Extrema Ratio - A dangerous method CD released in 2021 catalog number DNN 023 C

 

In 1989, John Zorn, in the liner notes of Spy Vs Spy (Elektra), a cover album of Ornette Coleman compositions, thanked (among many) the bands Napalm Death, Blind Idiot God, and The Accused, before finishing with "Fucking hardcore rules. Smash racism." Zorn's music comes slamming back to mind with A Dangerous Method from Extrema Ratio, because the timing is right for improvised music to return to hardcore. "Naked Convulsions" opens the disc with a sample of the writer William Burroughs explaining, "Nothing is true, everything is permitted; everything is permitted because nothing is true." These prophetic words may never have been more accurate given the first casualty in the presidency of Donald Trump was truth.

The quartet of vocalist XlaidoX, baritone saxophonist Alessandro Cartolari, drummer Diego Rosso, and Valdjau Kathportha on electronics reanimate Zorn's bands Naked City and Painkiller with the primal screams of vocalists Yamatsuka Eye and Mike Patton of The Dillinger Escape Plan. That opening track blasts screeching baritone against off-kilter beats and megaphone declarations to wake up. Throughout, the thickness of electronic pulse, baritone saxophone and bass drum kits, acts as heavy artillery. When the quartet switches back and forth between the thrashing speed violence and the quietude of strained whispers on "I 8 Indifference," they work a juxtaposition to great effect. "Asthenic Rite" works an oxymoronic loud ambient post-apocalyptic path with the assistance of Luca Benedetto's trumpet and Fritz Welch's spoken words. By the time we get to the hardcore pulse of "Revolution" with words from Mao Tse-tung calling for a class war, it's clear we're not in Kansas anymore.

Mark Corroto (All About Jazz) 19/05/2021

 

Heads Will Roll

Extrema Ratio are a four-piece coming out of Turin, Italy, here with their debut album A Dangerous Method (ALMA DE NIETO DNN023C). At first gazoon this one seemed very far from subtle – a pretty grotesque noise assault made with sax, drums, electronics and an unhinged screaming voice, and one senses the band might be trying to convey some political ideas, as evidenced by the graphical images and slogans on the artwork here, which are heavily influenced by Communist propaganda stylings. There’s also a song called ‘Revolution’ based on a text by Mao Tse-Tung. However, I think Extrema Ratio are also concerned with advancing an agenda of personal liberation, as shown not just by the rather formless and heaving music which lurches around like a crazed dinosaur, but also in the use of texts by Pasolini and samples from William Burroughs which open the album (something of a gaffe, if truth be told).In embracing the precepts of free improvisation, the band bring in Fritz Welch (formerly of PSI) to add vocals on one track, plus the trumpeter Luca Benedetto who has landed in with this mob from a jazz context. But the aim is to mix up free improv with punk aesthetics by way of political bands like Crass, and abrasive noise with many industrial elements, with the unhinged electronic sounds of Valdjau Katportha coming to the fore. Vocalist .xlaidox. might be the focal point for most of these energies and influences; he looks fearsome in his photograph here, yawping at top of his lungs through a megaphone (!) and equipped with bulging muscular arms that would raise eyebrows at a Mr Universe tournament; .xlaidox. has evidently been active within the counter-culture for over 25 years now, producing graphic designs and fanzines (hopefully full of dissident and agitational content) besides making records and producing other bands in the hardcore punk area. Plus there’s the disjointed sax blasts of Alessandro Cartolari, who rasps like a bad-tempered shark with bent fins, and the maniacal drumming of Diego Rosso…

While the foursome are capable of rocking out like the best of any post-Black Flag band to have appeared in the pages of Maximum Rock N Roll, Extrema Ratio are also capable of some insanely powerful dynamics, stopping and starting their mighty warhorse with the skill of a cavalry veteran, indicating they are not simply an artless three-chord punk band and have a lot more content they wish to convey, through their ugly and broken music, and their confrontational lyrics. They also have a manifesto which has to be read to be believed – it’s not simply the high-flown and grandiose claims they make with their slogans, but the abstruse language in which they say it, packed with fanciful adjectives and multi-syllabic nouns, constantly stressing how “unorthodox” they are and completely different to everything else. Perhaps they see themselves as inheritors to The Futurists. At all events, this record with its over-the-top cover art of axe slicing head in twixt is starting to grow on me, and when you get past the sickening crunch of its more violent moments, you will discover some truly twisted and highly inventive out-there art music emerging, breeding like strange worms underground. From 24th March 2021.

Ed Pinsent (The Sound Projector) 6/12/2021

Extrema Ratio lives up to their name. The name relates to the maximum or minimum value of a function in maths. The music here is both maximum and minimum. Sometimes at the same time. Normally there is a rule for a member of a band to stand out and the rest plays around them, but here no one appears to be in charge. Everyone is pulling at once. Sometimes in different directions. .xlaidox.’s vocals. Alessandro Cartolari sax, Valdjau Katportha’s electronics and Diego Rosso’s drums combine to create something pleasurable but also massively unpleasant. And we’re grateful for them. A William S. Burroughs sample “Apocalypse. Consider an apocalyptic state. Nothing is true. Everything is permitted. Everything is permitted because nothing is true” kicks off their debut album ‘A Dangerous Method’. Whilst you are making sense of it, huge horns, dense electronics, sparse percussion and biting vocals kick in. It’s disorienting but compelling. ‘Naked Convultions’ is a great introduction to the album. Everything to follow is hidden in plain sight. ‘Lust of Death’ is more of the same, but everything has been ramped up. The horns sound like a wounded beast. The electronics wouldn’t feel out of place on a HyperDub album. In short. It’s wonderful. Throughout ‘A Dangerous Method’ the music is a mixture of shronk, punk/DIY, bass music and spoken word diatribes. It has wonderful throb to it. The saxophone is devastating. During ‘Lust of Death’ there are sections when Cartolari is just blowing for all he’s worth. Katportha’s electronics are pure filth, Rosso’s drums are being slammed and .xlaidox.’s vocals are distorted beyond comprehension. It’s brilliant. None of it really belongs together but it works incredibly well. It sounds like four random strangers met and just started playing. It feels pure and without an objective. Other than playing. However, there are moments of tender beauty. ‘Theorem’ is filled with sensuous sax that billows from the speaks. It is warm, friendly and, most importantly, counterbalances the electronic static blips and guttural, and primal, screams. ‘A Dangerous Method’ is a fascinating album that yields more with each listen. At times it feels like the howls of something in pain, and it probably is in all fairness, but at other times it is comforting with pangs of pathos. This isn’t an album to get lost in but to try and escape from, because once it starts you are trapped in its labyrinthine maze with some hulking mythic creature on your trail.

Nick Roseblade (Vital Weekly 1278)