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Muffx — Confini
(Black Widow BWRDIST 688, 2020, CD / LP / DL)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2022-12-28

Confini Cover art

It is has been over four years since I heard and reviewed Muffx’ 2017 release L’Ora di Tutti. Their next album, Confini, released in 2020, recently arrived for me to review. Confini, or Borders, is a live recording of a concert on August 21, 2020 at the Palazzo Belmonte Pignatelli in Galatone, Italy, plus two studio tracks. The sound is so clean and crystal clear that you don’t realize that Confini was recorded live until you hear the polite applause at the conclusion of each track. The album opens with “Ritual,” an eighteen-minute instrumental suite that showcases the band’s talents as they take you from slow spatial ambiance through powerful symphonic prog to garage / psych / Krautrock. The second track “L'Istante Prima” is a dreamy emotive track with some very strong vocals. "Caravane" follows and manages to combine prog rock with a touch of exoticism and slap bass that culminates with a full blown prog rock jam. Next is "L'Ubriaco Venuto dall'Est," another slow burner that grows to a rolling boil of prog jazz fusion and wordless singing. "Scelgo te” closes the live performance with its harpsichord keyboard patch and vocals with a decidedly jazzy pace that turns quite heavy at the end. The final two tracks, “Mater Flebilis” and “L'Istante Prima,” are the two studio tracks. The first combines an atmosphere of mystery and disquiet, with its cavernous reverb. A sinisterly delightful piece of great impact, evoking thoughts of Dario Argento. "L'Istante Prima" closes the album in its studio version, but not exactly a reprise. Confini is quite an impressive album.

Filed under: New releases, 2020 releases

Related artist(s): Muffx

 

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