[reviews] afe025lcd
bad sector: retrovirus

I don't think I have to introduce Bad Sector, since Massimo Magrini's creature has been a relevant name in experimental ambient for quite some time. This release, on Amon / Never Known / Lips Vago / Andrea Marutti's Afe, was issued in 333 copies and is probably sold-out by now, but you can probably find some copies in several mailorders… or maybe ask for a re-press…

"Retrovirus" collects a series of tracks from 1987 to 2000, and shows Bad Sector's typical ability to build menacing dark ambient tracks using a variety of different sources (here, for example, a phasing sequencer, a bowed copper wire, vocal samples, etc.) with a great sense of structure and composition, but also at the same time a distinct "emotional" and visionary quality which is often missing in realeases of this genre.

The atmosphere is almost always gloomy and tense, which fits with the apparent virus theme, a relevant exception being "TCGT [scatter]", a perfect piece of soothing cosmic music.

Very well done digipack sleeve in pro-printed cardboard, and adequately abstract-looking scientific graphics.

[Eugenio Maggi]