Now here’s something you don’t see very often these days: a really strong, instantly likeable album from a previously unknown band that doesn’t fit into any pre-existing genre framework, or invite immediate comparison to any other artists. Not that I’d go as far as to say that Italian duo Satelliti were daring new pioneers or anything – their style still relies on wildly pulling chunks out of the past 50 years of popular music – but the way they combine their plundered ingredients feels fresh, new, noisy, *cool*. I like it!

Andrea Polato’s muscular, aggressively mixed kit drumming keeps things ostensibly anchored in a rock setting, but Marco Dalle Luche on electronics & keyboards ranges far and wide, from overdriven John Carpenter-via-Detroit Techno riff beatdowns to skittering loop pedal noise, Italio-prog bombast and fragrant psyche-jazz meandering, usually all within the same track. The band claim a strong jazz influence, and whilst this may not seem immediately obvious, it can soon be heard in both surface elements (‘Bitches Brew’ style electric piano tinkling features prominently) and at the roots of their essentially improvisatory technique.

Basically their mode of operation here recalls that of many of the bands we’re now legally obligated to call ‘krautrock’: seeding a stentorian rock groove with chaos, experimentation and unexpected left turns, building in a kind of energised ‘travelogue’ feel that seeks to take us from A to B, where ‘B’ exists only as an as-yet-invisible unknown.

Unlike many other groups employing such methodology though, Satelliti seem happy to relegate any high-falutin’ notions to the back seat, concentrating instead on basic rockin’ out. Most of ‘Transister’ sounds as if it could have been recorded live in front of an audience, with the group keen to kick that audience’s ass in classically macho fashion, as jazzist walkabouts never distract us for long from the central business of avalanching, Bonham/Liebezeit-indebted drum damage and vicious, distorted electro riffs.

At a push, categorisation obsessives could maybe put Satelliti in a box with more burly American experimental rock units such as Trans Am or mid-period Oneida, but I’ve certainly not heard their like for a while, and certainly not heard this kinda thing done in such invigorating, free-wheeling fashion. Expect to hear a lot more from these guys. TOP STUFF, in case they need a sticker for the front of the CD.

Listen and buy via bandcamp.

Labels: best of 2013, Satelliti