Biography
Father Murphy is the sound of the Catholic sense of Guilt.
A downward spiral aiming at the bottom of the hollow, and then digging even deeper.
After having furiously performed all over Europe, toured North America with Deerhoof, Dirty Beaches and Xiu Xiu, been praised by the Archdruid Julian Cope, among lots of others, the new installment of their unique sonic saga will be a concept EP on Failure, to be release next January by Aagoo Records (US) and Boring Machines (ITA). Like the previous record (“Anyway, your children will deny it” among the best 50 albums of 2012 for Rock-a-Rolla Magazine) the new piece was mixed and produced by Deerhoof's Greg Saunier.
Father Murphy, with three albums and a plethora of EPs and limited releases, over the years became one of the most mysterious and enigmatic musical entities coming out of Italy, part of that community that Simon Reynolds started to call the new “Italian Occult Psychedelia”.
PRESS:
When I played a non-band set in Oakland, California, opening for the Italian band Father Murphy, they completely floored me. I had never heard of them until then, but their album And He Told Us Not To Turn to the Sun packs some of the most original, beautiful music I'd heard in a long time – think eerily spacious songs with strange yet perfect arrangements. And such nice people! I'm a huge fan – John Dieterich (Deerhoof) as interviewed by The Independent
A mix of Monty Python and a lurid low-budget Italian horror film comes to mind as you listen to the clanging riffs and distressed wails of Turin outfit Father Murphy... The floridly prog-gothic atmosphere – sinister church organ, shuddering guitars, black mass chants – grows oddly beguiling as the album continues. Suspension of disbelief is required, but the effort doesn’t go unrewarded - Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times
Italy’s fabulously lawless organ-guitar-drums trio Father Murphy, who have – with their colossal new album Anyway Your Children Will Deny It – delivered a disc of exhilarating vocal harmonies, low church organ themes, and flipped out heathen tantrums all exquisitely staged and performed with that same theatrical drama as early This Heat or JA Caesar... Released on Aagoo Records, this is a haunting and superb work that you really must check out- Julian Cope, Head Heritage
The dead-eyed chants, keyboard drones and bone-dry rhytms of Italian Father Murphy's second album conjure up a funereal atmosphere somewhere between homemade Morricone and toytown Goblin... That ol'devil Dario would surely approve - Joseph Stannard, The Wire
Recently watching the 1974 "classic" Nude for Satan confirmed that A: Italian art can often be simultaneously Catholic and subversive and B: they make music that's fantastically fucked up... There are elements of Michael Gira's shabby grandeur crossed with the improvised drum racket of My Cat is an Alien. Their guitars seem infected with distortion and the percussion blends rowing rhythms with sea spray cymbals. The whole procession keeps shifting focus so that you can't be sure if they are winking or wincing - Eric Hill, EXCLAIM!
From the harbingers of occultism and eroticism lifted from their nation's giallo tradition, to their theatrically adopted pseudo-religious personas (unless Murphy's a real-life 'padre', in which case I can only beg his forgiveness), this Italian group are a 'cult' band in every sense of the word. - Tristan Bath, THE QUIETUS
Father Murphy delve further into the prog horror sound of 2008 …And He told us to turn to the Sun, with a poundling Gialloesque score that suggests a band who've studied Messiaen's Messe de la Pentecote alongside Os Mutantes and spotted a deep and true connection - MOJO
Early Velvet Underground or something like that may be somewhere to draw a comparison to, but this is much more twisted up - Boston Hassle The Italian rock renaissance of the 21st century — at least in some corners — continues with the work of Father Murphy, as aggressively outré as early Jennifer Gentle, say, but with their own distinct style, twisted stop-start chants and clatter instead of bizarrely winsome sparkles... Father Murphy are well on their way to establishing their own solid reputation for an intriguing listen. - Ned Raggett, All Music Guide
I'll put an extra shilling in the collection plate if Reverend freddie Murphy has been ordained. There's chanting and banging and bells-a-plenty, a peculiar hymnal to the art of noise. Throughouth, the percussions, strangulated sounds, epic songstitles and conceptual doom as if the world's faiths are istering the last rites over the rattlin' bones of Liars. If the papists hear this, there'll be excommunication for Reverend Fred. Amen to that - Luke Turner, NME
Compliments to Michael Gira for pointing Dream Magazine in the direction of this intriguing Italian psychedelic outfit… This is definitely a band to keep an eye and ear open for. -George Parsons, Dream Magazine
It is no surprise that Julian Cope is a big fan of this eccentric Italian trio, their second albun sounds genuinly gothic but somehow manages to invoke other disparate influences – John Lewis, Uncut Close spiritual cousins of Kayo Dot, they make three instruments sound like a much larger ensemble and make meticulously structured composition seem like spontaneous abstract improvisation. Impressive but mightmarish, like a beautifully rendered self-portrait splattered with blood and self-loathing. - Matt Evans, ROCK'AROLLA
After their really rather glorious debut it is reassuring to see that this strange Italian troupe have lost none of their experimental verve...If you've got an open mind then you might just discover a new favourite band - Alex Deller, ROCKSOUND
A downward spiral aiming at the bottom of the hollow, and then digging even deeper.
