Roberto Opalio - Chants from isolated ghost [Important Records - 2007]Chants from isolated ghost represents Roberto Opalio(one half of My cat is an Alien) first debut album from 2004, here reissued in a full pressing for the first time by Important. Though you can clearly hear the connection with his brothers work, this comes off a more ghostly and haunted feel than much of MCIAA work. I guess this feeling has much to do with this just been purely Roberto playing Astral guitar, space toys, etc sometimes over field recordings & like all MCIAA it’s recorded live with no overdubs, so sadly a few of the tracks like the opener do fail in the lack of sound depth. But the latter tracks seem to adequately make up for the early low points, As Roberto weaves haunted ambient mood scapes that murmurs of the blues and other world music. I guess there still is somewhat of MCIAA spacey vibe, but this somehow this seems more earth bound and emotional, in particular the last track that uses rain field recordings in a beautifully mood setting manner. Though not as envolving as MCIAA, this is never the less an interesting collection of ambient sound scapes, which I’m sure will please the growing army of MCIAA converts. Roger Batty
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