SECRET CHIEFS 3

Le Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomini

(Mimicry) Used LP $30.00

Operating as Traditionalists, one of the seven satellite bands introduced on their Book of Horizons album Secret Chiefs 3 present an elaborate colonna sonora paranoica: original compositions that were dreamt up in the harmonic language of the giallo soundtrack, employing a full orchestral score that capitalizes on the Chiefs’ stock manpower (Trey Spruance, Ches Smith, Timb Harris, Shahzad Ismaily, William Winant, etc.) and adds to it a broad cast of A-list hired musicians (among them Laurie Goldstein, Hans Teuber, et al.). Dissonant, violent strings recede into beautiful textures with flute and female vocals through echoplex; analog synthesizers, harpsichords, and celestas hover above a tight, ’70s-style rock band rhythm section; crazed psychedelic freakouts payoff majorly; church organs grant repose, until tape treatments and a shrieking chorus of possessed voices force the listener to reconsider his or her position on the existence of Evil. The spiraling allegory extends itself well-beyond its cliché starting-point as a “soundtrack for a non-existent film.” The film is imagined, but the horror is real. From 2009