If there was a ‘packaging of the year’ prize it would, for me, certainly go to Sonic Jesus and Fuzz Club records with a beautifully crafted double gatefold sleeve, fronted by Mirco Marcacci’s amazing take of Bernini’s sculpture, ‘The Ecstasy Of Saint Theresa’, and two amazing splatter discs of vinyl. This, however, had nothing to do with the band’s inclusion in this list, which goes entirely on aural merit. This is a double album of dark beauty and intensity which more than matches the expectation that the physical form creates. From beginning to end this is an sonic experience that fuses diverse musical and cultural ideas into a coherent and thoroughly satisfying whole. This is an album for the mind and the soul
