MALABIMBA – “MalaBimba”  –  Cine 02

limited edition on 180g Vinyl LP + CD Version 250 copies

limited edition Digipack CD Edition 250 copies

MALABIMBA Info

When the mainstream audience of 70’s cinema was going with Luke Skywalker to a Star War or Bud Spencer & Terence Hill were beating themselves in the Wild West another progression was happening in the italian outback. Directors like Lucio Fulci or Ruggero Deodato developed „kaput pictures for a kaput world“ with films like “Cannibal Holocaust” or „Paura nella città dei morti viventi“ (City of the living dead). A new form of dark trash aesthetic was reached and with those films especially the Italians conquered the grindhouse cinemas all over the world.
To these movies prolific composers like Riz Ortolani or Goblin created atmospheric and bizarre Scores.

Most of the filmcritics back then hated these movies and left them all alone – but over the years an enthusiastic scene devoted to these underground cinema could develop and out of this a new wave of fantastic directors like Quentin Tarantino, Jörg Buttgereit, Rob Zombie or Eli Roth emerged and celebrated their own success heavily influenced by the masters of exploitation cinema.

MALABIMBA remember musically on this golden age of cinematic underground. Their self titled first full length Album is to understand as a hommage to composers like Riz Ortolani, Franco Micalizzi, Goblin or Stelvio Cipriani and let Zombies, bad Cops, busty Blondes, mad Scientists and black gloved Killers come back again into your mind’s eye.

MALABIMBA is handmade music, analog recordings, real drums, real keys and organs, real percussion, no computers used at all. MALABIMBA is creating music for an imaginary movie from the 70´s!

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Some Reviews in German & English!

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Dottore Stiglegger für seine Kolumne Abseits im DEADLINE Magazin, Deutschland.

Und schließlich ist da noch Wanks eigenes Projekt MALABIMBA , benannt nach einem dubiosen 70er-Sexfilm, ein Duo, das unterschiedlichste genuin italienische Genres heraufbeschwört, mit analogen Keyboardsounds und teils fast funkigen Beats. Das ist verführerisch sleazy und verlangt nach entsprechenden Retrobildern – vom Giallo zum Polizeifilm, vom Erotikdrama zum Splatterhorror.

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Christian Ladewig für VIRUS Magazin Deutschland

Alex Wank kommt aus Wien und war im früheren Leben Drummer der berühmt-berüchtigen Perverso-Metaller von Pungent Stench, die nicht nur Bilder des Virus-Frühphasen-Kunstboys Joel-Peter Witkin sondern auch ordentlich Humor an Bord hatten. Alex ist aber auch großer Fan italienischer Horror- Giallo- und anders zu verortender Bahnhofskinofilme aus dem Lande der guten Tomatensoßen. Als Fachmann der Materie und Musikus hat er natürlich einen besonderen Narren an den dräuenden Sleaze-Synthesizer-Soundtracks der Filme gefressen und vor nicht allzu langer Zeit sein Label Cineploit gegründet. Hier veröffentlicht er Soundtracks zu imaginären italienischen Genrefilmen. Das macht Spaß. Eines seiner Projekte ist das Drums & Tasten-Projekt Malabimba (benannt nach einem 1979er Bumsschloss-Heuler von Schmiermeister Andrea Bianchi) der Gebrüder Di Cipolla und vorm inneren Auge laufen dann auch sofort Szenen nackiger Rosalba Neris auf der Flucht vor schnaufenden Lucianno Pigozzi-Unholden mit komischen Hüten oder mindestens schwarzen Handschuhen ab, die früher von Leuten wie Cipriani, Micalizzi, den De Angelis Jungs oder Goblin unterlegt worden wären. Es pocht und pluckert, dass man sich in einer Mitternachtsvorstellung wähnt und manchmal musste ich beim Hören der Scheibe eher noch an die angefunkten Synthies John Carpenters als an die Cinecittà denken, was aber beileibe nichts Negatives ist. Der Gedanke, wie die Soundideen der Zwiebelbrüder wohl klängen, wenn man das Gerüst aus Keys und Schlagzeug mit Orchestrierung und/oder einer Band auskleiden würde, kommt mir äußerst reizvoll vor und beschäftigt den Komponisten bestimmt ebenfalls. Malabimba gibt’s auch als limitiertes Vinyl, was eine Freude ist.

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George Pacheko/Boston Examiner

Malabimba create memorable, cinematic mood music

Inspired by the classic cinematic composers of 1970s Italy, the Austrian duo known as Malabimba achieve quite an evocative first effort here on their self-titled debut for Cineploit Records, a moving and memorable sonic excursion which drives home some severely shakin’ sonic ruckus.

To be fair, there is also a hefty share of 1960s bossa nova groove and 80s synth magic present within Malabimba’s organic, funky grooves, embracing the Italian soundtrack aesthetic with glee ‘n glorious aplomb. Utilizing a handmade aesthetic in their approach, Malabimba make it a point to create all of their groovy sounds the old fashioned way, ensuring that the brilliantly warm, analog production does them the best possible sonic favors.

As a result, the bass, guitar and organ tones are fleshed out to the max, setting up plenty of moods throughout the album’s eighteen tracks, from rugged and aggressive vibes—perfect for a hard boiled Italian crime thriller or poliziotteschi—to the smooth, swinging sexiness of “La Svolta” or “Diventare Adulto,” which wouldn’t sound out of place on one of Stelvio Cipriani’s erotic film scores.

Malabimba aims to please, regardless of the mood, setting up a fitting audio accompaniment each and every time. Right from the get go, it becomes clear that this musical duo is more than just the sum of their inspired parts, but rather songsmiths who take said influence and run with it, in the process creating their own weird, wild and wonderful world of memorable mood music.

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Dusty Groove Chicago

A really great group with a strong influence from 70s Italian soundtracks – one that serves up some mighty spare instrumentation that just includes percussion and keyboards – the latter of which is heavy on organ and synthesizer! The music has a really sinister feel – like the kind of grooves, both funky and mellow, you’d find on some sort of spooky soundtrack from years back – almost like some of Goblin’s best film scores of the 70s, but without as much jamming overall! The approach is really wonderful – lean, mean, and far from cliche – and titles include “Isolato”, “Malabimba 1”, “La Fortuna Alterna”, “La Svolta”, “Addormentato”, “La Piaga Dell Umo”, and “La Violenza”. (Comes with a bonus CD of the album!)

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Geoff Birchenall for Zero Tolerance UK

MalaBimba are an Austrian duo who are, it seems, huge fans of Giallo Cinema and the musical works of the likes of Goblin, Riz Ortolani and Franco Micalizzi. With this self titled debut they have gleefully carved out a rustically-produced homage to all things Giallo, and conjure a beautiful-yet-menacing dark-trash aesthetic that was in the DNA of 70´s Italian Cinema which wowed grindhouse theatres back in the day. The fact that the recording process was carried out on tape machines adds to the authentic vintage feel  and woven with that deep, deranged yet playful keyboard-assault, conjures images Argento set-pieces featuring impossibly red blood dripping from the neck of a bella donna italiana! Belissima!

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