MARLENE KUNTZ - Il Vile (reissue)

The Nineties will forever be remembered as the golden age of the Italian “alternative” scene. The presence of a great many enlightened musicians, the willingness of numerous record labels to invest in the underground rock scene after watching labels across the Atlantic cash in on the grunge hurricane, the attention paid by producers and industry insiders, far more open-minded and forward-thinking than in the past, and the crucial support of the mass media - specialist magazines, radio and TV networks above all - all made possible the rise of a virtuous movement: Afterhours, Csi, Almamegretta, La Crus, Massimo Volume, Yo Yo Mundi, Casino Royale, Disciplinatha, to name just a few of the most obvious names.

The brand that soon established itself as the absolute benchmark was Marlene Kuntz, unrivalled in their ability to turn the isolation, unease and fog of provincial Piedmont into electric distortion, forging an Italian path to cultured noise through saturated textures and feedback capable of embodying the neuroses of their time (and, I'd argue, of ours too), conjuring a sonic noir that could serve at once as a rite of initiation and an act of defiance.

Marlene Kuntz were the first to pull off a successful blend of typically American indie sounds (Sonic Youth quickly became the obvious point of comparison) with intricate lyrics written in Italian, delivered through Cristiano Godano's singing/spoken-word style – now a whisper, now a searing scream – able to shape our language without ever risking sounding ridiculous. That's how kids of Generation X heard, for the first time in Italy, someone speak about their own unease, discovering their voice amid the wreckage of sounds that were at once ferocious and enveloping.

"Il Vile", the second album by the Cuneo-based quartet, released in April 1996 under the meticulous production of Marco Lega and the supervision of Gianni Maroccolo, managed to pull off the difficult feat of confirming – and amplifying – the band's immense potential, combining anything-but-linear musical structures with the elaborate lyrics of Godano, singer, guitarist and the group's main songwriter, flanked by Riccardo Tesio on guitars, Luca Bergia on drums and Dan Solo on bass.

An album of great cohesion and consistency, one that achieved solid commercial success despite being an artistically demanding work (45,000 copies sold, making it one of the best-selling Italian independent records of all time), "Il Vile" is a fundamental record in the development of "our" alt-rock: fans at the time such as the young Alberto Ferrari of Verdena and Francesco Bianconi of Baustelle would later attest, some years on, to just how much their generation drew inspiration from the work of Godano and co.

It remained the sharpest, most jagged Marlene Kuntz record, even harsher and more violent than their beloved debut "Catartica", yet alongside (and within) deeply "sonic" tracks like "Retrattile" and "Il Vile" (which contained the band's first real slogans: "Probabilmente/ Io meritavo di più", "Onorate il vile!"), a strong attention to melody remained evident, in a successful alternation between cutting noise and moments of harmony, in some cases even "radio-friendly" ones ("Come stavamo ieri", "L'esangue Deborah").

The sound of the guitars' distinctive tunings and Godano's careful choice of words – often digging up archaic or rarely used terms from everyday Italian to make his writing even more personal – created a unique blend that many would try to imitate, without ever quite reaching the same results. "Il Vile" was exactly what Generation X – orphaned of the comforting roar of Nirvana – was waiting for at the time: a brief essay on existential unease and the difficulty of relating to others, narrating with unspeakable rage stories of troubled love, deviant eroticism, conformity, overdoses. A successful portrait of the anxieties and frustrations of those years, able to capture the spirit and emotional charge of the era, delivering a lyrical and musical drive never heard before, at least on our own turf.

The album's dark heart beats in tracks like "L'agguato", the description of a horrific car accident, in the murky erotic tension of "3 di 3", in the destructive toxicity of "Ape Regina", where existential malaise and sonic ferocity merge into a single, unhealthy embrace. The sonic friction generates unprecedented tensions; the songs are written not to please, but to strike, relentlessly: this is a band that doesn't seek approval, that doesn't wave around the reassurances of a pop chorus, but rather delivers a furious wail grafted onto structures designed to push the listener into a state of discomfort, with the aim of shaking them out of their comfort zone. Moving along the thin line separating anger from resignation, the vileness proclaimed in the title is a distorting mirror held up to conformist respectability, the snapshot of someone unafraid to look at their own reflection and find it unpleasant.

"Il Vile" was the way Marlene Kuntz chose to affirm how rock in Italy could transform from a mere imitation of Anglophone models into homegrown literary art; three decades on, it is still perceived as a necessary, indispensable record, one that has lost none of its impact. Already "honored" on its 20th anniversary, "Il Vile" is now receiving well-deserved recognition for its 30th birthday. The celebrations kick off with the release of a special numbered, limited-edition reissue, enriched with illustrations by Alessandro Baronciani, who wanted to pay tribute (he too is among those whose lives were changed by records like "Il Vile") by creating, alongside the album's revamped artwork, a booklet/comic featuring eleven plates, each dedicated to an interpretation of one of the songs on the record, plus three postcards depicting panels taken from the comic itself. All copies are numbered and hand-signed.

To once again honor "Il Vile" live, the reissue will be accompanied by the "Marlene Kuntz suona Il Vile" tour, a run of shows hosted at some of Italy's best live clubs. Here are the dates confirmed so far:

5 marzo – The Cage – Livorno

March 7 – Mamamia – Senigallia

March 12 – New Age – Treviso

March 19 – Estragon – Bologna

March 20 – Orion – Rome

March 25 – Hall – Padua

March 26 – Alcatraz – Milan

March 27 – Viper – Florence

8 April – Hiroshima Mon Amour – Turin

9 April – Hiroshima Mon Amour – Turin

16 April – Casa della Musica – Naples

18 April – Demodé – Bari

Ride the wave of great music

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07/03/2026