DARDUST - 7

Distrusting productions that are too hyped and endorsed by the mainstream press, by mainstream industry insiders, or by common opinion is a vice that any music fan risks falling into. It's a recurring prejudice, but one that has too often found real-world confirmation to be uprooted. The grand debut of Dario Faini (one who, for those who missed it, started out by mocking Subsonica like this and now makes a living writing anything-but-memorable tracks for the worst of mainstream populist mainstream homegrown ours) hailed by national newspapers as "the first Italian capable of rivaling Nils Frahm", could hardly avoid stirring up a fair amount of suspicion. Especially considering the many modern classical productions in our country that struggle to find the space they deserve.

Trying to take the most objective view possible, though, there's no denying that Dardust has real substance. Faini isn't some favored nobody who exploited mainstream channels to pump up his project, but a craftsman who has been writing songs (terrible ones, for terrible "artists") for years, and has therefore properly absorbed a few compositional techniques along the way. It's decidedly popular, easy-listening art either way, light years away from the refinement and depth of the names his project tends to be compared to, but also from the spontaneous, emotional simplicity of people like Bruno Bavota and Andrea Carri. Dardust is a project that arrives in the right place at the right time, slipping in a bit of electronic rhythm and some synthetic noise (don't fall for it, this has nothing to do with Jon Hopkins!), string embroidery and skillfully chiseled melodies.

All of this and nothing more is "7", and at this point it all comes down to the perspective you choose to view it from. It's a record that on first impact might sound superficial and bland, but which over time spreads its wings and plays its cards well, however modest they may be. So a piece like "Sunset On M." on a sunny summer day could work better than any gem signed Einaudi or Cacciapaglia, and the watercolor tones of "Angoli di ieri" fit perfectly with a sunset over the sea. At the opening and close there are two decidedly illusory fragments: the joyful progression of "Un nuovo inizio a Neukolln" on one side, and the sparkling impression of "Enjoy The Light" on the other—stuff that certainly doesn't go beyond pleasant, but which shows a firm awareness of its own means.

There are also decidedly less successful moments, blemishes like "Invisibile ai tuoi occhi", where the electronics seem injected completely at random just for the sake of it, or "In The Clouds", a new age passage well past its expiration date. And then there's the teen-movie romanticism of "Sommergibile in aria", where the gaudy grandeur comes dangerously close to the dismal faux-sophisti of dear old Allevi. Being a savvy mainstream entrepreneur, Faini marches (knowingly, you can bet on it) through the clichés that have brought lightweight modern classical to today's success, without pretending that his game won't show through somewhere. He does it well, managing here and there to win over even those who started out making suspicion their rule of thumb. We wouldn't be surprised if the next stop were the soundtrack of a Muccino jr. film, rather than the next Barilla commercial.

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11/03/2015