Andrea Penso - Oh! Uomo

First released on cassette by Canti Magnetici in 2022, Holidays have now afforded Andrea Penso's Oh! Uomo a highly limited vinyl pressing - we're not exaggerating: only 100 were made and measly as it seems, we consider ourselves fortunate to have two. I estimate that quite a few people are going to be disappointed here, as this is truly a great record deserving of a wider audience. Two sides of long-form tape-loop compositions that on the A draw from a Béla Bartók ethnographic recording of Armenian folk music and on the B another loop salvaged from a "modern dance audio cassette" found in a car park in Turin. The source material might be poles apart, but the results are evidently conjoined, both slow-moving and decayed ethno-industrial-adjacent trudges through the purgatorial zone, high on psycho-geographic tension and fourth-world shadow. Because of the processes involved, you'll hear traces of Basinski, and because of the storm-cloud warning ominosity that lingers throughout you might detect a little O Yuki Conjugate, which tells you an awful lot about the mood being generated here. Shadow world song that hides the sun behind its greyed luminosity. And once again, sorry we couldn't get more.   Strictly one per customer.