Most of the music I get comes from PR folks. But I get a fair share of emails from artists who want to send me their stuff. Francesco Cigana's email intrigued me. He flattered me (always effective) by saying he liked that I had a wide range of musical interests. And he said that would be necessary to appreciate his music.

Francesco Cigana Anaesthetic (self-released)

Alright! A challenge! I can dig it. Cigana is a percussionist by trade, but this album consists of six explorations of electronic noise. Feedback, fuzz, guitar edging, you name it. All arranged into song-like structures. That is, there is progression within the chaos.

So, in fact, I can dig it. And I do. And I know that most people reading this (even the most faithful of A&A readers) will probably give this a listen and shrug (or scream, which I would find preferable). Cigana is making the music that he wants to make, and he's got some pretty wild ideas.

Like, for example, his take on Coltrane's "Acknowledgement." If you stick one ear in the water and put a speaker up to the other one . . . no, that doesn't really do the trick, either. The song is in there (at least, I think I hear some faint lines), but Cigana has deconstructed it in a fairly extreme way. No half measures here. Francesco Cigana is firmly in his own world. Be prepared. He is.

Jon Worley