TRAKS MAGAZINE #8
The new issue of TRAKS MAGAZINE, as usual totally dedicated to the best independent Italian music. In this issue: Heidi for President, Freaky Mermaids, Mudimbi, Viridanse, Girless and many others
The new issue of TRAKS MAGAZINE, as usual totally dedicated to the best independent Italian music. In this issue: Heidi for President, Freaky Mermaids, Mudimbi, Viridanse, Girless and many others
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No. 8 - march 2017<br />
heidi for<br />
president<br />
our sound<br />
lawn<br />
freaky mermaids<br />
mudimbi<br />
viridanse<br />
girless<br />
REVIEWS INTERVIEWS NEWS<br />
www.musictraks.com
contents<br />
4<br />
8<br />
12<br />
14<br />
16<br />
18<br />
20<br />
22<br />
26<br />
26<br />
Interview<br />
heidi for<br />
president<br />
interview<br />
freaky<br />
mermaids<br />
Interview<br />
girless<br />
interview<br />
rasman<br />
interview<br />
mudimbi<br />
live dates<br />
review<br />
santacroce<br />
reviews<br />
interview<br />
viridanse<br />
Videos<br />
<strong>TRAKS</strong> <strong>MAGAZINE</strong><br />
www.musictraks.com<br />
Editor in Chief:<br />
Fabio Alcini<br />
info@musictraks.com
interview<br />
heidi for president:<br />
sound lawn, flannel<br />
shirts and fake deer<br />
antlers<br />
Nostrils, the debut album of Heidi For President<br />
will be released on April 21. On the lp,<br />
Taranto band collects songs that start from<br />
folk to achieve results quite unique and differentiated.<br />
We put a few questions to them.<br />
What’s the story of Heidi for President?<br />
Heidi for president was born in a cellar, an<br />
evening meeting after days of work/study.<br />
Improvising, we directed more and more<br />
towards a common sound that eventually<br />
became characteristic and on which we have<br />
worked to define it better. And then the idea<br />
of “sound lawn”, lyrics in English, the first<br />
flannel shirts and fake deer antlers. As the<br />
project took shape the band was shaped, with<br />
4 5<br />
components that have contributed their influences,<br />
until today, when the assets we were<br />
in 3 elements with very clear stylistic ideas.<br />
Love is the central concept of the lp. Which<br />
were the basic ideas of your album?
interview<br />
We are romantics and our ideal days are those<br />
spent around pine forests, beaches, ravines,<br />
so pretty much tell what we are and what<br />
surrounds us. With our music we hope to<br />
convey those are the moments of great inspiration<br />
that pervade us during these outings.<br />
Often, however, with universal love and the<br />
natural landscapes we also like to tell of our<br />
lives, masked in this size.<br />
The songs seem to have very homogeneous<br />
inspiration...<br />
We have gone through many phases and each<br />
song was the result of a study that lasted over<br />
time. While the band was consolidated the<br />
tracks were arranged each time in a different<br />
way and the lyrics are often lost or changed<br />
many times. But the base remains the nature,<br />
which has always accompanied us on this<br />
journey, allowing us to maintain a dominant<br />
concept.<br />
Although yours is a debut, you could count<br />
on important collaborators at La Rivolta<br />
Records. Can you tell how<br />
you collaborated with musicians<br />
of the lp, particularly<br />
with Del Vitto who is also<br />
the producer?<br />
La Rivolta Records is a big<br />
family and this has allowed<br />
us to count on the collaboration<br />
of great musicians who<br />
have immediately taken the<br />
project to heart. We had the<br />
pleasure and honor to record<br />
with Roberto Mangialardo,<br />
guitarist of La Municipàl and<br />
Sofia Brunetta, with Dario<br />
Ancona, guitarist of I Misteri<br />
del Sonno, but basically one<br />
of Puglia’s best bassists and<br />
Paolo del Vitto, Playontape<br />
drummer and producer. This<br />
is our debut album so many<br />
artistic details were discovered<br />
little by little and day by<br />
day, especially the importance<br />
of the producer, Paolo Del<br />
Vitto, who did a very professional<br />
job, but also “beautiful”<br />
in which he experiented also.<br />
How is it born “Nostrils”?<br />
“Nostrils” is the title of the album but especially<br />
the title of our favorite song. The album,<br />
half experimental and half-Brit-folk, contains<br />
both rhythmic 70/80 that the orchestral<br />
reflections. The eight songs in an album are<br />
the result of a carefully selection occurred<br />
with Paolo Del Vitto. The album evokes the<br />
beauty of a sunrise, the love of nature, of the<br />
legends tells about the life, death and the very<br />
nature, of the wandering souls of the artists<br />
who blend with the landscape.<br />
Who are the Italian independent artists that<br />
you value most in this moment and why?<br />
Since this question has put us in crisis, we<br />
choose three “major” artists and three independent<br />
artists closer to us. Among the major<br />
we include:<br />
- Management del Dolore post-operatorio for<br />
the wealth of lyrics and for no “disturbing”<br />
rock.<br />
- Verdena and Iosonouncane for their musical<br />
experimentation and research of sounds<br />
Among independent artists closer to us we<br />
have no doubt, Sofia Brunetta for its ability<br />
to innovate, with voice and sounds, basically<br />
tested genres, La Municipàl for the construction<br />
of the lyrics and the rhythmic nonclassical<br />
despite a debut album, and finally<br />
Il Terzo Piano, for their atmospheric music<br />
and their ability to enchant the audience.<br />
But by continuing to do things our own way<br />
we would like to mention the bands that we<br />
value and love. These are Il Guaio, Inude,<br />
Leland Did It, Matilde Davoli, Wrongonyou,<br />
Carolina Bubbico, Beatrice Antolini, Senhal,<br />
Electrojesuz, I Misteri Del Sonno, Andrea Nabel,<br />
The Pier, Melga, Plof, Giovanni Truppi,<br />
The People Speak, Motta, Moustache Prawn,<br />
A Copy For Collapse, Gomma, A Morte L’amore.<br />
It is very funny the invocation to “vote”<br />
Heidi, you call the “only German heart of<br />
gold... Now I have a few certainties in life,<br />
but... Heidi is not Swiss?<br />
Heidi could also be of Frosinone (a random<br />
chosen town), for us she is a concept, a dispassionate<br />
love for nature, innocence, barefoot,<br />
walking. Germany, Naples, Milan, Switzerland,<br />
the Alps, we do not mind the exact<br />
location, we are shitty peasants, what did you<br />
expect?<br />
6<br />
7
Freaky mermaids<br />
a silent dialogue<br />
New start for Freaky Mermaids, who welcomed<br />
Giorgia Poli (ex Scisma) in its ranks. The<br />
band released an album, Everything could<br />
happen, in which they widened a bit their<br />
horizons. We asked them a few questions.<br />
The band exists since 2006, but this record<br />
has the appearance of a “new beginning.”Can<br />
you tell us how why?
