If you're in college like our target demographic is, you probably feel a little wistful for the stress and suffering of teendom, perhaps best exemplified by the SATs. I thought it would be nice to once again, take time out of my busy schedule to accommodate the reader.
- Massimo's new album, __________ , is accompanied by a rather __________ press release, comparing the new __________ to a fully erect __________.
A. Hello Dirty, humorous, compact disc, penis.B. Hello Nasty, unpleasant, president, penis.C. Goodbye Jumbo, insightful, coca-cola, guitar.D. Hello Goodbye, useless, season of Friends, Robert Bianco.
A. LaMonte Young : Santo and JohnnyB. Squarepusher : Friends of DistinctionC. Massimo : Black SabbathD. Keith Fullerton-Whitman : Pitchfork
Hello Dirty is a surprising effort by Sicilian Massimo Sapienza. His Hey Babe, Let Me See Your USB and I'll Show You My Firewire LP, while dealing with similarly sexually explicit subject matter, hardly compares for the potent revelations on Hello Dirty. With so much electronic music substituting morality and personality with Deleuzeian theory, Massimo's release comes at precisely the right time.
Steeped in the extremism and nihilism of noise music, Massimo has developed a unique hybrid between the language of DSP noise and popular culture. Yet, unlike so many other releases, rather than focusing on sweetness and melody of pop music, Massimo seems to be grasping for rock instead. He is reaching for the hormones, and grinding eroticism, choosing to tessellate the results though his computer.
This might be the first experimental electronic album intended specifically for the fed-up, sex-deprived teenager, rather than the intellectual college student. All of those confused feelings of apocalypse and libidinal appetite stand in staunch opposition to the sugar-coated nostalgia of many of Massimo's colleagues. This is not to say Hello Dirty is a thoughtless album, however; by the last track, the primordial sludge shifts into a sharp, distorted parody of electronic dance music. It is relegated to the same message as rock music: Go out and fuck.
Hello Dirty is about reveling in an uncivilized part of yourself, the part of you that likes to break expensive furniture, the person you were before you were sensitive and accommodating. It's a temper tantrum, filled to its histrionic brim with sincerity. Hello Dirty is more alienating than any punk or hardcore album you're going to hear this year, and there's a good chance that it will be a sight more cathartic, as well.
A. Give more acclaim to the already regularly lauded Mego label.B. Sway the reader to buy a copy Hello Dirty, and truly challenge his or her ears for what might be the first time this year.C. Present Massimo as an immature misogynist hiding behind a computer.D. Use some avant-garde electronic buzzwords to give Pitchfork additional, unnecessary indie credibility.
Score: 8.1. Maybe now Massimo will be able to get into a good Ivy League college and find a nice girl who appreciates brooding young men, and finally start programming his high-concept album about Leibniz's Monadology.
