Umberto - Prophecy of the Black Widow

UMBERTO - PROPHECY OF BLACK WIDOW

Not Not Fun

The vogue for horror themed music shows no sign of abating. Recent releases from the likes of Bottin, Anton Maiovvi, Zombi Zombi and a renaissance of John Carpenter collaborator Alan Howarth demonstrates that this is one peculiar meme that seems ready to run and run. What has caused this to happen? It’s nothing to do with an unusual planetary alignment that afflicted a certain generation of producers  to all watch Suspiria or Halloween and listen to Goblin - more the steady fact that the internet is making our musical worlds a hell of a lot smaller and much less insular. As such, ideas percolate much, much faster now than they did, making these particular rootless scenes global rather than localised.

Matt Hill aka Umberto released his debut album “From the Grave” on Sonic Meditations last year. It echoed all the influences you might expect, namely Claudio Simonetti and his pals from Goblin alongside the electronic sludge of Danny Wolfers.  The results were middling; warm analogue production values failed to compensate for a certain lack of adventure in the composition. This second album on Amanda Brown’s “Not Not Fun” label (responsible for such lo-fi drone acts as Sun Araw), perhaps unsurprisingly, adds a cadaverous carapace of dust and hiss to the sound. More importantly, a new level of emotional texture and drama in the arrangements helps to make this a more enjoyable and singular listening experience.

Opener “Temple Room” starts with some tumultuous drones, but it’s a shame that it then drifts into a sub-Goblin disco-rock workout that unfortunately doesn’t have any direction. Matters pick up however with the spine-tingling drama of “The Psychic”. The production on this album is much more fulfilling - the low end really leaps out of the speakers, particularly on this track. Prophecy is much more anthemic, a fact born out by the eerie, pregnant atmosphere of “Red Dawn”.  Side A closes in spectacular fashion with “Widow of the Web”. Rather than using horrendous epithets such as “witch-house” (why o why is there such a rush to give music a name and a horrendous one at that) I’ll just advise that this is an excellent and cinematic piece that is the equal of any written by Hill’s musical progenitors.

Matters take a much more intimate turn on the flip side with “Black Candles”, with the delicate synths adding a real sense of drama. Although the following horror disco number “Night Stalking” seems lumpen at first, it flowers towards the end with some excellent synth lines that weave in and out. The album finishes strongly, in particular with the brooding “Someone Chasing Someone through a house” and “Everything is going to be okay” which closes out in true sunset-finale style.

Prophecy demonstrates some exceptional values; the thin veneer of hiss and distortion adds a real sense of crackly drama and excitement that echoes ambient artist Caretaker. Unlike him though, Hill’s musical direction is less adventurous and whilst this is very much an improvement on his previous album, the real question is how long can you sustain interest in such a specific musical idea? There’s only so much you can do with one emotion before you run out of steam.

Toby Frith