interview<br />
We arrived to this... sharing!<br />
This record started<br />
where the previous one<br />
ended: during the first<br />
phase of mixing of Moonshine<br />
onces betrayed me<br />
something was wrong ...<br />
This was the moment when<br />
entered in our scene Gabriele,<br />
who finished our<br />
mix making us happy of<br />
what we had done. Giorgia<br />
and Gabriele are lifemates<br />
so the next step was<br />
short: the experience and<br />
the energy of Giorgia have<br />
thrown forward causing<br />
us to glimpse new possibilities. New relationships<br />
and new plots, different experiences: all<br />
this has changed us, our tools have changed,<br />
our sound has changed, Laura has embraced<br />
the guitar! Everything Could Happen is exactly<br />
the picture of our relationship and musical<br />
journey.<br />
Do finding a new alchemy after joining forces<br />
with Giorgia Poli was simple or complicated?<br />
For our fortune, very simple: Giorgia was the<br />
missing piece. The feeling was amazing right<br />
from the first reharsal.<br />
The disc carries an expansion of sounds and<br />
perhaps even a broadening of horizons: Can<br />
you tell us how you arrived?<br />
As I said before, the new equipment has<br />
enabled us to broaden our musical horizons:<br />
the credit goes to Gabriele, who introduced<br />
the older guitars and less celebrated there, the<br />
tube quality amplifiers, the sound of certain<br />
effects that he owns. Moreover, the nature of<br />
the songs of this album was already in origin<br />
other than the previous one, perhaps the<br />
10<br />
most personal and intimate because it was<br />
conceived at a time of growth and change. We<br />
have tried to respect this diversity as much as<br />
possible and do not add anything more than<br />
necessary.<br />
How did is born “You’re gonna tell me”?<br />
It happens every day, in every relationship,<br />
at any age, to identify with what you read<br />
with what you hear with what you decide<br />
to be. This song is a song to the freedom of<br />
self-expression in the most absolute simplicity.<br />
Be yourself, with disheveled hair, without<br />
having things too important to say but just<br />
be present, living relationships without too<br />
much mental constructs.<br />
Can you tell the main instrument you used<br />
to play on this record?<br />
First of all we used the tools we use in live<br />
concerts: acoustic and electric guitars, bass<br />
and double bass, ukulele, harmonicas and<br />
our three voices. Our intent was to start from<br />
a sound as close as possible to the sound of<br />
real concerts and to give the expansion of the<br />
narrow confines of the songs from the point<br />
of view of the instruments. Our achievement<br />
has been to not be afraid to leave the remains<br />
of tracks and add overdubs just to give depth<br />
to the sound plane or to reinforce what was<br />
already there. We were also helped by some<br />
very delicate work of musicians who we hosted<br />
in the recording studio. They have added<br />
precious colors that we did not have, like the<br />
harp of Chiara Dassenno, the piano / Rhodes<br />
of Andrea Braga and the drums of Max Comincini<br />
and Beppe Mondini. Gabriele says:<br />
“I am dedicated to shooting techniques microphone<br />
and tricks that allowed me to record<br />
the performance<br />
of<br />
the girls while<br />
they were<br />
playing live<br />
without metronome<br />
and<br />
without headphones.<br />
The<br />
core of this<br />
disc is played<br />
live 80%: I<br />
am happy of<br />
this result, it’s<br />
what I really<br />
wanted, and<br />
it is the testimony<br />
of the<br />
very good attitude<br />
of the<br />
girls!”<br />
Can you describe<br />
your<br />
concerts?<br />
Our gigs take<br />
place mainly<br />
in small places,<br />
and intimate<br />
enough<br />
11<br />
to establish a silent dialogue with our audience.<br />
Normally we do not have the drums and<br />
we try to build the rhythmic patterns in alternative<br />
ways. Sometimes the limits allow you<br />
to use more imagination and creativity. But<br />
we do not disdain the one-time contribution<br />
of drummers...<br />
Who are the Italian independent artists that<br />
you value most in this moment and why?<br />
We love Cesare Basile for his continuous musical<br />
research and Paolo Benvegnù for the<br />
poetry of his lyrics.
