Quirlschlängle / Germany / 2025
After 40 years of boundary-pushing activity, Rome’s cult project Mushroom’s Patience returns with La Nueva Normalidad. This album marks a significant milestone, coalescing into a "supergroup" lineup that brings together founder Dither Craf (Raf Cerroni) with J. Weber (of the legendary Austrian duo Nový Svět) and Léo Maury (of Niedowierzanie).
The record is a masterclass in "psychotropic-mutated folklore" and broken post-industrial pop. For the first time in 20 years, J. Weber returns to his unmistakable vocal duties, delivering lyrics in German and English over a rich instrumental tapestry of accordion, cello, modular synths, and brass. The sound is a dazzling contradiction: it echoes the shiny aesthetics of the '70s and '80s—glimmering guitars and sharp beats—only to dissolve them through an acid-warped mirror of haunting unease and theatrical absurdity.
Lyrically and visually, the album confronts the "monstrous forces" of the modern era, using black humor and surreal imagery to explore personal failure and social dogma. It is a severe, meditative, and ultimately visionary work from one of Italy’s most enduring avant-garde outfits.
FFO: Nový Svět, Coil, Death In June (mid-era), Current 93, and the surrealist post-industrial pop of labels like Hau Ruck! or World Serpent