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"Post-apocalyptic noir soundtrack jazz. Imagine pop rivets in a
willow pattern soup tureen, a New York license plate washed up in
the Burmese delta, Charlie Parker as a short order chef in an Alice
Springs service station, lizards on a dead farmhand and waiting in
line behind a Belgian social worker reading Bukowski."
Belle Atmos is a London based collective whose industrial cinematic
sound is as enervating as it is unnerving.
Their debut EP and DVD capture the tense structures and dark
melodies that describe the Lynchian spirit of violent beauty, white
noise consciousness and transcendence.
Belle Atmos channel the angry voice of fading celluloid and
obsolescent machines, whose crackle and hiss give a sharp form to
the background noise of the electronic politic.
Bone
shattering polyrhythmic breaks devolve into monotheistic Krautrock
to soar above the junkyard of samples chosen with random precision
from the 21st century cultural wasteland. Yet within this
dystopic vision lies a beauty; strings and orchestral touches take
musical queues from the magical architectures of Kraftwerk, Penguin
Café Orchestra, David Sylvian, and Debussy. The genius of Belle
Atmos isn’t in its juxtaposition of contrasts but in the totality of
its audio sculpture.
Integral to the experience of Belle
Atmos is Alex May’s ground-breaking synaesethic visuals which riff
heavy on themes of elemental industry, human machines, and natural
processes.
Belle Atmos
Alex May – Programming Visuals
Bridge Fazio – Vocals
Christiano Sossi
Kailas Elmer – Guitar, Bass, Programming
Martin A Smith – Keyboards, Programming
"Belle Atmos pretty much pulped the pages I wrote on" Brian Eno
"I remember as a kid listening to John Peel playing their record and
for a while, under the bedclothes, I was straight (ish)" - David
Bowie
"Belle Atmos, Belle Atmos, My god... the laughs, the violins, their
track 'Batmen under the Bloc' inspired much of my earlier stuff. I
hate them now... especially they're later more accessible work. I
don't think anyone will easily forgive their treatment of Olivia
Newton John... but anyway wounds heal, pineapples soften, and eggs
turn green. Oh yeah, they owe me money" - Laurie Anderson
"C**Ts, F**ck*n C**Ts(ah)" - Mark E Smith
"...we used to open for them at the roundhouse and 100 club. I
learned a lot about politics from Kailas I really think that he
could have been a UK version of Nelson Mandela. Only with less jail
time and more feedback driven solos" - Bono
"Martin lent me the trousers that only I could fill, Christiano lent
me the heels that could kill, and Bridge lent on me" - Genesis P-Orridge
(Throbbing Gristle)
"There was, for a time, a very special atmosphere around Belle Atmos,
something that would slip out from under your finger - a sort of
mystic homosexual energy - Ghey Lines if you will" - Peter Gabriel
"I still believe that coming apocalypse I sensed in 1983 was a
mixture of bad acid, Alex May, and Thatcher" - Jaz Coleman (Killing
Joke)
"...it really was choice between Pink Floyd and Belle Atmos, in the
end Pink Floyd made it onto the T-Shirt" - John Lydon (Nee Rotten)
"I'm eager to see how Christiano developed since those early lessons
I gave him: side parting, perm, flat top he was always really
versatile" - Robert Smith (The Cure)
"...So Martin told me, why lift it when you can push it... I guess I
took it a little too far" - Tom Jenkison (Squarepusher)
"...I don't know I never really felt part of their gang... but I
stole their drum beats" - Gary Glitter
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