Ten Little Italians

ALESSIO LEGA – Mare Nero (2017, self-released)

songwriting pop-folk

It's been quite a few years since that 2004 debut with which Alessio Lega won the Targa Tenco for best first work, but the 45-year-old from Lecce hasn't lost his appetite for putting himself on the line, delivering, as he himself puts it, "his first record without a precise unifying thread." What we get, then, is a stylistically varied work, with each song possessing its own identity in terms of colour, intensity and sonic detail, as well as rhythmic feel. All the tracks, though, share Lega's trademark popular touch and his lyrics, proudly impatient with social injustice and historical falsehoods. Lega has poured all his considerable experience into making this record, but he hasn't skimped on heart either, and the result is a perfect example of a popular song done right, impeccable in its craft but also in its emotional sincerity (Stefano Bartolotta 7/10)

SAWARA – L'Eccitante Attesa (2017, self-released)

songwriting

Sawara is Fabio Agnesina from Lecco, and he has released three records in as many years. His style is electric and spare at once, with a stentorian vocal timbre that pairs well with a dry, essential, uncompromising sound. It goes without saying that, strictly speaking in compositional terms, we can't talk about actual melodies here; the notes simply serve to give an organic shape to the combination of sound, voice and lyrics. The risk, in cases like this, is always ending up with something flat and repetitive, but here everything works perfectly: the songs flow smoothly, with great care taken never to sound repetitive, always managing to bring out dynamism and variety despite the limited means used, and none of it ever feels like a mere stylistic exercise — there's a clear, strong emotional sincerity at work. Nine tracks for 33 minutes of intensity, clarity of purpose and a perfect balance between class and impact (Stefano Bartolotta 7/10)

TIZIANO MAZZONI – Ferro E Carbone (2017, IRD)

blues-pop

Third album in 10 years for the singer-songwriter from Pistoia, who offers a sound that feels more like a band's than a solo artist's, with various instruments contributing to each song in turn, especially guitars and keyboards of various kinds that colour and enrich a basically semi-acoustic framework driven by a rhythm section balanced between restraint and liveliness. There's a clear blues touch running through these songs, though it never undermines — only characterises — their melodic immediacy and sonic freshness. The vocal timbre, too, pairs well with the overall compositional balance, showing both depth and clarity. The lyrics draw on imagery somewhere between the real and the metaphorical to stage a careful yet unpretentious introspection, and ultimately what makes the record appealing is that, from this interplay of weights and counterweights, a strong personality emerges, one capable of sending positive vibrations to the listener (Stefano Bartolotta 7/10)

GATTI ALATI – Gatti Alati (2017, La Vigna)

alt-pop

A duo born from the 2013 meeting of Christian Alati and Emanuele Gatti, Gatti Alati offer, on the self-titled "Gatti Alati", a psych-pop turned cubist. The manifestos and prime examples are "Fama" and "Subumano": a litany of lyrics that spill past the metre, free form, pulsing polyrhythm, eccentricities that faithfully echo the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour". "A domani" is built practically on nothing but a mass of electronic loops (while its sibling "Firenze" boasts a sly post-tropicalia rhythm), and is, fittingly, sung with a robotic tone and timbre. The approach sharpens on "Preso parti" and, in part, on "Fusa", Moroder-esque space dances with lyrics mangled and rendered unintelligible by filters, taking on an almost archaic quality. Some tracks, like "Tieniti la forma", feel like little more than electro jams with a few floating mottos. Mixed by Ivan Antonio Rossi, a real ace of the Italian alternative pop trade. A record of carousel rides that manage to hypnotize the listener, steeped in an anodyne danceability that wouldn't displease early Brian Eno. More Gatti (News For Lulu, Morning Telefilm) than Alati (Gatto Ciliegia). It doesn't really break the mould; it prefers to play with it and refine it. Single: "Preso parti". Nice packaging. (Michele Saran 6.5/10)

LARA MOLINO – Fòrte E Gendìle (2017, fonoBisanzio / IRD)

folk

This singer-songwriter was already active several years ago, and now, after a long hiatus, she's back, having changed the language of her songs from Italian to the Abruzzese dialect. Sound-wise, this is a classic folk album in the most literal sense of the term, meaning tied to the rustic atmospheres of rural provinces, with strings and accordion lending that typical homespun flavor. The lyrics are fairly clear even for those unfamiliar with the dialect in question, and they too pair perfectly with the stylistic approach, recounting everyday-life stories and the feelings underlying them. The listen is pleasant, thanks above all to a good sonic freshness, not easy to achieve when dealing with this kind of production, while from a strictly melodic standpoint there's solid craftsmanship without any particular peaks, and the vocal side enjoys good expressiveness but lacks a bit of variety (Stefano Bartolotta 6.5/10)

