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12"
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ELP 046EP
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Not Waving makes his anti-fascist feelings clear with two banging tracks that trust dancefloor irony is not dead and leftist solidarity is alive in 2019. Closing out a banner year with a club-ready boot up the ass, Not Waving's Alessio Natalizia follows his divergent 2019 outings beside Jim O'Rourke, Mark Lanegan, and Jay Glass Dubs with a wildly driven lunge for the strobes. Balancing pure escapism with a reminder to dance and laugh at the populist peckers that dominate the news and global politics, this 12" is exactly the kind of statement that should be heard more often in underground music's naturally left-leaning network of inter-linked, fringe and minority communities. The A-side's Belgian new beat-styled détournement "Tremendous" makes ironic use of a foamy-mouthed but blithe Tr*mp speech about the Paris attacks, sliced and jacked into a strapping mix of jagged EBM arps and Italo/Detroit chromatics with a naggingly playful aesthetic that harks back to Belgian new beat and UK rave's mix of pop-politics and subversive escapism. His B-side "S.M" then opens with a rabble-rousing recording of Italian students chanting "Salvini, merda" against Matteo Salvini -- Italy's immigrant-hating far-right former deputy Prime Minister -- over a bucking, pulsing electro groove that sounds like CoH jamming Ro Maron. Acts of subversive defiance such as this, encouraging dissent and ridicule of pompous right wing blowhards -- and no matter how small in the wider scheme of things -- have never been so vitally required in the modern day. Political dance anthems in a new beat/new beta-style. Orange vinyl; mastered and cut at 45rpm by Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin; edition of 300.
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2LP
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ELP 040LP
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Futuro is Not Waving's sublime synth/ambient soundtrack to one of the world's most intense art/theatre experiences: Sean Rogg's radical immersive artwork The Waldorf Project -- fusing choreography, spatial design, music, and performance into a cohesive experience. Drawn from more than 20 hours of material made for the project between 2013-2018, Futuro finds Alessio Natalizia exploring a style of tonal and spatial minimalism that works as a fine palette cleanser from much of what you've heard from him in the past. While not a new solo album, per se, the long form, Eno-like results of Futuro demonstrate the full wingspan of Not Waving's obsessive knowledge and emotive feel for electronic composition, making it in some senses one of the more substantial and unusual releases in his catalog to date. Natalizia's site-specific work ranges from highly emotive synth meditations thru to bittersweet kosmische intuitions, and milky, Eno-esque beauties. But if any part sums up the widescreen scope of Not Waving's music in Futuro, it's the final side's 17 minutes of awning, gently curdled synth pads -- originally used in a performance to 4000 people in Thailand laid in pitch black, with bodies formed in triangles while dancers caressed their faces. It ends the album with such memorable effect as to make it something of a modern day environmental/ambient classic -- and perhaps our favorite Not Waving release in an already enviably deep catalog. Limited edition vinyl; full color insert featuring photographs by Lee Arucci. Mastered and cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. RIYL: Laurie Spiegel, Steve Roach, Brian Eno, Shuttle 358.
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2LP
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DIAG 042LP
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Double LP version. Alessio Natalizia, aka Not Waving, rides the wave of a lifetime on his magnum opus, Good Luck. The London-based Italian artist's second album for Diagonal is an emotional but fiercely optimistic album of skewed cathartic dance pop written in the midst of these dark and uncertain times (made perhaps more uncertain by the recent birth of his first son). It represents the most ambitious album in his own unique catalogue, a discography that features acclaimed work as part of Banjo Or Freakout and Kompakt techno duo Walls -- plus half a decade spent at the axis of underground electronics via his own Ecstatic label and his recent, raved-up output for Diagonal. This latest record sees Natalizia fine-tuning 20 years of recording and rave experience into a vibrant, pop-ready statement that's never felt so necessary. It abandons the sensitive streak hinted at on Animals (DIAG 025CD/LP, 2016), his debut LP for Diagonal, to pursue a creative hunch for concision and social unity. This new perspective drives the album's flux of emotions and guides what some may find to be a utopian outlook, wrapping his trademark experimental urges, clever song arrangements, and winking edits in a larger narrative. After all, rave 'floors were conceived for many as a way to forget/abandon the dark undercurrents of late '80s political turmoil. Good Luck is constructed as an album proper and follows a novel narrative: from the ego-pinching computer punk of "Me Me Me", which jabs it into action, to the new wave thrust of "Tool [I Don't Give A Shit]" and the ambient flush of "Roll Along With The Pain Of It All [I'll Text U]", Natalizia clearly delights in taking us on a frenzied ride, but he never forgets his fondness for contemporary club culture (see the fulminating iridescent EBM-pop of "Where Are We" -- with Montréalais minimal wave chanteuse Marie Davidson guesting on vocals -- or the acidic punk jabs of "Watch Yourself"). Good Luck is a thrillingly positive record; it's delicious, sweet, creamy, and wonderful. And that's the thing: even the title feels like a much-needed injection of optimism, a return to the utopian ideals of rave. Contemporary politics/culture/life/love/music/media seem to be infected by a feeling of impending dread -- of fear, alienation, and division. It feels like there has never been a more important time for a record like this. Artwork by Guy Featherstone. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton.
