Litfiba

It's hard, more than two decades on, to recall the atmosphere within the Italian rock scene at the time of the release of "Desaparecido", and above all to convey just how powerful an impact this record had on it.

"Desaparecido", together with "Siberia" by Diaframma, released the previous year, and "Affinità-Divergenze fra il compagno Togliatti e noi" by CCCP, released in the following year of 1986, forms a trio of essential records for Italian rock, records that show a scene which had, on one hand, fully absorbed the sounds of new wave, especially the British variety, and on the other, was able to express a sound of its own - self-contained and mature.

In a way, the work of these three bands represented for the Eighties what Premiata Forneria Marconi, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and Area had represented for the Seventies: authoritative reference points of international standing within the national scene. And it's worth remembering just how strong and deeply rooted the influence of these prog-derived bands still was in Italy, delaying the definitive breakthrough of a new musical language all the way to the mid-Eighties.

In truth, a tentative Italian new wave scene had already existed for a few years, one need only think of Denovo, Gaznevada, Underground Life, Neon and Litfiba themselves, who had already been active since 1980, with an intense history of live shows behind them (often sharing the bill with Diaframma), a couple of EPs and a theatrical soundtrack. But it's only at the start of 1985, five years on from the new wave epic (the stylistic sources most audible in the record's grooves are U2, Ultravox, Joy Division and Japan), that "Desaparecido" is finally released. The label is IRA, the same one behind Diaframma's "Siberia", at that time the most important label in Italy for the new independent scene.

Litfiba condensed the best of their output, both new and previously heard material, into eight songs, and critics and audiences alike immediately sensed they were witnessing an event. Strongly backed by the specialist press — Mucchio Selvaggio above all, to the point of appearing in the liner notes of "Desaparecido" itself — Litfiba rose up as champions of what was promptly and emphatically dubbed "the new Italian rock". The back-cover photo shows the band's classic line-up, Piero Pelù (vocals), Ringo de Palma (drums), Gianni Maroccolo (bass), Ghigo Renzulli (guitar) and Antonio Aiazzi (keyboards), arranged on a pile of stones. The musicians are wrapped in dark coats and clothes, glowering with the kind of decadent look so dear to the "new wave" iconography. As for the truly awful front cover, the less said the better...

If Diaframma embody the dark, poetic soul of the new Italian rock and CCCP its punk, political soul, then Litfiba embody its dreamy, vaguely Mediterranean soul. Indeed, one of the merits to be credited to Pelù's band is their reworking of a strongly British instrumental blueprint with exotic touches: an Islamic call to prayer, a Spanish castanet, a gypsy celebration, all turned into sonic pretexts for dreaming and travelling in the mind; the five musicians come across like Malaysian pirates, driven by the fervid imagination of an Emilio Salgari who, however, never actually left Italy.

Piero Pelù, a huge talent with huge charisma, is one of the keys to understanding the disruptive force of "Desaparecido" and of the band in those years. His gypsy soul turns him into the Sandokan of the group: a great admirer of Iggy Pop, he is the front-man - arguably the greatest Italy had produced up to that point - and it's him who, with his powerful voice and drawn-out vowels, dictates the rules of singing in Italian for a whole generation of aspiring vocalists. But the band boasts other strong personalities too. Gianni Maroccolo, first of all, who on this record gives us one of the finest performances by an Italian bass player. Then there's the late Ringo De Palma, Piero's close friend since their school days, precise and explosive, exactly what you'd ask of the drummer in a real rock band. Ghigo Renzulli, still far removed from the power struggles for control of the band that would come later, puts himself at the service of the overall result, contributing admirably with a balanced, disciplined sound. Finally, Antonio Aiazzi, who alternates moments of sonic drift with truly memorable ones. His keyboards now sound almost superfluous ("Eroe nel vento", "La preda"), now steeped in murky gothic atmosphere ("Lulù e Marlene"), now a little too close to their sources of inspiration (Ultravox above all).

The album opens in dazzling fashion. "Eroe nel vento" is one of the few genuine anthems Italian rock can boast, even as its guitar riff clearly winks at The Edge's style with U2. The tight rhythm continues with "La Preda", a full-throttle track driven by Maroccolo's relentless bass, its plectrum-picked sound always standing out for the incisiveness of its lines and the clean aggression of its tone.

"Istanbul", dreamy and visionary, is one of the album's key tracks. Its spoken Arabic passage recalls, in a kind of symbolic passing of the torch between old and new, the one heard in Area's "Luglio, agosto, settembre (nero)" from "Arbeit macht frei". The sounds are well balanced, with Aiazzi's keyboards weaving arpeggios and sustained textures to create just the right evocative mood for Pelù's voice to soar over. With hindsight, the question has to be asked: how many young Italians set off for Istanbul in the mid-Eighties because of this song?

While "Tziganata" and "Desaparecido" load up on gypsy and flamenco contamination, "Pioggia di luce" is instead a precious gem whose arrangement quality evokes the mood of a certain refined strain of new wave. The song closes with an elegant guitar solo from guest Hanno Rinne, which brings to mind Herbie Hancock's keyboard solo as the exceptional guest star on Simple Minds' "New Gold Dream" by Simple Minds.

"Guerra", a song that had been with Litfiba since their beginnings and would long remain the peak moment of their live shows, opens on a martial rhythm before expanding into a memorably epic passage: a foursquare beat, a spine-tingling wall of sound over which Pelù delivers one of his most intense vocal performances. The song, in a continuous unfolding, ultimately degenerates into unbearable chaos, as if it were an actual war being fought, with the instrumental lines breaking down amid the mayhem of battle.

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01/11/2006