CAMPOS - Latlong

L’aria sulla pelle

Dimmi che effetto fa

(da “Sonno”)

We last hosted Campos on our pages back in 2017, when “Viva” marked their debut, followed a year later by “Umani, vento e piante”. The Pisan trio is currently made up of Simone Bettin, formerly of Criminal Jokers and Francesco Motta's band, Davide Barbafiera and Tommaso Tanzini. These are young musicians with nerve, who don't chase the catchy chorus at any cost or the easy hook, who couldn't care less about radio airplay and instead focus on the singular idea that might launch them beyond the fence. “Latlong” wants to tell us how they look at the world today: a word born from the fusion of the nouns “latitude” and “longitude”, the pinpointing of a single spot on our planet.

On this third album Campos confirm their commitment to a highly personal style, blending acoustic sounds with electronic touches, alt-folk with indietronica, pursuing a “Berlin” approach (Bettin is strongly tied to the German capital) combined with the depth of songwriting typical of the finest Italian cantautore tradition. In particular, they stand out for their ability to roughen their musical lines with pleasantly disruptive elements, interferences that never grate but instead enrich the reflective songwriting of the Tuscan band.

Enigmatic and curious, inside their own songs they forge a peculiar hybrid in which glimmers of Radiohead surface (the arpeggio of “Mano” is more than a hint), refractions of a less caustic Verdena (“Ruggine”), and pastoral tales that seem to have stepped out of the imagery of Lucio Corsi (“Figlio del fiume”, with a marvelous instrumental closing).

In “Sonno” they dig bare-handed into the earth, like Bachi da Pietra with their plug pulled, and skillfully alternate grounded moments with the most dreamlike “Lume” and the poetry of “Paradiso”.

Relegated to the role of a ghost track, the nearly punk “Cane” is the most corrosive moment of a record that stands as one of the finest Italian surprises of this year, now drawing to a close.

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08/12/2020