Mamuthones is the project run by Alessio Gastaldello, founding member and former drummer of Jennifer Gentle. After a collaborative record with Italian drone meister Fabio Orsi, Mamuthones released on Boring Machines his first proper album “Sator” in 2009, a record of dark, foreboding, hypnotic music.
Sator takes its title from the mysterious engravings found in many ancient Roman ruins and Middle Age European churches: basically a riddle still without a solution, it is also the key to penetrate this album of moods, textures and impenetrable silences.
The record reveals itself as a haunting listening experience, shimmering with a sort of dreamlike (or maybe nightmarish?) luminescence. Blackened whispers, Nico-esque harmoniums, subtle synth touches creeping in here and there: everything concurs in creating the melodic but arcane ambience permeating the entire album.
In 2010 Gastaldello expands Mamuthones to a full band, including long-time friend Marco Fasolo aka Mr.Jennifer Gentle on guitars and the 64 years old drummer Maurizio Boldrin, a local myth who used to play in Pino Donaggio’s ensemble (yes, the same Donaggio who wrote “You don’t have to say you love me” and soundtracked multiple Brian De Palma, Nicholas Roeg and Joe Dante movies).
The new eponymous album is a definite step beyond previous Mamuthones’ releases: it still retains the droney, foreboding darkness of its older siblings, but this time the sound is the one of a raw, aggressive rock trio.
Mamuthones has received international praise by the likes of The Wire, Rock-a-Rolla, Uncut, Mojo and also The Times, the worldwide known newspaper.