The inevitable Valentina Magalatti. Utter the word drummer and you have to mention her name in the same breath. After making a name for herself with Tomaga, Holy Tongue and Moin!, she released her first solo album in 2020, although it was only released as a record in 2023, after the pandemic, and thus reached a wider audience. Now comes the second album from the supergroup Better Corners, recorded by Magaletti with Matthew Simms (Wire) and Sarah Register (Kim Gordon). The album is sensational. And it’s because this supergroup has a superpower: urgency without haste. The trio spend half of the 16-minute key track »Career Test« wasted in the lobby, making observations; increasing background noise eventually reveals that this is not a spoken-word record that too easily settles into contemplative female palaver and a little drumming. It comes in through the ventilation shaft. Outside, the glass front of the skyscraper reflects the gathering clouds. Suddenly the landscape opens up to a dramatic expanse of land, where buffalo heads in the sand are circled by a few remaining vultures and the only vehicle on the endless highway is a pick-up truck with an empty bed. Drone. For about ten minutes. Before the trio catches up with what they have just so skilfully blown together. A small piano, a smattering of notes and nothing but a whisper. »Continuous Miracles Vol. 2« follows in this vein, and just before your head gets lost in the thunder clouds, the ventilation shaft is placed over your head.
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