Father Murphy are a powerful sonic force comprising Rev. Freddie Murphy (vocals, guitar) and Chiara Lee (vocals, keyboards, percussions). Born nearby Venice, Italy, Father Murphy, with three albums and a plethora of EP's and limited releases, have over the years became one of the most mysterious and enigmatic musical entities coming out of Italy, part of the community that Simon Reynolds started to call the new "Italian occult psychedelia".

Their music has evolved since their first album from twisted psychedelic pop into more darker sonic exploration. Their follow up And He Told Us to Turn to the Sun (Boring Machines/Aagoo Records, 2008), a concept album about heresy, 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 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: an uneasy, compelling, furiously heretic yet sandblasted in Catholicism.

Warmly embraced by both United Kingdom and United States press, winning fans like Julian Cope, Deerhoof and Michael Gira, Father Murphy then released a EP, titled No Room for the Weak (Aagoo Records, 2010), four songs that are at the same time a confirmation and a step forward. Lyrically, the EP deals with the dubious joys of mysticism, convoluted theology, enlightenment through self-inflicted pain and a perilous, twisted way to an equally twisted idea of salvation. Musically, it is another exercise in what folks at Aquarius Records (San Francisco) described as "woozy and ominous, dreamy and dense, a glorious deathlike dirge": off kilter and dramatic in their own peculiar way.

Meanwhile, the mysticism showed its limits and Father Murphy forged a new chapter, resulting in a new album. Recorded by the band and mixed and produced by Greg Saunier from Deerhoof, Anyway, Your Children Will Deny It (Aagoo Records, 2012) shows the band at its best: life, death, love, religion and even more death. Father Murphy's amalgamation of noise and pop instincts collide with echoes of Henry Cow, Jacula and far-out contemporary classical music. It is Father Murphy at their most black metal-ish-a fuzzy aural slab reeking of fury and desperation. In Praise of Our Doubts continues with big, menacing orchestral stabs and tortured vocals. But it is not all madness and desolation in Father Murphyland - there are moments of celestial sonic bliss.

In February 2013 Aagoo Records released a remix album, titled Father Murphy: Heretical Reviews with different artists (Black Dice, Philippe Petit, Sic Alps, Indian Jewelry, Thulebasen and E.M.A among the others) remixing songs from the Anyway, Your Children Will Deny It album, while Father Murphy, taking a break from their usual hectic touring schedule, worked again with Deerhoof's Greg Saunier, focusing on a new EP, titled Pain Is on Our Side Now, a concept about failure, to be released early 2014.

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