BANDA RULLI FRULLI – Il mare dalla luna (2017, self-released)

post-rock

From Finale Emilia, Banda Rulli Frulli is a small regiment of young and very young percussionists, able-bodied and differently-abled alike, conceived and directed by Federico Alberghini and assisted by Marco Golinelli, Federico Bocchi and Sara Setti, with additional support from Mani Tese. It's a commendable pedagogical-musical mission that nonetheless comes paired with a sound that's often genuinely powerful. The limit is that of repetition ad libitum, and so "Il mare dalla luna" essentially replicates, for the fifth time, the recipe of its predecessors "Il branco" (2013), "La Ciurma" (2014), "Kraken" (2015) — their best — and "Cinquanta urlanti" (2016), all of them derived from live shows. As always there are guest appearances, some from the usual aficionados: Luca Mai, sax player of Zu, on a belated title track, "Cinquanta urlanti"; Stefano Pilia, Cristina Donà and Daniele Rossi on the chivalrous, epic "Linea d'ombra"; the usual Bob Corn for a Dodos-and-Beirut impression, "Nobody Comes"; Tommaso Cerasuolo on "Dove dorme la luna di giorno" (nothing more than a Perturbazione song dressed up with percussion); and, the smartest of the lot, "Isola", featuring the fanfares of Banda Di Quartiere, amid Andean, Bolivian and Tex-Mex tones. Their stylistic foundations too, here somewhat muffled, remain the same: an enthusiastically primitive form of tribal techno ("Il mare della luna"), with a few elements lifted from Steve Reich's "Drumming" ("Orsa polare"), and a sensibility that crosses the energy of street musicians with the learned interlockings of Tortoise ("Astro.nave"). It is, in any case, the culmination of a process that amplifies rhythm as well as counterpoint, between percussive ups and downs and hammerings of every kind, reaching maximum contagiousness without ever becoming tiresome (helped also by its modestly short runtime). Cover art by Alessandro Baronciani. Produced with support from the Fondazione Carlo e Guglielmo Andreoli (Michele Saran 6/10)

HOFAME – Hofame (2017, Tafuzzy)

songwriter

Formerly frontman of X-Mary and co-founder of the duo Cristio, Lodi-born Cristiano Alberici took on the solo guise of Hofame for a debut, "O barche che bramate la tempesta, come questo porto è tranquillo" (2014), a loser-ish, lo-fi, almost entirely acoustic brand of singer-songwriter fare. The best thing about that first attempt was certainly the singing, a cross between rough-hewn Edoardo Bennato and emotive Billy Corgan. The follow-up, the self-titled "Hofame", brings in more music — even if at times it's pure effects-pedal business — and cuts back on the surreal logorrhea. That's shown first of all by the instrumental opener, "Inizio", tribal, almost equatorial psychedelia, and the closer, "Fine", a tremulous feedback delirium. And the songs, despite the still do-it-yourself spirit, are now performed by an actual band; so the existential nursery rhymes of "La porta" and "Bot" get pushed in several directions at once, in rhythm with the little locomotive of "Fabolus", and in mood with the splendid acid free-form that accompanies and almost cannibalizes "Dalla finestra". Two risks: slipping into easy-listening pop ("Abituarsi") and wallowing in self-confession for its own sake ("Buio", still one of the more reflective moments). And a certain repetitiveness despite the slim runtime. But Alberici, a likeable, alienated, maladjusted anti-intellectual — even if never truly on the brink of madness — conveys visions, impressions, or the tiniest details of everyday life with warmth and candor, as well as with spontaneous, occasionally even bristly arrangements (credit surely due to Michelangelo "Mzky" Roberti). Co-produced by Tafuzzy, MangiareBene Dischi, Arti Malandrine, Cloudhead. Cassette, only 50 copies, released by La Barberia. Cover art: "Autoritratto", Roberto Alfano (Michele Saran 6/10)

