Victrola

Victrola emerged as an Italian minimal wave outfit in the early 1980s. Although the group issued just a single 12-inch, the 1983 release Maritime Tatami, their blend of introspective singing, post-punk guitar lines, and pulsing, floor-friendly synthetic beats left a lasting impression; interest in the minimal-wave style brought their recordings fresh listeners during the 2010s revival.

The project began in Messina, Italy, in 1979 as a four-piece rock band featuring multi-instrumentalist vocalists Antonio Cuscinà and Carlo Smeriglio together with bassist Tobia Squitieri and drummer Nino Belmonte. After circulating demo tapes that earned placements on various compilations, the musicians relocated to Florence to participate in the local scene, reduced their lineup to the Cuscinà-Smeriglio duo, and adopted a leaner electronic approach. A collection of their material appeared in 1983, yet the duo’s sole vinyl outing remained the Maritime Tatami single on Electric Eye Records. Two concluding live performances in 1984 marked the end of the band’s activity; both musicians later took part in a 1993 staging of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Starting in the late 2000s, Victrola tracks surfaced on anthologies devoted to little-known 1980s synth-pop and new-wave recordings, among them the 2009 set Danza Meccanica. Dark Entries included Maritime Tatami in its Dark Entries Editions 12-inch series in 2014. Five years afterward the same label issued Born from the Water, a double album gathering previously unreleased Victrola recordings and demos.