Mutazione - Italian Electronic & New Wave Underground 1980-1988 (Compiled by Walls)

On Mutazione, Italian electronic musician Alessio Natalizia (best known for his work with the duo Walls) flaunts an uncannily comprehensive knowledge of the underground electro-punk sounds his homeland produced in the ‘80s. That period in Italy’s history was something of a tabula rasa following intense sociopolitical upheaval, and Mutazione chronicles the way the country’s post-punk cabal responded to that situation. Anger, alienation, paranoia, and claustrophobia abound in the bare-bones, hard-edged tunes that Natalizia curated. While the primary influences seem to be moody British electronic saboteurs Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire and New York synth-punk pioneers Suicide, Mutazione is far from musically monochromatic. The strangely soothing “Against the Odds” by A.T.R.O.X. seems to forecast the ‘90s emergence of electronica’s IDM movement, while Laxative Souls’ ultra-minimal “Niccolai” consists of little more than an electronically processed speaking voice and a percussive tone akin to a ticking time bomb.