After having heard “Dorko’s Antruum” out on Early Sounds Recordings, which is considered by us one of the finest releases of last year, Naples’ duo The Normalmen, consisting of Enrico and Raffaele, but better known as Milord and Whodamanny are finally set to release a second 12” on Whitejail London entitled “Antruum Odyssey”.
Enrico and Raffaele never met until a few years ago thanks to their girlfriends, although they’ve both always been living in Naples since they were born. Then, they became really close friends; “what we define “partners in crime”; you know what we mean!” They first started buying €1 bin records together, throughout every thrift shop and local market in the city, then they spent their days in the “Cluvio”, with records playing. The “Cluvio” is the basement of Milord’s uncle, “a moist and harsh area”, where they began producing music, “and was the place where his cousin had enjoyed his dates and poker games!”
“A lot of outsiders ran to the Cluvio, but they had no idea about what we produced, so we called them “Dorkos”. That’s why our first record is called “Dorko’s Antruum”, based on House beats, sampling, etc.” Producing their second record in the Cluvio was an ordeal, however “Antruum Odyssey” was created with completely diverse influences, such as disco beats, Asian scales, real synthesizers, and no sampling. Basically, their attention is focused on sounds – they’re synthesizer addicts. “Let’s pick up “Magnetic Eyes”, Jeff Phelps album, let’s play “On The Corner”, ok? We don’t care about lyrics, but just how Phelps makes use of the Korg Poly 800”.
As well as creating music under The Normalmen, they’re also working on a project with Dario of Mystic Jungle, under the name of “Mystic Jungle Tribe”. They met Dario, as he was Raffaele’s neighbour; “and when we met him, he had already recorded Mystic Jungle, as solo player, then we decided to upgrade his solo project in a trio band”. They’re currently recording in a new comfortable place called West Hill Studio, in which they’ve already produced their first album, “Solaria”. “For the time, we’re working on a brand new EP for Early Sound and in the meantime we’re involved in Periodica Records project, in which Raffaele looks out for its artistic details and Enrico is one of the owners. We’re really looking forward to our next "MJ Tribe" LP and Periodica catalogue that will be released after the summer and will disclose very interesting newcomers.”
Check out the mix they did for Scopitone below:
soundcloud.com/scptn/mix-013-the-normalmen