interview<br />
girless<br />
How do you start your own solo career with<br />
an album dedicated to eight famous suicides?<br />
If you are Tommaso/Girless, officially<br />
“paused” by the experience of Girless & The<br />
Orphan, you can. His album, I have a call, relates<br />
with the last step of Hemingway, Primo<br />
Levi, Mario Monicelli, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia<br />
Plath, Vladimir Majakovsij, Luigi Tenco. And<br />
to the one of a person that did not commit<br />
suicide, like Giuseppe Pinelli. All with the<br />
help of the Urali, who sings in two songs and<br />
plays bass in one.<br />
Can you explain how and why you’ve come<br />
now to your first solo album?<br />
The last record of Girless & The Orphan was<br />
released in October 2014 and for a year we<br />
carried it throughout Italy. In February 2016<br />
we talked, and we decided to take a break to<br />
focus on other things, personal or in music.<br />
I had no intention at the time to do something<br />
alone, I had some unfinished songs<br />
that I had started to work and by the time I<br />
became convinced that it was best to keep<br />
them totally acoustic, just guitar and voice.<br />
Hence it arose the need to record a solo lp.<br />
Why an lp dedicated to suicide people?<br />
I remember one morning I was wandering on<br />
the internet without a definite purpose. You<br />
know when you open a link from there, and<br />
then you open another twenty, until you arrive<br />
on a site or a page distant from that from<br />
which you started? Here it is. I ended up on<br />
this page that talked about celebrities who<br />
had committed suicide. I began to read their<br />
stories and to deepen my own. From there,<br />
I selected eight characters and I thought it<br />
would be challenging to try to tell their stories.<br />
How did you choose the characters and, in<br />
two words, what does each of them for you?<br />
The selection process has been influenced by<br />
various factors. In some cases, the personal<br />
history of the deceased was too cool to be<br />
told. In other cases it is started from an idea<br />
to the text and I’ve adapted the music. Actually<br />
the tracks and therefore the characters<br />
were 12, but some were not too incisive in<br />
terms of text, or do not fully convinced, so<br />
I narrowed the selection to the 8 best in my<br />
opinion. It was not easy because they are all<br />
very different characters with each other, and<br />
even what they represent can vary depending<br />
on which side you look at them. It would be<br />
long to explain everything that I learned from<br />
these characters by reading their books, their<br />
poetry or listening to their songs. Or more<br />
simply trying to understand its history, when<br />
it is told by a third party is always fallacious.<br />
Why the choice of a “non-suicide”<br />
like Italian anarchist Giuseppe<br />
Pinelli?<br />
Because we don’t talk about him<br />
enough and it is a tremendously<br />
contemporary event.<br />
Can you describe your concerts?<br />
What are the next dates that will<br />
see you involved?<br />
I speak a little too much between<br />
one song and another. The only<br />
date set so far will be the release<br />
show at Magazzino Parallelo of<br />
Cesena at the DIY Fest (which is<br />
a super two-day festival between<br />
Rimini and Cesena with many<br />
good bands and you should think<br />
to come).<br />
Who is or who are the Italians<br />
independent artists you respect<br />
most in this moment and why?<br />
This is a question very difficult, because you<br />
always end up forgetting someone. So now I’ll<br />
make a band list and artist friends that I appreciate<br />
a lot, in a completely random order<br />
and hope not to forget anyone important (something<br />
that inevitably will happen): Urali,<br />
Lantern, Caso, Lags, Fine Before You Came,<br />
Riviera, Dags, Zachary, Die Abete, I Like Allie,<br />
Tegu, VRCVS, Montana, Bennett, Marcovaldo,<br />
New Adventures in Lo-fi, Marnero,<br />
Labradors.<br />
Can you name three songs that have influenced<br />
you the most?<br />
Songs in particular I could not, I say the authors:<br />
for abroad I would say Billy Bragg, Leonard<br />
Cohen and Rocky Votolato to Italy very<br />
banal tell Fabrizio De André, Ivan Graziani<br />
and Samuele Bersani. I wanted to put Piero<br />
Ciampi, but I do not dare even given the<br />
enormity of the character.<br />
12<br />
13
interview<br />
rasman<br />
Rasman are a trio of recent composition,<br />
which released its debut, Stub. We put a few<br />
questions to the band.<br />
Can you summarize your story to date?<br />
The Rasman trio formed in 2014 with Alessandro<br />
on voice / guitar, Emilio on bass and<br />
Riccardo on drums. The group comes from<br />
the underground punk rock / grunge scene of<br />
the province of Rimini and it was born with<br />
original songs (No cover). After two rotations<br />
on drums, the band, with Gabriele (Sanji) on<br />
drums, entered the studio to record Stub. The<br />
name of the group Rasman is inspired by a<br />
case of Italian news, a case never solved injustice.<br />
With what feelings was born “Stub”?<br />
“Stub” is examining the forensic uses to determine<br />
whether there are traces of gunpowder<br />
on a suspect of murder, the sound of the record<br />
is very strong, the guitars are rhythmic<br />
and repetitive, like the lyrics of the songs. The<br />
titles of the songs are an extract of modern<br />
society, a Lawyer by Stalker and punishement<br />
before the crime, genuine complaints of a<br />
contemporary discomfort.<br />
How is it born “Bathfoam”?<br />
Bathfoam inspired by a true story: a girl, after<br />
