Family Underground - Time of Others

Relatively new Italian imprint Laboratorio Palestro put themselves firmly on the map with what I'm considering a label-defining Family Underground long-player, that also unsurprisingly doubles as one of the surprise highlights of 2021 thus far. There's a big FU history of CD-rs, tapes et al that stretches back a few decades now, and twins with the likes of Pumice, People Skills, Maths Balance Volumes et al in its exploration of drone-based avant rock/noise aesthetics. I wont pretend to know their full output inside out, but there's something about Time of Others that hits especially hard. Perhaps it's that mangled Mercedes on the front cover, a perfectly simple/simply perfect image almost entirely incongruent to the sedative-like drone of the music, yet entirely reflective of a duo who know how to present things just right - personally, i'd buy this record based on that cover alone, and i'd be duly rewarded. Unlike with the music of a few of their aforementioned peers, there's actually very little abstraction or obtuse deviation on show here, instead a subtly evolving commitment to Ash-Ra like transcendence. It's a hell of a trip, culminating in the monolithic 15min closer Next For Where, an incomprehensible question that you just might find the answer for somewhere within it's tripped-out bliss. A mighty statement. Edition of 150. Don't sleep.