Roberto Musci / Giovanni Venosta ‎– Malangaan
From Roberto Musci / Giovanni Venosta ‎– Water Messages On Desert Sand
Released on Recommended Records, 1987, UK

When you think about 1980’s ethnic samples and collages, the first names that more likely pop into your mind are Muslimgauze and African Head Charge, right ? Or maybe you thought about Giovanni Venosta and Roberto Musci ? If so, well done, you already know today’s topic.

Anyway, these two Italian guys had their own vision of experimental collages, blending ripped ethnic samples with improvisations on keyboards, French horns, saxophones, etc., opening the way to a much more jazzy conception of sample-based music than the one of Bryn Jones and the On-U guys, and becoming a potential unknown inspiration to Madlib‘s Beat Konducta series.

Malangaan is one of the most sober track on Water Messages On Desert Sand : though it begins with harrowing tribal sounds, the warm sound of the DX-7 will soon give the song a much more pacified tone, highlighting one of the greatest quality of this album, the amazing serenity emanating from these eleven experimental tracks.