Lips Vago - Fictional Selfs EP

"I couldn't exactly explain why these tracks created under my Lips Vago guise remained unreleased for so long. I didn't mean to 'hide' them of course, I always considered them on a par with my experimental music that had more luck instead. Perhaps the real reason is that during the years when I was most active there was not much room, and consequently interest, for these kinds of sounds in my social circles, and these pieces never reached the 'right' ears. Then the years passed and I never really tried to 'push' them anyway... I am really glad that things are changing now."

Mostly recorded in 1996, the four tracks on the "Fictional Selfs" EP exhibit an attention to melody that is skillfully declined in different ways. Whether it is the epic build-up and refrain of "The Mobility of Her Features" - a track which the author admit was "dedicated to a girl larger than life, in many ways..." - or the incredibly cheesy keyboard solos in "Filler 4" - inspired by no less than Mike Paradinas / Mu-Ziq's alias Jake Slazenger: "I've got my Alesis HR16 drum machine just because I knew it was on his kit list..." - Marutti clearly knows his stuff and the entertaining qualities of his music ooze from every note.

Anyone curious to hear the original version of "Laughing Stock" will have to wait a little longer, but the Remix gracing the second side of the EP offers a thoroughly enjoyable version, in which multiple organ parts playfully chase each other over a forest of assorted percussion and synthetic laughter. The last track, "VST Atlas", the only one in this collection dating to 1999, expands the sound range by using various samples - "That was the very first track I recorded using Cubase VST, hence the title." - and opens a window on the more recent productions of the project.

As already mentioned, Lips Vago's "Fictional Selfs EP" only manages to scratch the surface of the author's large archive of unpublished recordings, but judging from these four pieces the 'dark side' of Andrea Marutti looks so bright you would not believe it.