Metaxu are Maurizio Martusciello on sampler and electroacoustic objects, and Filippo Paolini on sampler, turntables and CDs. Their debut CD is an undistinguished addition to the sampling genre. Its eight untitled tracks are resolutely formulaic, with bursts of distortion and interference counterbalanced by high-pitched pulses and frequencies. These strategies are too irritating to be memorable, and yet when the soundfield activity turns towards the minimal, the results are no more engaging.

Sampled vocals, strings and flute drift in and out of the mix, failing to make much of an impression amid the barrage of processed sounds. The album only really takes off with the last track, an energetic yet eerie slab of noise that has a sense of urgency sadly lacking elsewhere.

(Originally published in The Sound Projector 9, 2001)