DESTROY ALL GONDOLAS – Laguna Di Satana (2017, Macina et al.)

metalcore

Formed by three veterans of the Venetian hardcore and psychobilly scene (including Enrico "Wasted Pido" Stocco), Destroy All Gondolas make their full-length debut (which, for a hardcore outfit, still means brevity) with "Laguna di Satana". A third of it is a little gem of the Italian take on spazz-punk, with acrobatic thrash carrying vampiric overtones ("Chrome Fuck", "Destroy All Gondola"). The rest does fairly well in almost purely instrumental workouts built on the usual, predictable Dick Dale-style reverb ("Alchemist", "Demonolatreia", with Metallica-esque bursts of fury), which then grow more destructive still, even topped with electronic wreckage ("Penetration", "Apocalypse Domani"). For better or worse the trio often plays with shifts in tempo, sometimes tragicomic when speeding up, more often showy when slowing down. It grew out of a themed installation, "Black Flag Revival" (2012), and a cassette collecting its soundtrack, "Blast Tapes" (2013), which also spawned the direct predecessor 7", "Destroy All Gondolas" (2015). Plentiful co-production: Macina, Shyrec, Sonatine, Deathcrush Distro, Crampi Rec. (Michele Saran 6/10)

SHIJO X – Oddtimes (2017, A Buzz Supreme)

soul-pop

Following "One Minute Before" (2009), but above all their first real album recorded as a full band, "If A Night" (2012), the third album "Oddtimes" by Bologna's Shijo X starts again as a foursome, but with one swap: the usual founders Davide Verticelli and Laura Sinigallia, and a rhythm section where the seasoned Federico Adriani is joined by a new bassist, Andrea Crescenzi. Everything still pivots on trip-hop, but — in line with contemporary trends — it also wilts a bit into retromania. Morcheeba and Sade surface in "Brink", a 1950s doo-wop ballad that swaps the usual narcolepsy for a sly, brisk gait and a certain hysterical drive, underlined by production finesse. "Spiral" is already more modern, coolly nonchalant and hyper-technological à la Moloko, but the trend is counterbalanced again by traditional ballads, even for piano and voice alone (though sabotaged by an overexcited rhythm section), in which Sinigallia's singing and her hidden Etta James-like qualities really come through: "Fireflies" and the even more acrobatic, austere "Lapse". Over the long haul, though, noticeable limits of inspiration emerge, even as the ensemble's technical maturation is undeniable. Verticelli's keyboard inventions (at his best he's the Joe Zawinul of the situation) no longer bite, Sinigallia pushes her voice but ends up singing to herself, and the fractured, cubist production, rather than giving the tracks room to breathe, instead becomes a suffocating blanket. An EP with the first four or five tracks would have sufficed. Single with video (directed by Simone Brillarelli and Jon Calugi): "Spiral" (2016) (Michele Saran 5/10)

CHROME SKY – Artificial (2017, DCave)

industrial metal

Chrome Sky, born from an idea by singer-songwriter Paolo Miano of Catania (where the band is based), paired with producer Mario Ferrarese, debut after a few years of seasoning with "Artificial". The single "Artificial Man" is significant not so much as a programmatic manifesto or even just a standalone song, but for the way it decorates the typical armor of cybertronic black metal with a parade of old-school hard-rock vocal citations (the Queen harmonies, Axl Rose's spleen, the operatic high notes of Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford) instead of the growl one would expect. And it's also the only track that works in any real way. "Corruption" and "I Dream Of The Day" (its lyrics drawn from a letter to the family of the Jewish Caleb Milne) seethe and race, but are stretched out well beyond their means; the Rammstein-esque declamation over a tank-tread march in "My Male Function" is predictable. The project goes for the most classic of dystopian sci-fi scenarios: in that regard, it isn't let down by any slapdash approach disguised as bombastic virtuosity. Like chewing gum, it's exciting at first, then loses its flavor over time. Only a couple of decent moments carry a more fitting dose of pathos: the closing techno-rock ode "My Scars", whose unstable backing conveys the sense of apocalyptic neurosis better than the rest (before dissolving into a piano cavatina), and the genuine statement of intent — not coincidentally the title track — "Chrome Sky", usefully instrumental-only, which strips away the vocal's overbearing presence and reveals the band's musical potential (an excursion that neatly crosses ambient-techno with feral jungle) (Michele Saran 5/10)

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15/01/2025