L.A.S.'s Crime
L.A.S.'s Crime (the initials stand for "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime", a famous short novel by Oscar Wilde) is an electronic group from Siena, Italy founded in 1984 by Sandro Marchetti (vocals, synthesizer, drum machine), Maria Elena Brogi (vocals, synthesizer).
The band offers, since the first self-produced demo tape (Five Lies, 1985), dark atmospheres and haunting, fully electronic: no bass, guitar and acoustic drums, rather extensive use of chip electronic, as a Bontempi organ, drum machine Matteltronics, a Casio VL-Tone, blended with the more traditional Roland, Korg and Yamaha analog synthesizers and with the rhythm of a Tr 606. About a year later they released their second self-produced demo (Anomaly, 1986). For the first time the band chooses to produce a concept album: the songs flow one after the other without interruption, in a continuum that will become one of the hallmarks of the music of L.A.S.'s Crime. The sounds are complicated and become more experimental, the use of sampling carried out by a small Casio SK1 open new horizons to the views suggested by analog synths typical of L.A.S.'s Crime from the very first demo. In this period the group intensifies the live activity, and the duo's original line-up adds Rossana Piccini, synthesizers, a little later also Andrea Lamoratta, for electronic percussion and synthesizers: the band runs across the peninsula to promote his music (Udine, Pordenone, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Siena, Pompei, Naples). A few months later comes the third self-produced demo (Inanitas, 1987), thanks to the positive reviews on the fanzines of the period, sees a more widespread and allows the group to become known to a wider public, as well as to the label from Turin called Mephi Records: the label asks the group to produce a studio EP with four pieces, Abyss. The label subsequently decided to extend the range and bring an entire album. So the band returns back to the studio to record an additional 4 songs, the B side of the album. Abyss 43 born so. Unfortunately, the label (the same as Sick Rose) fails before the disc is released, and the work thus remains unpublished.
The following year, after a live tape (Celebrating Little Works, 1988), a soundtrack (Arkitext, composed in '87 but released as a demo tape in '88) and participation in various historical compilation (Leiv Traumas, Voices from the rhythm, Tendencies Tape, Sad Poppy Songs, Seduction, Terminal Twilight) the group knows David Morgera of Energeia Productions, of Naples, which produces and distributes the boxed version of the new demo tape (Electa, 1988, contains one of the unreleased tracks on the disc, Dark Xmas). The box has a fairly widespread and is later reprinted in a simplified form, without plastic box and booklet inside.
The following year, the last one of the band's self-produced demo (Korobi, 1989), with extensive use of Akai samplers, a more structured use of the voice and greater attention to detail.
The sound, while remaining fully electronic, is strongly influenced by the sounds of the English label 4AD. The atmosphere is rarefied, the structure of some songs is less common, even up to lose all the rhythm section (in its most traditional sense: bass drum, snare, cherleston, etc)
After Korobi, on 1990, the paths of the two components (Marchetti and Brogi) separated, and the duo broke up without publishing its disk, which remains buried in a drawer until 2011, year in which Mannequin is interested in L.A.S.'s Crime material to finally able to publish in 2012. Only a few months later, in September 2012, finally releases a monograph on vinyl, Disphoria 1985.1989, always licensed from Mannequin: 13 pieces selected from the entire production of the band and remastered especially for the occasion. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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