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CD
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DIAG 042CD
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Alessio Natalizia, aka Not Waving, rides the wave of a lifetime on his magnum opus, Good Luck. The London-based Italian artist's second album for Diagonal is an emotional but fiercely optimistic album of skewed cathartic dance pop written in the midst of these dark and uncertain times (made perhaps more uncertain by the recent birth of his first son). It represents the most ambitious album in his own unique catalogue, a discography that features acclaimed work as part of Banjo Or Freakout and Kompakt techno duo Walls -- plus half a decade spent at the axis of underground electronics via his own Ecstatic label and his recent, raved-up output for Diagonal. This latest record sees Natalizia fine-tuning 20 years of recording and rave experience into a vibrant, pop-ready statement that's never felt so necessary. It abandons the sensitive streak hinted at on Animals (DIAG 025CD/LP, 2016), his debut LP for Diagonal, to pursue a creative hunch for concision and social unity. This new perspective drives the album's flux of emotions and guides what some may find to be a utopian outlook, wrapping his trademark experimental urges, clever song arrangements, and winking edits in a larger narrative. After all, rave 'floors were conceived for many as a way to forget/abandon the dark undercurrents of late '80s political turmoil. Good Luck is constructed as an album proper and follows a novel narrative: from the ego-pinching computer punk of "Me Me Me", which jabs it into action, to the new wave thrust of "Tool [I Don't Give A Shit]" and the ambient flush of "Roll Along With The Pain Of It All [I'll Text U]", Natalizia clearly delights in taking us on a frenzied ride, but he never forgets his fondness for contemporary club culture (see the fulminating iridescent EBM-pop of "Where Are We" -- with Montréalais minimal wave chanteuse Marie Davidson guesting on vocals -- or the acidic punk jabs of "Watch Yourself"). Good Luck is a thrillingly positive record; it's delicious, sweet, creamy, and wonderful. And that's the thing: even the title feels like a much-needed injection of optimism, a return to the utopian ideals of rave. Contemporary politics/culture/life/love/music/media seem to be infected by a feeling of impending dread -- of fear, alienation, and division. It feels like there has never been a more important time for a record like this. Artwork by Guy Featherstone. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton.
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12"
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ELP 026EP
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Not Waving consolidates the myriad stripes of his acclaimed Animals album (DIAG 025CD/LP, 2016) in four extended peak-time hammers on Populist. "Too Many Freaks" is an anthem in waiting, harnessing a barely-hinged sense of chaos between its careening synth lead, acid squabble and velvet-clad kicks, before the dry-rutting jag and plaintive vox of "Vibe Killer" takes a dog-grip. "Control Myself" holds its fizzy line into a fetid crevice of what sounds Russell Haswell ramping with Powell, whereas the crooked clamp-jaw groove of "Ur Lucky Ur Still Alive" pivots around a sample a lone raver at Atonal, Berlin.
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LP
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ELP 023LP
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With the first vinyl edition of Not Waving's absorbingly raw sophomore solo LP Redacted (2013), Alessio Natalizia reminds fans of his nascent psychedelic side in light of his lucid, "schizo" deviations on the Animals album for Diagonal (DIAG 025CD/LP, 2016). While there's a mutual sense of technoid momentum to both albums, Redacted is a far gauzier, free-form and sensual beast; one richly steeped in proto/post-club atmospheres and allowing his imagination to run away with itself. Conceptually, Redacted pursues the "classified" themes of his remote viewing-inspired Umwelt LP (2013) into even murkier departments, drawing subtle parallels between the cold war atmospheres that birthed original post punk, industrial and proto-techno, and the current pallor of socio-political unrest. Omitting the original tape's expansive closer for the sake of a single LP cut, this vinyl version plays out like an alternative soundtrack to scenes in the overgrown, radioactive zones of Tarkovsky's Stalker (1979), using an anachronistic palette of analog machinery to emphasize a sense of fluid, shimmering motion and out-of-place-and-timelessness that genuinely goes straight to the head with trippy effect. Swampy, slow techno horror themes vacillate with decayed pastoral panoramas and windows of synthetic optimism, both lush and disquietingly needling, using dissonance and sweeps of hazy noise to ultimately spell out a foreboding but dreamlike sort of electronic subterfuge and suspense that resonates with the nostalgic Stranger Things (2016) score as much as Leyland Kirby's Intrigue & Stuff series. Redacted was originally issued in edition of 100 gold tapes in 2013. Newly remastered for vinyl by Matt Colton at Alchemy. RIYL: Pye Corner Audio, John Carpenter, Edward Artemiev. Edition of 500.