a disappointment in love, cut her wrists and<br />
was left to die in a bathtub. The fact made me<br />
think, to the point of writing a song.<br />
Can you tell the main instrument you used<br />
to play on this record?<br />
The lp was recorded entirely in a mini-studio<br />
by Luca Mascia (recording, mixing and mastering)<br />
with Cubase.<br />
Can you describe your concerts?<br />
Our gigs are sincere, there are no pauses, there<br />
is a strong influence of the Ramones show.<br />
Who is or who are the Italians independent<br />
artists that you value most in this moment<br />
and why?<br />
Francesco Motta and the SOVIET SOVIET<br />
are currently indie artists that we like best, in<br />
addition to our countrymen Honey.<br />
The album is now out for some time: have<br />
you already started working on new songs?<br />
We are already working on new songs looking<br />
to shave even more the sound that we would<br />
get.<br />
14 15
interview<br />
mudimbi<br />
An album, Michel, that he<br />
defines “honest”. Mudimbi<br />
brings provocation and irony<br />
to the album. We have asked<br />
him a few questions.<br />
Can you tell your story?<br />
It is very long, sure you want<br />
it all? Let’s do the highlights.<br />
I was born and still live in<br />
a faraway place called San<br />
Benedetto del Tronto. I have<br />
always been lively on average<br />
and average intelligent<br />
(at least according to me).<br />
During adolescence, while<br />
looking for my place in the<br />
world, I came across to rap<br />
and, after the first years of<br />
hate and love, I started to<br />
take familiarity. I wrote and<br />
sang a lot, like all those who<br />
do rap, but I’ve written for<br />
and sung in contexts completely<br />
different from those<br />
frequented by those who rap.<br />
One day, a few years ago, I<br />
embraced the idea of giving<br />
up this hobby, it would never<br />
become anything more, and<br />
lead a “normal life.” While<br />
I was thinking this, one of<br />
my songs turns out on Radio<br />
Deejay. That makes me prick<br />
up their ears and think that<br />
maybe I should try seriously.<br />
A few years passed and here<br />
we are.<br />
You wanted a record, above all, honest. In<br />
what is expressed honesty in the album?<br />
The songs are there because I like them, not<br />
because they have to be there. There is no<br />
strategy behind any of my songs, nor behind<br />
the album, nor behind Mudimbi. Honesty is<br />
in this for me, I do what I really want to do in<br />
the way that I feel I really want, at the risk, of<br />
course, that things can go wrong. And with<br />
the assurance that, eventually, I will be fine.<br />
What were the biggest difficulties you encountered<br />
in making the record, if there<br />
were?<br />
I am not one of those who writes from morning<br />
to night, which is unleashed on the sheet.<br />
I don’t have to vent about anything, my life<br />
is going very well. So I did quite apnea when<br />
instead I found myself having to put together<br />
all these traces, to write them from scratch, to<br />
squeeze your brains while I was still working<br />
in the workshop, with little time and little<br />
energy... well we can say that at that time my<br />
life has not gone then so well hahaha<br />
How is it born “Giostre”?<br />
You should ask to “Giostre”. I was on the<br />
sofa in my old apartment, exhausted, brain<br />
dead, but suddenly something crosses my<br />
head. I run into the other room, I take the<br />
microphone and start recording. Probably it<br />
had nothing to do with “Giostre” as we know<br />
it today, but the backbone was the same, the<br />
mood was the same, and for me this alone<br />
was enough to understand that it was worth<br />
continuing to work on it.<br />
Who are the Italian independent artists you<br />
respect the most in this moment and why?<br />
I do not reckon anyone. But do not misunderstand,<br />
is not conceit or arrogance, is that<br />
(who knows me well knows) I do not look<br />
around much. I’m focused on what I do and<br />
want to do, and I keep my eyes, ears and well<br />
centered head on this. Sometimes i feel surprised,<br />
like when they compare me to someone<br />
that I have not the faintest idea who he is,<br />
and yet then I discover that, for the world of<br />
the internet, he is more famous than Jesus of<br />
Nazareth. But that’s okay, because the few times<br />
I have estimated some of my “colleague”,<br />
it was enough to deepen a bit more to change<br />
on the subject immediately idea. I’m not<br />
saying it’s the same for everybody, there are<br />
exceptions, but in my head I always resonates<br />
the phrase from an old movie: “To know in<br />
person someone you like, it is the first step to<br />
begin to estimate it no more”.<br />
16 17
tour<br />
ATLANTIC TIDES<br />
12.04 COBBLESTONES – BRIDGWATER<br />
(UK)<br />
13.04 SUNBIRD RECORDS – DARWEN<br />
(UK)<br />
14.04 PERCY’S – WHITCHURCH (UK)<br />
15.04 LOUNGE 41 – WORKINGTON (UK)<br />
16.04 HOPE & ANCHOR – LONDON (UK)<br />
VIKOWSKI<br />
16/4 | BEOGRAD (SER) - ZAOKRET<br />
17/4 | NIS (SER) - FEEDBACK<br />
23/4 | GDANSK (PL) - OLD GDANSK BEER<br />
PUB & CAFFE<br />
29/4 | NAPOLI (ITA)- MMB - NAPOLI<br />
30/4 | ROMA (ITA) - LE MURA<br />
5/5 | PRAGUE (CZE) - VEČERNÍ KA-<br />
VÁRNA SOUTERRAIN<br />
6/6 | BRNO (CZE) - MUSIC LAB<br />
12/5 | FAVARA (ITA)- OFFICINE MAC<br />
13/5 | VITTORIA (ITA) - DEMODÈ<br />
SUNSET RADIO<br />
01.04 SAMARA(RUS)<br />
02.04 BALAKOVO (RUS)<br />
03.04 VOLGOGRAD (RUS)<br />
21.04 TURBIGO (ITA)<br />
22.04 VIGEVANO (ITA)<br />
18
eview<br />
santacroce<br />
Alessio Santacroce publishes his new album,<br />
Migras: the guitarist, author and writer, has<br />
a twenty-year career with La Quarta Via, but<br />
