MARLENE KUNTZ - Bianco Sporco

Marlene Kuntz return with their sixth studio work (excluding EPs and live albums), titled "Bianco Sporco", picking up in part the thread left open two years ago with "Senza peso", after undergoing profound changes within their own line-up.

A shift of considerable importance did indeed mark the transition period from "Senza peso" to "Bianco sporco": the far-from-amicable departure of Daniele Ambrosoli, replaced on bass by Gianni Maroccolo just a few months before the album's release. The renowned bassist, formerly of Litfiba and Csi, thus took part in the recording sessions alongside Riccardo Tesio, Cristiano Godano and Luca Bergia, with Rob Ellis contributing keyboard and string arrangements.

The production, meanwhile, is this time handled by Marlene themselves.

"Bianco sporco" was undoubtedly one of the most eagerly awaited records of the year on the Italian scene, given the fame the Turin outfit has built up in recent years.

A success brought about by a new, more accessible direction, which has however cost the band the goodwill of part of the critics. And listening to this new album confirms that the Marlene of the early days are now gone for good.

Godano and co. appear close to the refined singer-songwriter territory already hinted at on the previous "Senza peso", even if their style still allows for bursts of more visceral rock, which have perhaps lost the angry rawness and original naivety of "Catartica".

The Cuneo band still seems unwilling to commit to a single path: whether to definitively abandon the "crashes and roars" of their early days in favour of a refined pop-rock enriched by the delicate interplay and phrasing of Godano and Tesio, or to seek a fragile balance between these two very different impulses, thus satisfying both longtime fans and potential new listeners.

Curiously, the title seems to mirror this duality inherent in the band's current music: white, clean, pure and crystalline, yet still capable of producing dirty, hard, aggressive, heavily distorted rock. And never as much as on this record do the band's two souls appear, locked in perpetual struggle with one another.

The album opens with "Mondo cattivo", a fairly driving song that carries almost a warning to whoever is about to listen to this record, a message to "those bastards who will never appreciate it", who never approved of the sonic shift undertaken with "Che cosa vedi" and continued through the much-debated "Senza peso". Godano's voice carries the track, one of the most marked by the influence of Sonic Youth, towards an instrumental finale in which Maroccolo's bass emerges alongside the usual guitar dialogues between Godano and Tesio.

"A chi succhia" starts out as a quiet pop song before arriving at an unexpected ending.

The same goes for "Il solitario", which evolves into a distorted, noisy atmosphere.

Marlene Kuntz haven't given up being nasty, but now they do it with extreme class and purity, lacking however the inspiration, the "sacred fire" that animated their early work, perhaps also because the recklessness of their youth has given way to a new artistic maturity.

"Bellezza", the single that preceded the album's release, features a violin reminiscent of Dirty Three and a chorus that reads almost like a manifesto of Godano and co.'s expressive choices, defined by a constant pursuit of extreme refinement.

"Poeti", buoyed by a remarkable lyric, is among the album's finest tracks, followed by an infernal "Amen", charged with a pathos that recalls, in due proportion, the atmospheres of "Ape Regina".

"La lira di Narciso" escapes the usual structure of many songs on this record, partly thanks to a spoken-word section that harks back to tracks like "La vampa delle impressioni" and "Vortice", among the band's "experimental" peaks.

In its instrumental sections, "L'inganno" draws on slowcore (Codeine) and post-rock (Mogwai) textures.

Also worth noting is "La cognizione del dolore", loosely inspired by Gadda's work, in which Godano forcefully howls the verses, building to a finale that vaguely recalls the epic "Nuotando nell'aria".

The album closes with "Nel peggio", an intensely driven track that finds an apparent calm in its ending.

"Bianco sporco" is a good record, the kind of work you'd expect from guys now approaching maturity, no longer chasing sonic novelty at all costs.

Almost all the songs tend to flatten out into the same structure, largely abandoning the experimental ambitions that were still present even on "Senza peso" - just think of a track like "Spora 101".

Perhaps this is a clear sign of what the next Marlene Kuntz album will sound like, or perhaps not.

The one thing that's certain, though, is that Marlene Kuntz can thankfully still write great songs.

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30/04/2026