Review by DjBatman
3½ stars out of 4
Italy vs. USA. Post-rock vs. Electronica. Pordenone meets New York, as
the NY-obsessed mind of former Meathead rocker Mauro Teho Teardo joins Jim Filer Coleman
of Cop Shoot Cop in an attempt to create something new and unusual. Dark electronic
atmospheres, fast drums, a cello, the "black Bjork" Carolyn
"Honeychild" Coleman, Lydia Lunch (queen of the spoken word): this -and much
more- is the substance of the album. Teho, which I contacted by e-mail recently and then
met before a live appearance with Here, is the opposite of the typical rockstar
stereotype.
He is mostly someone who wants to have fun experimenting with music, trying different
directions with different collaborators (some of the album contributors sent their sampled
sounds in mp3 format to Teho who later put them in the mix). Out of the drugged years with
Meathead, Teho made a name for himself as a polymorphic entity in the world of music (as a
producer/remixer for dozens of different acts or contributing to compilations of
experimental electronica; under the alias MTT he even produced commercial techno stuff for
the German market). Tha album is exceptional, but the live show is possibly even better
(even if some of the album contributors are replaced bu other musicians). Both Jim and
Teho play sampled sounds live (they don't just click a button on a dat... they play the
samples note by note!!), they sing, Teho sometimes plays guitar, sampler and sings
simultaneously... at one point he even tries to hit some drum...(!) Teho says he plans to
move to the US, because the place where he lives in Italy is not the exactly the best
place for making music... and also because he is completely fascinated by New York.
Whatever he will do, and wherever they may be based in the next years, I am sure that
these citizens of the world will be still doing something great.
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