Father Murphy is an Italian trio comprised of Reverend freddie Murphy (vocals, guitar), Chiara Lee (vocals, keyboards, chinese percussions) and Vittorio Demarin (drums, viola, vocals). Born in Treviso, northern Italy, from the ashes of freddie’s several previous musical projects, Father Murphy with just one album and a plethora of ep’s and limited releases became one of the most mysterious and enigmatic musical entities coming out of Italy. If their first album Six Musicians getting unknown was still somewhat rooted in twisted psychedelic pop and sounded vaguely related to Os Mutantes and Italian psych pop masters Jennifer Gentle, the new record is a bold statement and a significant step ahead - out of every familiar musical genre and right into the darkness. Recorded in San Crisostomo in Bombanella church between the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008, And He told us to turn to the sun maybe was born like a rather weird attempt to a concept album about religion, but surely sounds like a collection of dark, foreboding songs that crawl and twist and hiss like that old biblical serpent.
Think of Gnostic masses, kabbalistic chanting, chiming little bells, tinny Gregorian-like drones played on toy-keyboards and the subtle but inescapable influence of 70’s Italian horror rock acts like Jacula and you will have some of the ingredients that make Father Murphy’s music. Add a good deal of lunacy and enough humour to keep the gloom away (just because you cannot take yourself that seriously) and the album is here, in all its strangely beguiling simplicity. Song after song, from the initial semi-pop outburst of “We were colonists” to ascetic, almost medieval atmospheres of Go Sinister, the entire lp feels like a truly different, warped experience. Think of Alan Sparhawk’s Low doing versions of Twilight furniture from This Heat or Milk it from Nirvana. When the final, 10-minutes mastodon “In their graves” creeps in with all the agility of a primordial doom-metal beast slowly sucked in a prehistoric swamp, everything comes full circle: an uneasy, compelling, furiously heretic yet sandblasted in Catholicism little album that could come only out of Italy.
“Compliments to Michael Gira for pointing Dream Magazine in the direction of this intriguing Italian psychedelic outfit. Lumpy and smooth lurching uneven constructions suffused with oblique passions and simmering intensity. As the title aptly indicates there\'s a vaguely sinister quality to the music these folks make. Even the lighter moments have a slightly uneasy nightmarish undertone to them, but in a completely natural and unforced way. A mix of male and female vocalists, loudness and subtlety, and a wide range of stylistic influences blended into something quite unique. Though they sing everything in English they have a distinctively Italian feeling. In a world of cookie-cutter imitators, it\'s very refreshing to find something so disturbingly and provocatively unique. These folks also sent along a great CD-R of their upcoming album \"...And He Told Us to Turn to the Sun\" which is perhaps even more intense, edgy and fascinating than Do the Sinister. This is definitely a band to keep an eye and ear open for.” Dream Magazine review by George Parsons
check out
http://www.boringmachines.it/ Father Murphy's label in Europe
http://www.maledetto.it/ Madcap Collective
Tour
Feb 04 MKK w/Les Rhinocéros Murska Sobota, Slovenia
Feb 06 MEDIKA w/Les Rhinocéros Zagreb, Croatia
Feb 07 RHIZ w/Les Rhinocéros Wien, Austria
Feb 08 PEKARNA w/Les Rhinocéros Maribor, Slovenia
Feb 09 MENZA PRI KORITU w/Les Rhinocéros Ljubljana, Slovenia
Feb 10 FORUM STADTPARK w/Les Rhinocéros Graz, Austria
Feb 11 THE PLACE w/Les Rhinocéros Rijeka, Croatia
Feb 12 END HITS EVENT w/Les Rhinoceros Szeged, Hungary
Feb 13 ROHAM w/Les Rhinocéros Budapest, Hungary
Feb 14 TABACKA w/Les Rhinocéros Kosice, Slovakia
Feb 15 STANICA w/Les Rhinocéros Zilina, Slovakia
Feb 16 LUC w/Les Rhinoceros Trencin, Slovakia
Feb 17 OSTINATO w/Les Rhinocéros Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
Feb 18 VEGALITE w/Les Rhinocéros Brno, Czech Republic
Feb 19 K4 w/Les Rhinocéros Prague, Czech Republic
Feb 20 MONARCH w/Les Rhinocéros Berlin, Germany
Feb 21 AZ CONNI w/Les Rhinocéros Dresden, Germany
Feb 22 MUSEUMKELLER w/Les Rhinocéros Erfurt, Germany
Feb 24 BOLOGNESI Ferrara, Italy
Feb 25 LA GIRAFFA Vittorio Veneto Tv, Italy
Mar 02 HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR w/Tune Yards Torino, Italy
Mar 03 LANIFICIO 159 w/Tune Yards Roma, Italy Tickets
Mar 04 TUNNEL w/Tune Yards Milano, Italy Tickets
Mar 06 LOCOMOTIV w/Tune Yards Bologna, Italy Tickets
Mar 10 L'International w/Pontiak Paris, France
Mar 11 La Malterie Lille, France
Mar 13 The Croft Bristol, United Kingdom
Mar 14 Nice N Sleazy Glasgow, United Kingdom
Mar 15 Mello Mello Liverpool, United Kingdom
Mar 16 THE FOX Leeds, United Kingdom
Mar 17 BLUE ROOM Ipswich, United Kingdom
Mar 22 Gardaskolan Gothenburg, Sweden
Mar 29 Fluc Vienna, Austria
Apr 04 NUB Montale, Italy
Apr 05 Traffic Roma, Italy
Apr 09 SOTTERRANEI Copertino, Italy
Apr 13 NEVERLAND Bergamo, Italy
May 01 STONE New York, NY