Daniele Ciullini

2017 repress, originally released in 2015. Ecstatic resuscitate Daniele Ciullini's "sonic polaroids" of odder '80s pop, drone, and drum machine workouts in the detached dimensions of Domestic Exile: Collected Works 82-86. Compiling the Florentine artist's standout '83 cassette plus a whole other side of compilation obscurities on vinyl for the first time, it presents a series of brilliant, isolated self-portraits by a mail art and tape scene insider (also photographer, zine publisher) who operated on the periphery of electro-industrial and ambient zones. His music is little known outside of Italy, so all credit is due to Alessio Natalizia for bringing his wide-ranging and prescient work to a broader audience here. As Ciullini's pal and bandmate in The Cop Killers (along with Masami Akita, no less), Vittore Baroni states on the liner notes that Domestic Exile was produced when Ciullini was in his late 20s and therefore possesses a more measured, mature approach than many of his contemporaries who were also scrabbling around similar sounds. Using the instantly identifiable Boss DR-55 and Roland TR 606 drum machines, plus a 303, Fender Stratocaster Electric, and Yamaha CD-5 fed direct to TEAC tape deck, these are beautifully concise, dynamic glimpses of a sharpened mind at work, proving equally adept at nipping shifty industrial drum patterns as well as brooding proto-shoegaze with "Soft Marble", or European synth expressions like "Flowers in the Water". A massive recommendation for fans of Chris Carter's The Spaces Between (1980), early The Human League or John Bender. Compiled by Not Waving. Edition of 500.