CRP - Al diavolo

Artistic director of the Lucca Underground Festival, creator of the zine “La Settima base”, author of an “instrumental opera”, “Musica delle tenebre” (2020), and of the soundtrack for the permanent installation “Linea 4345” (2023), Gianmarco Caselli also founds the trio CRP – short for “Collettivo Rivoluzionario Protosonico” – whose debut “Beati voi” (2023) imaginatively reworks Italian-style post-punk through “Manifesto”, “Re furibondo”, “Sacco + Vanzetti”, and finally an “Istinto di ribellione” that could even be filed under the avant-garde side of Area.

The follow-up “Al diavolo”, despite a change in lineup (Chiara Venturini replacing Michele Barsotti), smooths out the harshness and ends up sounding like a tribute to Cccp in the era of their historic reunion. The tangle of march and techno-punk (or rather of “Curami” and “Allarme”) in “Screpolano” is one of the clearest examples, as is the pairing of a melodic riff in the vein of “Io sto bene” with the sloganeering nostalgia of Offlaga Disco Pax in “90’s”.

The shadow also stretches to the solemn chanting of Csi (“Modalità di crisi”, with a jolt of energy that recalls Dan Deacon at his best), but real effectiveness comes instead from “Stalker”, a surf-dance nursery rhyme in the style of the B-52's, with a devilish accordion and a zombie refrain (and one more brazen reference: the neurotic interlude in the style of “Valium Tavor Serenase”).

There are a few intriguing exceptions: “Burocratica”, an amateurish anthem in the vein of the Pretenders, sung by newcomer Venturini; “Partigiano”, the sole remnant of the cacophonous experiments of “Beati voi” (a chorus of voices over an electrified tremor); and “Baccante”, a vibrant, if elementary, reproduction of the Velvet Underground and theDoors.

Of all the disciples of Ferretti and company's “Soviet-leaning punk” (the aforementioned Offlaga, Band Bunker Club, Uochi Toki, Autostoppisti, etc.), these three Tuscans clearly act as epigones, sliding into an oleographic showiness – the name above all – without a real message or a genuine mission. It isn't a remarkable record, but it is a warm one. Its warmth comes from the punk authenticity of its rough, ungrammatical, deliberately unpolished approach, and from the subtle intellectual and physical fun that springs from it. Artwork by the faithful Enrica Giannasi.

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05/07/2025