this is his first as solo artist. An album of solid<br />
rock, attentive to social<br />
issues, a natural attitude for<br />
an author like Santacroce who<br />
is also chairman for Italy of<br />
O.N.G. Sawa Sawa, committed<br />
to building family homes<br />
in Kenya. Santacroce goes<br />
on with his parallel musical<br />
projects such as Cayenna,<br />
Holy Hand Grenade and of<br />
course, La Quarta Via. Album<br />
starts with Il Gregge, a rock<br />
song with traditional and rough<br />
profile, with a guitar that<br />
is the main actor. Even faster<br />
is La notte della repubblica,<br />
showing attention to reality<br />
and sudden dark moments.<br />
The Alessia Caracciolo voice<br />
characterizes Clorofilla, soft<br />
ballad with signs of nervousness.<br />
Mercanti di Anime<br />
begins to run and with high<br />
beat, making clear reference<br />
to smugglers and traffickers<br />
of men from the two shores<br />
of the Mediterranean. Different<br />
shades and a nonlinear<br />
structure distinguish instead<br />
Normandie, which gives<br />
more space to the lines drawn<br />
by approaching instruments<br />
to more contemporary genres such as indie<br />
and post-rock. Bianco miope background is<br />
rumbling and immerses the speech sounds<br />
rather gloomy. L’ingiusta fine delle mezze<br />
stagioni comes back to a context of more<br />
flamboyant rock, while La fiaba dulcamara<br />
returns in calmer moments, mostly vocals<br />
and guitar, but with critical ideas towards<br />
common life today. Lp closes with Migras,<br />
the title track,<br />
which opens<br />
with a sweet<br />
guitar riff and<br />
that is revealed<br />
little by<br />
little in the<br />
style of a hard<br />
rock ballad<br />
of 70s and<br />
80s. Robust<br />
and pleasant<br />
album, which although take part in rock tradition<br />
without major innovations, manages<br />
to build a coherent path without compromise<br />
and with something interesting.<br />
20
colombre<br />
“pulviscolo”<br />
reviews<br />
cs are hard as rocks. There is much originality<br />
in the work of Colombre, putting to<br />
good use the experience with a fast and<br />
successful record. Important work, with<br />
clear evidence of creativity.<br />
the black veils<br />
“dealing with demons”<br />
Dealing with Demons is the new work of<br />
the Bolognese trio The Black Veils. This<br />
is a concept album on the need to face the<br />
demons that lurk in the hearts and minds<br />
of human beings and that often dangerously<br />
take control. Produced by Gianluca Lo<br />
Presti at Lotostudio of Ravenna, “Dealing<br />
with Demons” is the first official release<br />
signed Atmosphere Records , the Bologna-based<br />
label that brings together some<br />
of the most interesting contemporary Italian<br />
reality of post-punk and darkwave<br />
mold. The lp starts with The Persistence<br />
of Memory, full of feedback. Then the music<br />
starts for real and it falls in the middle<br />
of dark wave, crushed between the ghosts<br />
of Joy Division and<br />
early Cure. Nothing is<br />
Pure works on deep<br />
resonances and puts<br />
on the track an average<br />
beat but with frequent<br />
changes. More<br />
ethereal and detached<br />
is the entrance to The<br />
Ghost Inside, which in reality does not reveal<br />
itself at all detached. Reptile (Chant<br />
Pulviscolo is the<br />
new lp of songwriter<br />
Colombre.<br />
Giovanni Imparato<br />
spent his last years<br />
writing and arranging<br />
his songs by<br />
publishing with<br />
Chewingum band.<br />
Two albums, an ep,<br />
and hundreds of concerts in Italy and Europe.<br />
New album starts from Pulviscolo,<br />
the title track, which introduces a soft and<br />
songwriting horizons, with some cloud the<br />
view, however, does not hurt. Fuoritempo,<br />
on the contrary, decides to speed up, using<br />
keyboards and vintage guitars flavor. Blatte<br />
sees the collaboration with Iosonouncane,<br />
apparently not very close to the sounds<br />
of Colombre. But the combination, especially<br />
on the vocal side, works well, even<br />
following the apparent dissonance that introduce<br />
small air pockets in the song. More<br />
linear, despite the title, Tso, who also fits<br />
extravagant variations on his soft tissue.<br />
Most scintillating and with disco dance<br />
music surround Dimmi tu, that relates to<br />
Alan Sorrenti songs, even with some hint<br />
of falsetto and a great funky guitar groove.<br />
Sveglia is a pop-rock tune, happy to send<br />
to fuck off more or less all the world (indeed,<br />
the universe). Quieter moments the<br />
ones of Bugiardo, but also softer the final<br />
of Deserto. There is talk of “soft” referring<br />
to the musical side, because often the lyrifor<br />
Cold-Blooded Creatures) conjures<br />
ghosts of new wave, but also of the tribe of<br />
bands which refers to that time. Distinct<br />
rhythms and a desire to assault is revealed<br />
in True Beauty Attacks! Instead Prinsengracht<br />
move on more indirect lines,<br />
hidden in the mists of Dutch channels,<br />
with the recovery of something that seems<br />
melodic. Extremely accelerated movements,<br />
and rather hysterical, those of The<br />
Comforting Another Taste of Springtime<br />
Torture. Freyja recovers a more “normal<br />
pace”, but look for other deep resonances.<br />
Dealing with Demons, the title track comes<br />
to confirm the impressions already<br />
accumulated in the course of the album.<br />
Then we go towards the end with declamatory<br />
and crooked The Wicker Man, before<br />
the dances are closed seriously with The<br />
Disintegration of the Persistence of the<br />
Memory, descriptive, dramatic and lyrical<br />
