Some artists’ material is better suited to the piecemeal structure of career-spanning anthologies than others’, but even within that group there are certain members whose work is significantly complemented by this sort of presentation. Italy’s Ghost in Mozambique is without a doubt one of these, and 2016 / 2022 is the only proof you need. It’s also the only proof in general (the only other thing by the artist I can find is “Vendetta”, a single released by Abnegazione in October of last year), but that is of little to no consequence—the music is so far-reaching and casually ambitious in itself that it vividly evokes the sprawl of half a decade of creating. The “ritual” descriptor is overused in extreme electronic music, but it’s 100% accurate here; every single one of the eclectic spread of tracks contains some shade of occult shadow, from the stuffy, delirious psychedelia of the chants and percussion on “Chicken Blood” and “Voodoo” and the chiming string plucks that temper the distorted crunch on “Snake Dance” to the trance-inducing cosmic electronica of “Urlo Psichico.” The collection’s clear centerpiece is the 26-minute “Incantesimo,” an impeccably crafted wall that feels like blasting at light speed through an endless astral wormhole, but all of the selections more than justify their respective inclusions, and by the time the grave-dirt dirge of “L’Ultima Notte” is over and the drugs have worn off and the sun starts to rise, nothing will ever be the same.
Noise Not Music 