As one of the major triumvirate of Italian power electronics (alongside Atrax Morgue/Marco Corbelli and Mauthausen Orchestra/Pierpaolo Zoppo), Moreno Daldosso has not released any new material in over a decade, and Der Totenkopf may be his final recording. With his two peers no longer with us, this record serves as an epitaph for this distinct group of artists, and it fits right in amongst the best of those albums.
The three aforementioned artists are essentially the antecedents of Maurizio Bianchi's first period of activity, albeit with different aesthetics.This subgenre has always heavily utilized serial murder, necrophilia, and Third Reich, making for an essentially perfect mirror image to Italy’s contribution to international cult film:giallo, zombie, and Naziploitation.In an appropriate parallel to the films, however, the use seemed to be to invoke horror rather than political ideology.
Der Totenkopf is no different, and Daldosso makes no attempt to hide the theme based on the cover art alone.Unlike Atrax Morgue or Mauthausen Orchestra, however, the two pieces that make up this album are not heavily steeped in harsh analog synthesizers, but instead hollow, cavernous layers of minimalist noise.The undeniable sense of gloom and depression (which can be traced back to Bianchi's earliest experiments) does pervade this record though, another hallmark of the Italian school of harsh electronics.
On the A side, bits of the German marching music that acts as the primary source material slips through in shards, echoes and delays stretching the only recognizable sounds out into the murky, muddy expanse of sound.The flip side showcases the source material more, with obvious fragments of horn fanfare stretching out from a hollow, reverberating electronic din.Throughout the gray monochromatic ambience, what sounds like the stomping of boots create some rough semblance of rhythm via loops and delay that always stays just a bit uncomfortable and off kilter.
Rather than the harsher sound I expected, Murder Corporation emphasizes menace and restraint in his bleakness.The moroseness of this record cannot be understated, just like the best records from this roughly defined scene.It might not be a record I will play every day, but when the mood strikes, Der Totenkopf hits all the right buttons.
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