From amazing arnold Sent Thu, Jan 1st 1998, 13:50
From amazing arnold Sent Thu, Jan 1st 1998, 13:50
At 21:16 31-12-97 EST, you wrote:
>PSS2099 is MARCO PASSARANI
Marco Passarani
How to survive on a corrupted planet
Did you know Rome is, in fact, a planet? 23-year-old Marco Passarani tells
the world
about this little-known wonder by constantly dropping brilliant,
Aphex-influenced
records on our puzzled heads. After releases on Generator, Interr-Fered and
his own
imprint, Nature, Passarani recently signed up with Warp. Engage!
Planet Rome is situated just off the Piazza di Popolo. Disguised as a small
record shop
(called Remix), its inhabitants Andrea Benedetti and Marco Passarani use
the metaphor
to illustrate that they are slightly out of step with the country that
brought us Black Box
and Robert Miles. Passarani and Benedetti are involved with three labels:
Plasmek,
dealing with mind-bending experimental acid; X-Forces, which gives you your
daily
breakbeat rush; and Nature, the most interesting of the three imprints.
"Nature is about
music we believe in," declares Passarani when asked about the philosophy of
the
label. In its three years of existence, Nature only released six records.
Quality not
quantity, we know the score. Drop any Nature record and youll hear intriguing
electronic weirdness, often compared with labels such as Axodya, Skam and
Rephlex
(who phoned the Planet only days after the first Nature hit the shops).
But in its own backyard, a country were thousands of punters head off each
weekend
to neon-lit commercial handbag clubs along the Adriatic Coast, Nature has a
hard
time being heard. "About 95 percent of our releases is shipped abroad,"
confesses
Passarani. "In fact, we are lucky when we sell one or two Nature records in
cities like
Udine or Milano! Most people here dont want anything to do with anything
that steps
away from the usual four to the floor."
As young as he may be, Passaranis discography is impressive. He
contributed to the
Rephlex-related Mururoa EP, hooked up with Alan Oldham from Detroit for a
string of
EPs on Generator, and released two mini-albums on Nature, along with a few
singles.
It would have been much more if he hadnt been kidnapped by the state for
civil
service. But Passarani served his time, despite the fact he despises the
System.
"Politicians fucked things up real bad here in Italy. Corruption is
everywhere. One of the
only politicians I still trust is Marco Panella." This colourful left-wing
member of
parliament has quite an unorthodox way of getting his point across.
Recently, he
handed out 50.000 lira banknotes to passing civilians on the streets of
Rome. Panella
wanted to return the tax money he was given as a politician to the people.
"Panella is
one of the few politicians that actually care about the real problems in
this country,"
explains Passarani. And the old fox doesnt fear anything or anybody. Only
last hear he
was arrested for giving away free hash in order to get a debate going about
legalising
drugs. And every now and then Panella starts a hunger strike (often briefly
interrupted
for a good cup of Cappuccino) to stress his views on the abortion rights or
divorcement. "What makes me so angry is the fact that Panella makes all
these issues
discussible, but assholes like Berlusconi then pretend like they did all
the hard work." Is it any wonder that his latest release is titled The Dark
Side Of The Sword?
article by Rene Passet, October 1997.
forcefield | http://wwwedu.cs.utwente.nl/~wielen/forcefield/