final part. Good second album for The<br />
Black Veils, able to put various anxieties on<br />
record, melting them with good execution<br />
quality. Strongly recommended to dark<br />
wave lovers.<br />
A tree grows<br />
“a tree grows”<br />
After the first single, Wau Wau Water, A<br />
Tree Grows present their self-titled debut<br />
album, released by Rufftone Records,<br />
accompanied by the video of the song Future<br />
Calculations. By involving some of<br />
the most talented musicians of the New<br />
York scene, the band has managed to create<br />
a Street Jazz disk, mixed with Afrobeat,<br />
rock and experimental sounds. The album<br />
opens with the title track, A Tree Grows,<br />
a rich in sparkles where the sax phrase fits<br />
smoothly with quite nervous percussions.<br />
Softer are the movements of Millions of<br />
Years, interesting excursus on soft tones.<br />
There is something deeply vintage in the<br />
development of Out and About, still led by<br />
the sax but where the instruments blend<br />
together effortlessly. The short Valentines<br />
Day cloaks the path of sweetness, fishing<br />
almost in the easy listening area. Unlike<br />
2 years, 16 days and 24 minutes that<br />
opens with sounds flirting with the noise,<br />
developed under the track and with more<br />
experimental ideas.<br />
The first part of Wau<br />
Wau Water goes in<br />
areas bluntly jazz,<br />
slipping on velvet.<br />
Very animated is<br />
Youngblood, where<br />
the drumming becomes<br />
particularly evident<br />
and alive. We return to an experimental<br />
nerve with Rashaan’s Life, short guitar<br />
speech. A team talk much broader instead<br />
comes with Tragic, with a construction<br />
that begins with rhythmic foundation to<br />
raise more important structures. After<br />
another short excursions into jazz with<br />
some dose of tradition, with Future Calculations,<br />
here comes Ripple Edit and her<br />
ethereal movements. The lp closes with<br />
the second part of Wau Wau Water. Good<br />
lp for the band, showcasing all his considerable<br />
talent. In addition to the instrumental<br />
capabilities, it is clear also the will to go<br />
beyond standard.<br />
22 23
eviews<br />
voina “Alcol, schifo<br />
e nostalgia”<br />
An lp victim of<br />
hangover: Voina<br />
publish Alcool,<br />
schifo e nostalgia,<br />
the second lp, that<br />
carries anxieties,<br />
resentments and<br />
many confused but<br />
fast ideas. Voina<br />
come from Lanciano (Chieti - Abruzzo) and<br />
in the spring of 2013 they released their<br />
first ep, entirely self-produced and artistically<br />
directed by Manuele Fusaroli and<br />
Marco Di Nardo (Management del Dolore<br />
Post-Operatorio). On October 2015 they<br />
released their first album Noi non siamo<br />
infinito. There is a certain continuity<br />
between Welfare, the opening track, and<br />
Io non ho quel non so che: an electrical<br />
and aggressive continuity in the fields of<br />
indie rock and post punk, at high speeds.<br />
The first song focuses mainly on labor issues,<br />
while the second extends his gaze in<br />
a way of being, or rather not to be, in tune<br />
with the common experience of the year<br />
2017.Bere proves itself equally effective,<br />
transformed along the way in a sort of anthem<br />
(sui generis), with the bad feelings<br />
that expand and meet choral moments.<br />
More dark and intimate Ossa, although the<br />
propensity to (self) destruction then takes<br />
the main street of a very suffered and bleeding<br />
song. Morire 100 volte tries again<br />
to hold back the anger, through good bass<br />
lines and other electrical techniques, but it<br />
fails and the explosion it comes, even with<br />
a hint of hip hop. Gli anni 80 does not<br />
skimp on aggression and regrets. Il futuro<br />
alle spalle starts from the bass to tell stories<br />
of hope denied. Non è la Rai tries to<br />
explain in detail the possibility of different<br />
life choices, which is a bit the leitmotif of<br />
the disc. Along with the accumulation of<br />
negative feelings vented through electric<br />
guitars always drawn. Il Jazz does not really<br />
expresses a great fascination for the<br />
genre of Miles Davis, used as a symbol of<br />
a life that you hate. La Provincia details<br />
the sensation of hangover and the feelings<br />
that transmits, closing the album. A<br />
very strong effort, that of Voina, who make<br />
steps forward compared to the previous album,<br />
also in terms of nihilism. The feelings<br />
expressed by the band are clearly sincere,<br />
digging to the bone and sometimes hurting<br />
even just listening to them from the outside.<br />
wops<br />
“il giorno onirico”<br />
Ten years of playing music together, but<br />
first official album:<br />
Wops publish Il giorno<br />
onirico, twelve<br />
tracks where can<br />
be traced signs of<br />
psychedelia, rock, dream<br />
pop. The influences<br />
range from classic<br />
psychedelia up to the<br />
American indie and more recent generations.<br />
The Wops are: Fabrizio Piergiovanni<br />
(drums), Marco Amoroso (low) Alessandro<br />
Caruso (guitars, keyboards and vocals) and<br />
Francesco Rita (guitars, keyboards and<br />
vocals). The band’s name is a derogatory<br />
term against the Italian immigrant invented<br />
by the Americans in the early twentieth<br />
century. The first song Ora mi alzo,<br />
a dawn acoustic/psychedelic for the lp,<br />
distributed with pinkfloydian footprints.<br />
Without stopping you move to the L’oro in<br />
bocca, much more rhythmic and less dreamy,<br />
even with a very concrete and aggressive<br />
drumming. The drift dream it takes<br />
only the final part of the song, in this case.<br />
