ambient by the mesmerizing power, created by dark fermentation of intangible sounds, subterranean reverberations, echoed pulsations and dumb gnashing without name, while the following and beautiful “Orchid”, unique act of this album played by serene and celestial harmonies, retrieves minimal synth-wave constructions stands surrounded by beautiful keyboard chords arrangements, bright drops of sequencing, bass spins and the voice of Elena that stretching relaxed on the dry electronic drumming and on the melodic post-punk oriented guitar played by Fabrizio. “Cain” speeds up the percussiveness combining the beats dryness to the emaciated chant sung by the vocalists, to the touches of the bass and to the pinches the steel riff of the guitar, as well as “Truth” concludes the sequence of the tracks proposing a dark/synth-wave in which the visionary voices of Gianluca and Elena run near to the icy breath of the keyboard, the effervescent electro-rhythmic particles and the periodic post-punk arpeggios of the electric guitar. The rediscovered Noise Trade Company show again themselves pungent and unconventional in their thinking and in their music: excellent observers of the global social-economic forms and even more realistic to eviscerate scientifically the vices, the contradictions, the covert operations of the media and the perpetual hypocrisy concerning the usual indirect gestures of our existence as “consumers”, the protagonists, although countercurrent and freeing themselves from a deleterious trendy intentions, they are able to deliver their messages to the technologic sound with the same easiness of someone who knows how temporize knowing that the success of their communication efforts will come with mathematical certainty. Highly symbolic lyrics and titles, a musicality transmitted to the listener without giving no space to any superstructure and embellishments, instead dosing accurately atmospheres electronically neurotic or darkened anxiety, but also bristling of sharp words with meanings highly accurate and current: “Reformation” aggregates to its biting concept the heterogeneous sonic formulary that sets it apart, thrilling and by reflecting the electro-listener who is musically erudite and intelligently autonomous. If this profile corresponds with your, now you know what is the next release toward which you will turn your attention.
