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LP
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THRILL 612X-LP
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Pressed on amber color vinyl. "Black Bile compiles some of Umberto's most resplendent, sanguine music to date. The solo work of LA composer Matt Hill draws heavily from the world of cinema, spinning immersive narratives and rich atmospheres using sound alone. Hill, an active composer for film and television, recently scored the 2022 Jerry Pyle film Loveseat (soundtrack was released in 2023). Other recent scores include the 2020 thriller Archenemy, from the producers of cult classic Mandy. Inspired by the ancient Greek theory of the 'four humors,' an early medical theory linking the inner workings of the human body to the elements. Black Bile specifically links the feelings of melancholy with autumn. Hill's celestial compositions are an autumnal soundtrack conveying beauty, yearning, reflection and comfort. Many of the album's phrases are constructed from just two notes or sounds, arranged by Hill into complex patterns that undulate with an organic pulse. The spare melodic structure holds a myriad of small and beautiful details. The songs began with Hill improvising on the piano, to find the notes and patterns that created the musical and emotional structure from which he could expand with textural detail. Hill then would often remove the initial structure leaving a sparer and more skeletal one which he could again expand upon to create a full piece. The careful attention to each detail gives his minimal compositions emotional heft. The album masterfully stakes Umberto's claim among other avant-ambient boundary pushers such as Lawrence English or Laurel Halo."
"There is real compositional variety and intrigue in his songs? elaborate and unpredictable... it's hard not to be impressed with Umberto's evolution of late, as lacerating experience as it may be at times." --The Quietus
"Masterfully polished and skillfully arranged... dazzling" --Brainwashed
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CD
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NNF 212CD
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"Goblin-worshipping classic gets reissued on CD digipak. Prophecy Of The Black Widow is Umberto's sophomore album and while the badass evil Italo goth-synth horror-score blueprint of Grave remains, the main variation is subtle vibe-shift from '70s Argento/Carpenter-isms into more early/mid-80s new wave creep-scapes. There's still plenty of eerie nightmare keyboard riffs and vintage witch-disco breakouts but the synths squelch with more of a neon retrofuturist bent and there's even one brazenly feel good soaring-into-the-sunset closing credits anthem (the literally-titled 'Everything Is Going To Be Okay'). Whatever prophecy Prophecy is foretelling, we're on board."
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7"
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NNF 227EP
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"After 2 full-lengths mining vintage horror scores and Italo/Goblin-isms for inspiration, Kansas City riddler and composition whiz Umberto slow-pans his focus out of the graveyards and black widow cobwebs into the celluloid-stained artificial streets of Beverly Hills police beats and pop culture ghost-busting. Freeze! is an inscrutable but impressively legit reinvention of Jan Hammer-style '80s soundtrack cheese: soaring keyboard lines, fast-tappin' piano, locked-in bass grooves, goofy canned drums, baroque purple haze soloing, etc. 'Put An APB On Those Bastards' kicks things off with a tension-ramping Corvette cruise into the heat of the night, while 'Illegal Entry With Intent To Zuul' is a pitch-perfect rooftop chase scene that ends with somebody falling fifty stories into a posh private pool (and is apparently also somehow about that horned dog demon that possesses Sigourney Weaver in G-Busters?). A bizarre and thoroughly enjoyable curveball from one of our fave current music-makers. Black vinyl 45s in pro-printed jackets with hilarious/hijacked Eddie Murphy artwork by Derek Goon. Edition of 500."
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