Cori and dissonance in Funesto, equally<br />
assaulting and with a round of punchy guitar.<br />
Pace does not go down, but surely the<br />
tones lower, with Lady 88, still woven on<br />
a very fast drumming and increasing volumes.<br />
Influences psych-folk and vintage<br />
characteristics for A me mi, while La ballata<br />
delle mine adds some ideas in the pop<br />
field. Tones suddenly low and soft those<br />
of Lei mi dice, whispered with a development<br />
once again of dream pop. Many denials<br />
resonate in melancholic Vinavil. The<br />
second part of the tune, however, reveals<br />
an electronic soul and a dotted rhythm in<br />
an almost entirely unexpected way. Ripresa<br />
expands upon concepts and serves as<br />
the first intermission of Il Lancio, a track<br />
that builds a rhythmic climax with meditative<br />
pauses. After the second part of Ora<br />
mi alzo, still soft and acoustic, the album<br />
closes with L’arte del sonno, with a phone<br />
call, maybe taken from a movie gradually<br />
drowned by rising sounds. Good personality<br />
and good ideas for Wops, who manage<br />
to blend ideas and influences in a creative<br />
way, to get a team job and with good levels<br />
of intensity.<br />
usual<br />
“just feel alright”<br />
Usual is the project of four musicians who<br />
publish Just Feel Alright, ep of four songs<br />
full of rock and good feelings. The band<br />
members are Mathias Drescig (vocals and<br />
guitar), Filippo Tonelli (bass and vocals),<br />
Michele Marocchi (guitar and vocals) and<br />
Marco Ziliani (drums and vocals). Just Feel<br />
Alright is their debut ep, released on March<br />
15 via Primal Box, recorded and mixed by<br />
Fabrizio San Pietro<br />
and Jonathan Bonvini<br />
the Chrono Sound<br />
Factory in Vimodrone.<br />
The work starts<br />
from Just Feel Alright,<br />
the title track<br />
that exposes immediately<br />
the band’s penchant for international<br />
rock (not necessarily indie), with a<br />
rhythm crescendo and a choral finale. Dog<br />
fits rhythms and a more aggressive and<br />
heavy sounds. With the passing of the song<br />
traces of ‘70s rock with some blues influence<br />
emerge. Any sign of vintage emerges<br />
even from Blueberries and Wine,<br />
tune of medium and resonant rhythm. It<br />
closes with Down the Road of My Heart,<br />
with good sensations transmitted by<br />
the rhythm section, modulated with other<br />
ideas about the past without exceeding in<br />
nostalgia, and even a trumpet passage to<br />
confer other colors. Good ep, that of Usual,<br />
rich and distinctive characteristics of a rather<br />
strong personality.<br />
24<br />
25
interview<br />
viridanse<br />
Born in 1983, they broke up in 1987. It could<br />
be all here the history of Viridanse. But then<br />
it comes an anthology in 2012, then a real<br />
reunion in 2014 that has resurfaced with the<br />
history of post punk band. Today the band<br />
renews oldest sensation publishing Hansel,<br />
Gretel e la strega cannibale, a virulent album<br />
full of feelings. We put a few questions to Enrico<br />
Ferraris and Flavio Gemma.<br />
Many reunion of rock bands collide with<br />
the reality of the past: you make a record,<br />
then they all return to their own reality.<br />
But you have proven to having set up a<br />
project built to last. On what is build your<br />
newfound solidity?<br />
When in 2014 we decided to start making<br />
music as Viridanse Flavio and I never<br />
doubted the willingness to engage in a lasting<br />
way. Restart was a way to evolve our music<br />
in the most natural way possible and above<br />
all to interpret it in a different era. So, having<br />
established that we would have to re-invent<br />
a new formation for three-fifths, we decided<br />
to invest in a new repertoire, recovering<br />
very little of the old pieces. This journey took<br />
us no time to have eight new songs, albeit<br />
from certain darker shades of the old sound,<br />
expressed harsher sounds and in some sense<br />
“free” from rigid patterns of much of the<br />
music of the 80s. In some ways it was a risky<br />
choice, but it certainly was the only one<br />
we could do to express something new and<br />
more mature. Obviously the meeting with<br />
Gianluca, Giancarlo and Fabrizio gave a new<br />
dimension to our music and it has allowed<br />
us to realize Viridanse in 2015, an album that<br />
has given us so much satisfaction especially as<br />
critical acclaim and audience.<br />
Can you tell guidelines and inspiration<br />
behind your new album?<br />
From the musical point of view it is a job that<br />
has elements of a very 70s approach, for the<br />
air we breathe, the most influential in the use<br />
of voice and sound in general. Big thanks also<br />
to the powerful battery Erik (Nalin) that,<br />
after leaving the group of Fabrizio<br />
(Calabrese) in June 2016<br />
played superbly the new songs,<br />
in a very short time, moreover.<br />
The song that gives title to the<br />
work, and in general the entire<br />
album from allegory of the fable<br />
to represent the grotesque and<br />
devastating side of the society in<br />
which we are immersed and of which<br />
we are co-responsible for the decline.<br />
It is not clear where it really is evil, that<br />
childhood innocence, instinct engulfing the<br />
cannibal witch, torn between the temptations<br />
and snares of the company that “pretends”<br />
or marzipan sweet temptations. Everything<br />
is chaotic and elusive in an extremely precise<br />
design of “power”<br />
and submission to<br />
our own needs, in<br />
short, every actor in<br />
this story embodies<br />
itself good and evil,<br />
as two sides of the<br />
