DONATO EPIRO

It's always tough when you hear about a tape, you hear it's worth listening to, you read about it, you watch videos, download MP3s, and then learn to find it's out of stock, out of print. This is what usually happens with releases I'd be interested in from Stunned Records. It happened with Silver Bullets' Free Radical tape from last year, the Duck Dive/Edibles split this year and shit, who wouldn't be curious about hearing a c14 from a band called Slam Fucking Dunk?

But it doesn't matter, because unless you're seriously dedicated to trolling the Stunned Records Blogspot, you're going to be too late. The editions of 111 tapes and 50 CDRs will be out of stock by the time you're interested, the bands often have no Myspace presence or web space otherwise, and you'll be forced to Google search for mediafire downloads.

And I don't condone this, it's just not the same listening to some .zip download of MP3s when you know theres like a hundred people out there with the actual tape in their walkman or car stereo. It's also a bummer because you can't support the artist, save the minute impact you may make by writing about the sounds of the MP3s or spreading the band's gospel via word of mouth. All you can do is hope they get picked up by some label that will re-issue or get noticed by someone who will help distribute the music to a wider audience in the future.

This formula just happened again with Donato Epiro's Supercontinent c30. I was reminded of his existence after checking the video for "Fiume" (below), which is off last year's Sounding the Sun CDR. Checked his Myspace, saw there was a new tape. As expected, cold sold out. Both these releases hover around the same sound - thick psychedelic drones, clattering percussions, fluttered reeds. To say he reminds me of an Italian High Wolf would put someone unfamiliar with Epiro on the right track of deep jungle meditations, but after repeated listens there's quite a noticable difference.

This is what Stunned has to say about his most recent offering:

"Animatronic apes and mechanical birds flock around Donato as he expertly fashions his sonic hieroglyphs, while sibilant rhythms and humid chants pour freely into the deviant ceremony from all sides. Join the intoxicating celebration, and play this tape whenever you need a little break from the continent you’re currently standing upon."

I'd suggest buying a tape, but it doesn't seem you can. However, there are many of his CDRs still available, including the Three Different Kinds of Poison CDR on Ark Tarp, his split with Alberorovesciato on Epiro's own Sturmundrugs label and the Pterigoti CDR, which is only available bundled with other releases on Sturmumdrugs.

Other than that, I can only suggest a healthy Google Search.

DONATO EPIRO - Fiume Nero from Moduli TV on Vimeo.

(video via DS)