After having furiously performed all over Europe, toured North America with Deerhoof, Dirty Beaches and Xiu Xiu, been praised by the Archdruid Julian Cope, among lots of others, the new installment of their unique sonic saga will be a concept EP on Failure, to be release next January by Aagoo Records (US) and Boring Machines (ITA). Like the previous record (“Anyway, your children will deny it” among the best 50 albums of 2012 for Rock-a-Rolla Magazine) the new piece was mixed and produced by Deerhoof's Greg Saunier.
Father Murphy, with three albums and a plethora of EPs and limited releases, over the years became one of the most mysterious and enigmatic musical entities coming out of Italy, part of that community that Simon Reynolds started to call the new “Italian Occult Psychedelia”.
PRESS:
When I played a non-band set in Oakland, California, opening for the Italian band Father Murphy, they completely floored me. I had never heard of them until then, but their album And He Told Us Not To Turn to the Sun packs some of the most original, beautiful music I'd heard in a long time – think eerily spacious songs with strange yet perfect arrangements. And such nice people! I'm a huge fan – John Dieterich (Deerhoof) as interviewed by The Independent
A mix of Monty Python and a lurid low-budget Italian horror film comes to mind as you listen to the clanging riffs and distressed wails of Turin outfit Father Murphy... The floridly prog-gothic atmosphere – sinister church organ, shuddering guitars, black mass chants – grows oddly beguiling as the album continues. Suspension of disbelief is required, but the effort doesn’t go unrewarded - Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times
Italy’s fabulously lawless organ-guitar-drums trio Father Murphy, who have – with their colossal new album Anyway Your Children Will Deny It – delivered a disc of exhilarating vocal harmonies, low church organ themes, and flipped out heathen tantrums all exquisitely staged and performed with that same theatrical drama as early This Heat or JA Caesar... Released on Aagoo Records, this is a haunting and superb work that you really must check out- Julian Cope, Head Heritage
The dead-eyed chants, keyboard drones and bone-dry rhytms of Italian Father Murphy's second album conjure up a funereal atmosphere somewhere between homemade Morricone and toytown Goblin... That ol'devil Dario would surely approve - Joseph Stannard, The Wire
Recently watching the 1974 "classic" Nude for Satan confirmed that A: Italian art can often be simultaneously Catholic and subversive and B: they make music that's fantastically fucked up... There are elements of Michael Gira's shabby grandeur crossed with the improvised drum racket of My Cat is an Alien. Their guitars seem infected with distortion and the percussion blends rowing rhythms with sea spray cymbals. The whole procession keeps shifting focus so that you can't be sure if they are winking or wincing - Eric Hill, EXCLAIM!
From the harbingers of occultism and eroticism lifted from their nation's giallo tradition, to their theatrically adopted pseudo-religious personas (unless Murphy's a real-life 'padre', in which case I can only beg his forgiveness), this Italian group are a 'cult' band in every sense of the word. - Tristan Bath, THE QUIETUS
Father Murphy delve further into the prog horror sound of 2008 …And He told us to turn to the Sun, with a poundling Gialloesque score that suggests a band who've studied Messiaen's Messe de la Pentecote alongside Os Mutantes and spotted a deep and true connection - MOJO
Early Velvet Underground or something like that may be somewhere to draw a comparison to, but this is much more twisted up - Boston Hassle The Italian rock renaissance of the 21st century — at least in some corners — continues with the work of Father Murphy, as aggressively outré as early Jennifer Gentle, say, but with their own distinct style, twisted stop-start chants and clatter instead of bizarrely winsome sparkles... Father Murphy are well on their way to establishing their own solid reputation for an intriguing listen. - Ned Raggett, All Music Guide
I'll put an extra shilling in the collection plate if Reverend freddie Murphy has been ordained. There's chanting and banging and bells-a-plenty, a peculiar hymnal to the art of noise. Throughouth, the percussions, strangulated sounds, epic songstitles and conceptual doom as if the world's faiths are istering the last rites over the rattlin' bones of Liars. If the papists hear this, there'll be excommunication for Reverend Fred. Amen to that - Luke Turner, NME
Compliments to Michael Gira for pointing Dream Magazine in the direction of this intriguing Italian psychedelic outfit… This is definitely a band to keep an eye and ear open for. -George Parsons, Dream Magazine
It is no surprise that Julian Cope is a big fan of this eccentric Italian trio, their second albun sounds genuinly gothic but somehow manages to invoke other disparate influences – John Lewis, Uncut Close spiritual cousins of Kayo Dot, they make three instruments sound like a much larger ensemble and make meticulously structured composition seem like spontaneous abstract improvisation. Impressive but mightmarish, like a beautifully rendered self-portrait splattered with blood and self-loathing. - Matt Evans, ROCK'AROLLA
After their really rather glorious debut it is reassuring to see that this strange Italian troupe have lost none of their experimental verve...If you've got an open mind then you might just discover a new favourite band - Alex Deller, ROCKSOUND
