Maurizio Bianchi - Regel LP

Launching into the early, wintering months of the new year, 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. 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. He was 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. Of these, M.B.'s 1982 album Regel, originally released in a tiny edition of 300 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, utilizing deconstructed melodic elements, striking harmonic collisions and pulses, placed within a cavernous sense of space and texture that achieves thrilling seductiveness. 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. A high-water mark of early '80s Italian experimentalism. Fully remastered by Andrea Marutti and issued in collaboration with the artist. Limited edition of 300 copies on black vinyl.