Vittore Baroni’s Fabulous Review of «Industrial Blues» by Osvaldo Schwartz on Blow Up Mag n. 294 /November Issue

Vittore Baroni writes: “Rizosfera productions are an open window to the future, with their innovative combination of physical and digital formats. The first work signed under his own name by Osvaldo Schwartz is no exception, available in a 16 GB USB card plus 12″ booklet with photos, interviews and documents. The audio section “The Challenge/La Sfida” offers a cycle of five previously unreleased tracks in homage to the western-spaghetti pages of Ennio Morricone, in which Schwartz’s plaintive “Tubicordo” and noises manage to colloquise and tune in harmoniously with Marco Valietti’s bluesy and Spanish-style guitar, revisiting the various topos of the genre (whistle, harmonica, twangy sound, epic atmospheres) amid grotesque vocals and metallic industrial percussion. A turning point for the author, no stranger to soundtracks anyway, in a sparse but effective cinematic formula. The exception is Elettromeccanica, a remake of a 1983 track also featured in Domenico Morreale’s sparkling ‘constructivist’ video, a true manifesto of the thumping, vitalistic industrial-popular sound of which Officine Schwartz were proponents. That’s not all, further video material included here are the short movie A vapore, edited by Morreale with archive images of old trains and combined with Schwartz and Emiliana Voltarel’s volitional orchestration of electronic-percussive textures, then a short documentary (Vidopro) on the making of the album and finally the recording of a live performance in Turin in 2011 documenting a section of the multimedia show Ode Trifase, a prototype of the sound of ‘La sfida’. A new chapter that does not deny the peculiarity of an authentic and very personal creative path, close to celebrating its 40th anniversary. [8.3/More than Excellent] ”