Costello's Corner

A thriving agency and record-label reality from the Milan area founded by young Simone Castello and Matteo Agostino, Costello’s has been promoting, producing and distributing records for the alternative crowd for over five years. In this new quarterly feature we pick ten of the best releases they've curated of late.

Fujima – Fujima EP (Hopetone, 2016)

alt-pop

From Cagliari, Fujima give solid proof of their melodic potential with their self-titled debut EP: the opener, the intense, pulsing “Spaceship Girl”, is just the appetizer. The refrain of “Manly Slowman”, doubled by strummed guitar, is elevated by tempo shifts (including a pleasant, danceable jam) matched by equally engaging instrumental digressions. “Good Times” raises the stakes on retro-psychedelic songwriting with an electronic organ and a swinging, shifting timbral party worthy of Built To Spill. An ideal trio of their best early tracks is rounded out by the sharp, mechanical counterpoints of “Outside The Cold Storage”. More conventional strands of recent noise-pop (from Clap Your Hands to Pains Of Being Pure at Heart) surface in “Fiction Is In You” and the crystalline “White”. The guitars deserve a mention, but all four members hold their own, always driving and urgent. A small lesson – never preachy, in fact downright infectious – in how to use worn-out, overused harmonic tools, not to mention the stripped-back production, to magnify unbridled passion.

Phidge – Paris (Riff, 2016)

alt-rock

Four more years on (the same gap that separates “It’s All About To Tell” from “We Never Really Came Back”), and still on Riff Records, Phidge deliver their third album. This time the title keeps it short: “Paris”. Musically it's the finest synthesis of college-pop in their career. Their brisk ballads (“Do We?”, “A Couple Of Things”, “Memories”, right up to the martial anthem of “The Mouth Of Love”, in a style straight out of early U2, a hair's breadth from plagiarism) this time shine through danceable dark-pop and the most existential brit-pop. What really turns heads, though, is “Face To Face”, at times as venomous as Red Hot Chili Peppers. Unfortunately the closing stretch fizzles out, but a fine balance of elegance and vintage flair still holds firm. Additional piano by Angelo Epifani. Dedicated to bohemian artist Davide Bergonzoni, killed by heroin in Paris (hence the album's title) at just thirty-four.

Push Button Gently – ‘Cause (Moquette, 2016)

progressive

An album that's occasionally almost off-putting. It opens with the elastic retro pop of "Hurkah," improves on "Me And The Giant Set Off," with the Band venturing into lunar-electronic territory, and rounds itself out with a post-grunge, Breeders-like number, "Morning Sailor," but non-sense. There's a risk that not everything gels together, so "Mexican Standoff" comes across more as an assemblage of set-piece events: electronic backing, ghost vocals, metal distortion. The small suites — the post-Pavement "Misteriously Pop" and the raga-rock of "Holy" — along with the brief, distorted post-gospel of "I Thought I Saw A Pussycat," carry ideas that wisely stay rustic. Skillful in its overall design, the record shows real personality in its arrangements, with vigor and self-irony always present. A Lombard quartet on their third full-length plus one EP ("URU," 2014), blessed with a Faith No More-style crossover spirit and attitude. That's well demonstrated by the blend of serious and playful on "King Of Vague," though they hit the mark pretty much everywhere.

Elk – Ultrafun Sword (Niegazowana, 2016)

alt-pop

Elk, from Vigevano, played an interesting brand of progressive pop on their first full-length, "World" (2014), in the vein of Art Of Fighting and Shapes And Sizes. On the follow-up, "Ultrafun Sword," the mood turns more fatalistic than ever ("Ultrafun Sword," the "stellar" ending of "Tu Fi Pu," the martial shoegaze of "The Speech"), which also takes shape through orchestral touches (banjo on "What's Below," off-beats and falsetto on "The Thaw," concertina and mandolin-like sounds on "Mr Dugall"). With a bold line-up change (swapping a female voice, Monica Cadenini, for the arched baritone of Dario Solini), it sounds a bit like the mature counterpart to the post-hardcore records that were all the rage just a few years earlier, and which have since shown their limits. There's just one, brief epic moment that could have signaled a real gear change: the machine-gun percussion and pure noise of the instrumental-only "Boulder." First single: "Mr Dugall."

Aftersalsa – Chances Ep (self-released, 2016)

synth-pop

From Brianza, the very young Matteo Zappa, Simone Manzotti, Nicolò Posenato and Dario Azzolini, going by the name Aftersalsa, debut with the EP "Chances." "White Collar" is a sacred, technological ballad in the Simple Minds vein, taken though to an interesting, almost chaotic level of density. The title track has even stronger melodic grip (and greater melancholy), an almost psalm-like piece that builds into concertante, chromatic keyboards. "Haldol" ups the dose of electronic dance production even further, to the point of nearly smothering the hushed, droning vocal line. Formed as the duo of Zappa and Manzotti (a couple of singles already under their belt in their first year, "Vixion" and "Tispario"), they now boast a lavish synth courtesy of Posenato, who also brings recycled sound effects. With the obvious influence of late-period M83, but also vintage goth-punk, they set off from a dark soul base and sometimes arrive at tragic outcomes. The first single, "I Wanna," lacks the same vehemence as the others and doesn't close things out with a bang. Production: Giacomo Zambelloni.

