Nino Lepore - Chok Musik

Nino Lepore hails from Bari in South Italy, and is perhaps best known for his self-titled LP released by Emmegi Records in 1986, though the more obscure oriented heads also know him as the uncredited arranger and producer behind Seba Romito’s work on Dancer Record. For the ‘Chok Musik’ 12”, Best Record Italy has chosen to focus on two productions from Nino’s sole LP, and in the titular track, sexualized funk basslines slither and slide over a strutting disco drum stomp, as golden guitar riffs shimmer and orchestral hazes of brass and strings swirl deliriously, sometimes alighting on adventures of filmic romance, while at other times generating drunken symphonic storms. There are abstracted breakdowns into robotic calculations and mechanized percussive chaos, while elsewhere, electric piano solos alternate with sizzling sax leads. As for “Bad Time,” a fourth world introduction of decaying gongs and hand percussions leads to a broken beat groove, which sees sensual strings generating exotic noir colorations while horns solo softly over subdued funk bass motions and distant flashes of guitar. There are progressive jazz rock breakdowns into liquid riffing and flamboyant brass that recall King Crimson, and during bombastic handclap climaxes, horns swell towards a sunburst sky.