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2LP
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DIAG 025LP
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Double LP version. London-based Italian artist Alessio Natalizia aka Not Waving presents Animals, the project's most versatile album to date. It's an unruly yet emotive bender taking in dancefloor-mauling new beta and endearingly beery post-industrial synth music. Animals harnesses the wanderlust of Natalizia's spate of self-released albums and records for Ecstatic and Emotional Response but dials up the wildness, spitting out a careering sequence of tracks that feel as warped, deep-raved, and giddy as a night out in the city where they were forged. And make no mistake, although Animals occasionally bites hard at the business end of the dancefloor, this is Diagonal's most pop album yet, with Natalizia's songwriting sensibility conjuring moments of tenderness and beauty to offset the manic strobe lighting and dropping sweat. Opener "Believe" is one such moment, a twisting synth workout that bounces along over rock-ist live toms. The tie is loosened on "Head Body," as Not Waving unleashes a raging kosmic EBM showpiece that morphs across six sprawling minutes. Next up is "24," the album "hit" that delighted and destroyed dancefloors throughout 2015, with clear influences from Front 242 and Ancient Methods. The shunting "Gutsy" and whopping industrial stress-test "Work Talk" buckle down like mutant Powell cuts, whereas "I Know I Know I Know" and the thrashing EBM-pop of "Face Attack" run The Sound of Belgium (LMFLF 287CD/296LP, 2015) through a distinctly Diagonal filter, all smart edits and unruly arrangements. The great strength of Animals, though, lies in how Natalizia marries the clammy peaks of contemporary club music with oddly emotive runs into acidic Canterbury pop (as on "Tomorrow We Will Kill You") and cyborg despair (see "Punch") before the bittersweet "They Cannot Be Replaced." In short, this is Not Waving laying down some of his most sophisticated songwriting and finding an entirely appropriate home for his own distinctive sound. Animals is Diagonal's sixth artist album, following releases by Russell Haswell (including DIAG 024CD/LP, 2015), The Skull Defekts, Shit & Shine (DIAG 012CD, 2014), and Death Comet Crew (DIAG 006LP, 2013). Art by Diagonal whiz Guy Featherstone. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton.
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CD
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DIAG 025CD
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London-based Italian artist Alessio Natalizia aka Not Waving presents Animals, the project's most versatile album to date. It's an unruly yet emotive bender taking in dancefloor-mauling new beta and endearingly beery post-industrial synth music. Animals harnesses the wanderlust of Natalizia's spate of self-released albums and records for Ecstatic and Emotional Response but dials up the wildness, spitting out a careering sequence of tracks that feel as warped, deep-raved, and giddy as a night out in the city where they were forged. And make no mistake, although Animals occasionally bites hard at the business end of the dancefloor, this is Diagonal's most pop album yet, with Natalizia's songwriting sensibility conjuring moments of tenderness and beauty to offset the manic strobe lighting and dropping sweat. Opener "Believe" is one such moment, a twisting synth workout that bounces along over rock-ist live toms. The tie is loosened on "Head Body," as Not Waving unleashes a raging kosmic EBM showpiece that morphs across six sprawling minutes. Next up is "24," the album "hit" that delighted and destroyed dancefloors throughout 2015, with clear influences from Front 242 and Ancient Methods. The shunting "Gutsy" and whopping industrial stress-test "Work Talk" buckle down like mutant Powell cuts, whereas "I Know I Know I Know" and the thrashing EBM-pop of "Face Attack" run The Sound of Belgium (LMFLF 287CD/296LP, 2015) through a distinctly Diagonal filter, all smart edits and unruly arrangements. The great strength of Animals, though, lies in how Natalizia marries the clammy peaks of contemporary club music with oddly emotive runs into acidic Canterbury pop (as on "Tomorrow We Will Kill You") and cyborg despair (see "Punch") before the bittersweet "They Cannot Be Replaced." In short, this is Not Waving laying down some of his most sophisticated songwriting and finding an entirely appropriate home for his own distinctive sound. Animals is Diagonal's sixth artist album, following releases by Russell Haswell (including DIAG 024CD/LP, 2015), The Skull Defekts, Shit & Shine (DIAG 012CD, 2014), and Death Comet Crew (DIAG 006LP, 2013). Art by Diagonal whiz Guy Featherstone. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton. CD version includes two bonus tracks.
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2LP
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NW 004LP
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Alessio Natalizia's limited three-volume Voices cassette series (2014) is reworked and extended for this limited double vinyl release, marking a point of transition for Natalizia's Not Waving project in advance of a crushing dancefloor album for Diagonal, forthcoming at the time of this release. These 18 reshaped mixes of the tapes' original 23 tracks are shuffled up like a deck of tarot cards to form a new narrative. Drawing inspiration from Ivan Pavlov, Oliver Sacks, B. F. Skinner, and "the relationship between perception, memory, attention and comprehension," they render a quietly burning mind full of ideas and synæsthetic sensation, from the lush drone harmonics of "A Part of Thought" to pulsing EBM lab golems like "The Behaviourist Approach," with a really special touch for beautifully wistful, Eldritch/Italian analog electronics in the likes of "No Kill" or lump-in-throat closer "Voices." Perhaps the best comparison would be with Pye Corner Audio's Black Mill volumes, but Not Waving's varied yet coherent aesthetic feels more like a lost compilation of library music or early industrial music than the work of one super-talented guy. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton.
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