same coin.<br />
The whole album<br />
expresses the strong<br />
message of trying to<br />
understand, comprehend<br />
and fight all<br />
those aspects of life<br />
that make us slaves,<br />
is a visible power<br />
and constituted, is<br />
an invisible power and impalpable. A short<br />
way to fight a logic that leads mankind to use<br />
every resource that the world offers, chasing<br />
illu-<br />
sory and false things out of greed.<br />
Always the theme of the systematic<br />
control of the masses is at the<br />
center of our interests and considerations<br />
and in this record the<br />
awareness of this message flows<br />
between sentences and texts by<br />
Gianluca and music by Flavio<br />
and obviously affects our collective<br />
way of playing and<br />
interpret the music.<br />
Why Lorenzo Stecconi as a producer<br />
and why the recordings in the City Theater<br />
of Alessandria?<br />
Since the genesis of the pieces that went<br />
playing, we felt the need to record them as<br />
direct as possible, expressing their full potential<br />
impact “live.” We immediately thought of<br />
Lorenzo, for his experience in the production<br />
26<br />
27
interview<br />
of Ufomammut album Zu and many others,<br />
we knew we had the ability to interpret our<br />
music, capturing the true essence. The atmosphere<br />
that the songs had to express were of<br />
immediacy and power, wickedness and cruelty<br />
exactly like the concept required. Lorenzo<br />
was the sixth member of the group, he has let<br />
things be succeeded capturing them with great<br />
artistic sensitivity and reproducing them<br />
flawlessly. It came out an album that sounds<br />
very live, a bit like those that were made in<br />
the seventies, we have recorded virtually live,<br />
playing together, in an absolutely amazing<br />
atmosphere. The choice of the Municipal Theater<br />
of Alessandria was born from the search<br />
for a place to interpret our music exactly this<br />
way. We used the areas of the big stage of the<br />
theater, a huge place with high ceilings and<br />
bare of all furniture in what area closed for<br />
renovation. We worked for a week in this surreal<br />
environments on the size and undeniable<br />
charm. The filming of our first videos were<br />
made there during the recording session. It<br />
was an important experience and a big professional<br />
challenge.<br />
The songs of the album have wide literary<br />
references to the universe of fantasy, fairy<br />
tales Lovecraft (and Batman). Why those<br />
sources of inspiration?<br />
Because some fantastic literature proceeds in<br />
the direction of human soundings of her in<br />
ever universal key environment. The fantastic<br />
is often the reality seen through a mirror free<br />
from dogma, it is emotional adventure, it denounces<br />
the rigid and misleading systems<br />
Can you tell concept and video processing,<br />
which extends the story told by the lp?<br />
Even the making of the video was a precise<br />
artistic choice, timing of our songs are high,<br />
unsuitable for traditional video we chose to<br />
make a real short film The video was made<br />
by Alessandro Magagna (ANDO), artist and<br />
photographer of great talent and sensitivity,<br />
and our friend. He worked on our side interpreting<br />
quite rightfully so the message of<br />
the song. The intent was to create the hectic<br />
suggestion and schizoid rhythmic frames<br />
with images fast, a reality of images and subliminal<br />
messages that are subject to the logic<br />
of the advertising campaign, and the devouring<br />
consumerism. In my opinion I testify to<br />
the contrast<br />
between<br />
the frantic<br />
rhythm of<br />
our society<br />
and the conscious<br />
design<br />
of those who<br />
control the<br />
system by defining<br />
a clear<br />
vision of how<br />
it should be,<br />
symbolized<br />
by the “witch”<br />
who paints.<br />
By the way<br />
it is essential<br />
to remember<br />
the pictorial artistic contributions of Antonio<br />
De Nardis, author of the album cover<br />
and other exceptional works that are part of<br />
comprehensive artwork, and Aeno, which in<br />
the video embodies the witch who paints, the<br />
author of many works in china that make the<br />
CD packaging something unique and unrepeatable.<br />
What do you think of the renewed interest<br />
of the independent band for the dark wave?<br />
Probably because the scene wave and post<br />
punk, gothic or dark has never exhausted<br />
and always creates its own charm. Also see<br />
how it has evolved in certain ambient music,<br />
in metal or even in certain forms of musical<br />
avant-garde. For us it is important to read<br />
them in an increasingly new and always create<br />
engaging musical languages and adapted to<br />
the times we are living. The music is in compliance<br />
with the origin and heart of the future,<br />
it is undeniable.<br />
28 29
videos<br />
PsychoKiller<br />
I dream it all<br />
tonight<br />
My Monthly<br />
Date<br />
One Day More<br />
cult of aurora<br />
white light<br />
Pieralberto<br />
Valli<br />
Frontiera<br />
colombre<br />
pulviscolo<br />
click and see<br />
eNDRIGO<br />
Straight outta<br />
Villaggio<br />
Sereno (BS)<br />
the shoplifters<br />
nothing in<br />
common<br />
thalos<br />
storm<br />
junk street<br />
point of view<br />
wops<br />
la ballata<br />
delle mine<br />
Denis The<br />
Night & The<br />
Panic Party:<br />
How Long will<br />
be now<br />
España Circo<br />
Este<br />
Dammi un<br />
beso<br />
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La bionda<br />
degli Abba<br />
30<br />
31
eviews<br />
interviews<br />
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