Secret Archives of the Vatican has been around for a long time. Like, “since the 80s” long time. They are a bit outside of the normal type of music covered here at DTL. SAotV specialize in electronic music mixed with ethnic instruments, rhythms, and ideas. At first you might say “So what? Hundreds of acts do just that. So are they Asian Underground, or Rai, or Arabesque, or Goan Trance, or what?” Well, yes and no. They have pretty much mixed every type of world music into their sound at one time or another. This time around the major influence is Turkish music. As a fan of world music, I love it when bands mix in ethnic influences. But I hate it when it is just a token sitar intro or a few beats on a dumbek that earns the label of “world fusion.” SAotV are mainly electronic, but the ethnic influences are very prominent. Storms is another excellent pay-what-you-like BandCamp album (they have eight more right now). I am still hoping for re-issues of their early cassette-only albums, but there is more than enough out there right now. You can check it out for yourself – so if you are a fan of the music I described, go give them a listen.
We’ll see what we can do about the old cassette material…not sure we have masters for all of them but maybe we have some. Thanks for this review!