Before Bacon Burns – La Musica Electronic E' il Futuro (Discipline, 2016)

art-rock

Before Bacon Burns, a quartet based between Milan and Monza, arrive at their debut full-length with "La musica elettronica è il futuro" ("Electronic Music Is The Future"). The sonic palette ranges widely but never disorients: Pixies with Breeders undertones, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, assorted nu-wave. At times Eleonora Podda's writing overshoots the mark, and her delivery veers into an unexciting verbosity with moralizing undertones ("In faccia"). The electronic element promised by the title lives in the production and stays mostly in the background: sometimes it wisely injects an extra jolt of energy, sometimes it tears things apart and turns them to mush (the ending of "Cipresso"), and sometimes it glues the tracks together into one continuous flow that, in fact, keeps the pace and energy high. Above all, though — and it's a classic virtue — sheer, innate genuineness wins out. It's been a while since we've heard — at least in Italy — anthems as full of passion as "Mani," "Canzone triste," and "Il cielo di Kant," though one or two more wouldn't have hurt. The follow-up to two EPs ("Ban," 2013, and "Forgotten Bacon," 2015). Three bonus tracks, "Birth," "Drop The Bomb," "Father," plus an "Intro" not listed in the CD's tracklist.

Marabou – The End Of The Rainbow (Costello’s, 2016)

electronica

Preceded by the singles "Into The Blue," a repetitive electro-dub number, and "Lovely," a lackluster industrial post-soul track (arguably the two weakest cuts here), "The End Of The Rainbow" by Catania's Giovanni Alessandro Spina, aka Marabou, reveals a fascination with analog dance electronics down to the smallest detail. "Sunset," "Error Number Ten" (almost a remixed piano nocturne) and "Love Story" exude a smooth, sexy French-touch quality; a thread-like vocal line stirs the bouncing, crystalline "Garden's Dream." "Laboon" is then a formidable, heroin-addled rap slump of floating arabesques that the late Lou Reed would have paid good money for. Equally convincing is the slowed-down, vocal-psychedelic vortex of "Shake Me" (even if it seems to echo Battisti's "Amarsi un po'"). Spina shows real talent for stereophonic layering, at times turning it into a genuine form of impressionism. Unfortunately it still remains surface-level and physical, even if at times it seems to be reaching for something more interior — but the listening experience does stir interest beyond the mechanics of the dancefloor.

I Paradisi – Dove Andrai (self-released, 2016)

alt-rock

Previously known as Paradisi Noir, the Milanese band Paradisi make their debut with "Dove andrai" ("Where You'll Go"). In its averageness, it's an easy but entertaining combination of quotes and references to the great classics. "Un brutto sogno" is dished straight out of John Barry's "James Bond" theme. "Come un vampiro" and "Bugie" feed on the enchanted haze of the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour," while — conversely — "Ali di cera" ("Satisfaction") and "Lacrima" ("Paint It Black") feed on the gut-punch drive of the Rolling Stones. The thoroughly Italian existentialism of Afterhours (minus Agnelli's egocentrism) pervades "Voli via" instead. Better still are the title track, which aspires to cross the desert fatalism of Grant Lee Buffalo with the provincial rage of Timoria, and "Bocca sporca," which reduces a polyrhythmic, Bo Diddley-style blues locomotive down to the languor of a serenade. Full of the good kind of energy, the record also works thanks to the raspy blues-soul voice and keyboards, both the exclusive domain of frontman Cristian D'Oria. First single: "Ali di cera"; a filler cover: "Strange Days" (Doors).

Malkovic – Malkovic Ep (self-released, 2016)

alt-pop

Based between Brescia and Milan, the trio Malkovic — Giovanni Pedersini (voice and guitar), Fabio Copeta (bass) and Elia Pastori (drums and electronics) — debut with a self-titled first EP. Much of "Carlo" rests on the guitar's shoulders, and that's a good thing (it lends the right dramatic atmosphere), while "Tre" is the other half of the sky, a continuous, exasperated flare-up of drumming. The vocal delivery, on the other hand, unfolds placid and bored on the brief watercolor sketch "Nucleare," another neat trick of balance, while hazy a cappella harmonies lend anthemic force to "Ufo," eventually rising into full-throated peaks. It still has the feel of a logistical-stylistic settling-in, an appetizer, a warm-up; it certainly doesn't blow anyone away, but it doesn't lack emotion or punch either, with genuine choices and a humble, singable mood throughout. All self-produced by the trio, but with the usual, infallible Carl Saff on hand too.

theNemo – Dagli Snap! al Crack (Discipline, 2017)

songwriter

Multi-instrumentalist Emanuele Emma, from Monza, launches the project theNemo with the first five-track mini-album, "Dagli Snap! al Crack." A fair share of its autumnal, subtly danceable sound is owed to producer Luca Urbani. The six minutes of "Lavorare di notte" rest on a breathing bed of synthesizers that brings even more rhythm than the (admittedly basic) repeated backing track, and also serves as a choral backdrop to Emma's rarefied, confessional, half-spoken-half-sung arc. "Teca" is essentially a mantra, a song built almost entirely around a refrain-motto ("senza tempo!") that hides among the atmospheric scaffolding, while "Grazie lo stesso" indulges a bit too much in techno's robotic clangs. A far more claustrophobic mood soaks "Mi ricordo," a shadowy ballad pierced by the author's disjointed, distant, muffled stream of consciousness — far closer to post-rock than synth-pop. It's not just the poppier side of Battiato or the electronic Battisti that come to mind as the most obvious touchstones — there's also, and above all, a rather fine inlay of fatalistic introversion. Bonus: a shortened version of "Lavorare di notte."

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