Maurizio Bianchi — The Plain Truth
Legendary industrial composer Maurizio Bianchi sees his 1983 release, The Plain Truth, re-released to a modern audience through Verlag System. Originally on Broken Flag, this two-track LP wonderfully displays the strange, simultaneous juxtaposition (superposition?) of joyous and grim tones. Built around a very key turning point in Bianchi's life and recording career, The Plain Truth is an elegy to the past and symphonic welcoming of the future - light being born from darkness.
Like a wonderful old film strip of machines in motion, The Plain Truth mixes darkness with light while showcasing the creaking, wondrous future that industry has in store for us. The foreshadowing here is twofold: time-saving and innovative (light), but enslaving and environmentally destructive (dark). WIth Bianchi not only coming out of his M.B. period but also finding religion, The Plain Truth fully encompasses his life at the time, right down to the light dawning on a darkened factory. What is the work for without the light? This search for the spiritual truth is shown greatly in the two long-form tracks, as well as the nebulous cover art.
The second side of the album explores M.B.'s budding relationship with T.D. Another duality here (light/dark, two partners), we see how sounds interplay, mixing and separating, accentuating both the additive properties as well as the distance. While light and dark are complements, each partner should be as well, With multiple sides, multiple components, countless interactions, relationships and interplay move further and further from the plain truth. Much like Bianchi's compositions, what seems simple and plain is anything but, and even one's experiences will change with each successive spin.
38 years after its initial release, Maurizio Bianchi's The Plain Truth gets a welcome reissue via Verlag System. As intriguing now as it was back then, this industrial composition plays like the added soundtrack to a silent film. Capturing light and dark with a somewhat foggy lens, The Plain Truth shows how far from plain the truth really is. This release is out in early Dec, and to find out more head here