Area (6) – Maledetti (Maudits)

Why no Gatefold designation for this pressing?
It obviously is [my copy is].

Well, This Record Is Simply Amazing. The Peak of Italian Experimental Jazz Rock. Maybe even the best by Area, I dare to Say! If you're wondering which Pressing to get, the Original One by Cramps Is Amazing. If you wanna get a Reissue, the 2022 Splatter Limited Edition isn't bad either! A Must Listen for any Area or Jazz Rock Fan, Anyway!

Area still continues to deliver the goods with this, their fourth studio album. They also received some outside help with Steve Lacy, Paul Lytton, and a cello quartet. They really go all over the place from the avant garde of "Caos (Parte Seconda)" to the fusion of "Disforisma Urbano" that wouldn't have been out of place on their previous album, Crac! I really love those odd percussion, played on something called a Txalaparta, which is a Basque wooden percussion instrument (sounding a little like a marimba) that opens up "Gerontocrazia". Jose and Jesus Artze provide the txalaparta, although they are credited as Jose and Anton Arze here. Given Area is the kind of band that sides with oppressed people, I am willing to believe the Txalaparta intro is a representation of suppression of Basque culture in Franco-era Spain (the fact the Basque language was banned during that time period, and although I'm not certain, probably the use of the Txalaparta too). Of course this was recorded in Italy, so the Arze brothers didn't have to worry about Franco (actually, in '75, the Franco regime had just ended, and Maledetti was from 1976). The group apparently replaced their old EMS Synthi A synthesizer with a Serge modular. You especially get to hear that at the end of "Scum" with the spoken dialog from Demetrio Stratos and the strange electronic effects. You have a cello quartet doing a massacre of Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 3". "Evaporazione" features strange synths sounds that almost sound like a didgeridoo, with Demetrio Stratos yelling, "Ladies and gentlemen!". The band never had so much outside help as they do here, and it didn't hurt them any.

Many people tend to complain about politics in music. Area was an openly communist band, so they often had their detractors just by political association, never mind musical quality. On the other hand, that hasn't bothered me, because the band kept on making great albums, and all their albums with Demetrio Stratos come highly recommended, and Maledetti is no exception!