SXRRXWLAND - Anima macchina

I've got nothing to sell. Except my soul

You don't have what it takes. To buy it

Sxrrxwland (also known as Sorrowland or Six Row Land) are a pop-trap trio with notable emotional undertones, formed in Rome in 2017 by rapper Vipra, "creative director" Tremila, and producer Osore. They've put out only a handful of singles and two EPs, but a few tracks — like "La città," emo-trap for violin and desolate guitar, "La famiglia tradizionale," essentially the long-sought hybrid of it-pop and trap, and "Crush/Adderall," a cacophonous hyper-pop mixed with melancholic rap — show real promise, even if never properly framed within a full album. They finally get to a mini-album only in 2024 with "Anima macchina," ten tracks that speak, in a language full of youthful slang, of existential anxiety and a vividly colorful depression that seems to be a generational trait of centennials. Stylistically, it's pop that's hyper, it-pop, rap and trap all at once, with major injections of glitch, digital distortion and fast, danceable rhythms: an over-the-top sound that updates the ideas pioneered a generation ago in Italian pop by Carl Brave, I Cani and Coma_Cose.

The videogame-style beat of "Blessami" has the freshness of an original sound, simple but distinctive, emotionally ambiguous. The title track is no less striking, a tune somewhere between Pop X and lyrics caught between depression and aggression, in line with those of the even more frantic "Kurushi." There's no shortage of lines that hit hard with their expressive power, a rare commodity on the Italian scene: "Facciamo m'ama non m'ama con una lama"; "La terapia costa più di un ferro"; "Dalla bocca mi esce un ti amo/ che è uno scarafaggio"; "Siamo un proiettile sparato nel cranio della musica"; "Ho bisogno di stimoli/ non di un cazzo di featuring"; "Voglio amarti come un terrorista"; "La fissazione dei cantanti per il trasporto ferroviario/ che a me mi fa cagare".

They play with pop culture, whisked together dizzily in a manifesto-track like "Essere Britney", proving a knack for crafting hits that's anything but a given. They only pause to get serious in the inconsolable melancholy of "Francesca sott'acqua", a music box of instant nostalgia.

Still too short to justify any more full-blooded enthusiasm, the mini-album "Anima macchina" is probably one of the most interesting new Italian pop releases of the year, and it's enough to put Sxrrxwland on the list of names to watch for the scene's much-needed renewal.

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14/06/2024