Casino Royale

Casino Royale, active for over thirty years and authors of some of the masterpieces of Italian crossover—take "CRX" for example—present in 2025 a suite-style album titled “Fumo” (Smoke), which systematizes trip hop, reggae, dub, rock, hip-hop, and various electronics. Produced by Clap! Clap! with significant vocal contributions from Marta Del Grandi and Alda, “Fumo” is structured as a continuous musical flow without traditional track distinctions. However, there is a version that divides the progression into 15 parts, which is very useful for writing about it without getting lost in tedious minute-and-second markers. Incidentally, this is how the album appears on Spotify.

Aquatic sounds and a circular melody introduce "Sono già scorpione" (feat. Marta Del Grandi), a highly atmospheric opening that slowly morphs into a mystical dub—a gathered meditation that gradually climbs into a world-climax. An increasingly aggressive synth and a more piercing tribal rhythm lead to the sub-bass-heavy dub of "Fumo pt.1," later transformed into dark, neo-primitive hip-hop. Gradually, the album's menacing theme develops—a pessimistic and threatening vision ("Come un'ombra dal futuro", "Fumo pt.2") that nonetheless breathes during phases of acceptance, such as the splendid trip hop multiplied by the echoes of "Sono già scorpione (Reprise)".

It is a remarkable compositional effort that nerves a coherent structure, dense with internal references, featuring precious arrangements, contaminations, and detours. The management of tension is also commendable, lending dynamism to a project that is, by nature, not immediate. One has to look to Flying Lotus to find a reasonable comparison for a segment like "Siamo chiunque siamo"—a reference easily spotted in much of the album's production alongside the Bristol scene and, clearly, Jamaica. This richness of references causes even the parts of the suite that most resemble songs to evolve unexpectedly, such as those labeled "Vittima e assassino" or "Freddo in estate."

The cinematic power of "Scorpio Theme" seems to link them to Calibro 35, albeit with a very different stylistic cut: a similar ability to synthesize an aesthetic, a feeling, and a small imaginary world into an instrumental. For “Fumo,” it is a spiritual search with strongly introspective elements ("Da Adesso" feat. Marta Del Grandi; "Zona d'Ombra"), existing outside of time. Past and future meet in a universal message, according to a sensitivity with New Age roots but declined with a contemporary flair. There is also ample room for contemporary female rap in the parts titled "Sola" and "Odio e oro," thanks to Alda's contribution, but the sonic context for the rhymes is a glitchy, abstract instrumental hip-hop that evolves into jungle with soul inflections. The closing returns forcefully to Jamaica ("Riprendermi tutto") but surprises once again when seven-year-old Alina B., daughter of Alioscia “BBDai” Bisceglia, joins in at the end: it is a ray of hope filtering through the smoke that recurs so often in the album's lyrics and atmosphere.

A courageous sonic synthesis—for which credit is at least partly due to Clap! Clap!’s multifaceted production—“Fumo” has the framework of an ambitious album like those once made in the underworld they called "alternative." It narrates the present—an eerie tension and a future perceived as blurred—but it also functions as a purification ritual, a reflection, almost a practice of mindfulness. Smoke as fog, then, but also as the incense featured on the splendid cover. It is difficult to find effective contemporary comparisons in Italy, and none with this history, experience, and maturity.

31/12/2025