ASPIC BOULEVARD

Memory Recall Of A Replicant Dream BLOW UP RECORDS

Sicilian brothers’ spacey soundtrack to sci-fi favourites.

Alessandro and Marco Barrano obviously spent their formative years devouring science fiction of all stripes, judging by this debut LP that’s based on weighty tomes by everyone from John Wyndham to Dean Koontz to Valerio Evangelisti. So far so prog, but the Barrano brothers also took a keen interest in vintage electronic technology, resulting not only in a collection of analogue keyboards, drum machines and tape recorders, but also an array of sound devices they made themselves at home.

It’s the latter factor that makes their debut album sound like little else out there. The anthemic synth washes of Electromagnetic Playground jackknife into avant-garde ambient space noise. Swirls of something resembling a fairground steam organ punctuate Aerial Steam Horse before macabre-sounding synth grunts and ghoulish theremin continue the nightmare ride. Elsewhere, there’s an Eastern flavour to Kubernetikos’ percussion accompaniment, as flourishes of Asian mantras and Bhangra melodies lace its techno pulses, along with strobe flashes of electronic melodrama. Old gear meets dystopian futures. The result is a truly unique record.