Tuesday 21 January 2003

Diaframma - I Giorni Dell'Ira

diaframmaira Il 2002 è stato un anno davvero intenso per i Diaframma. Durante l'anno era già uscita la raccolta Sassolini Sul Fondo Del Fiume, che raccoglieva preziosi inediti registrati col secondo cantante della storia del gruppo, Miro Sassolini (persino la bozza di un album che avrebbe dovuto sancire una reunion a fine anni 90).
Poco prima della fine dell'anno è uscito un numero del Mucchio Selvaggio Extra con allegato l'ultimo strepitoso concerto con Sassolini alla voce, Live Al Big Club 1988 (imperdibili le esecuzioni di Boxe, Marta, Spazi Immensi, Tre Volte Lacrime, Siberia, Un Temporale In Campagna, Elena, Amsterdam, Memoria, Delorenzo, Caldo, praticamente tutte!), appena prima che Federico Fiumani decidesse di rifondare i Diaframma come cantante (salva la reunion estemporanea in occasione del ventesimo anniversario dell'apertura del Tenax di Firenze, sempre nel 2002!).
Intanto è uscito anche il nuovo album, I Giorni Dell'Ira... ovviamente il titolo non ha nulla a che vedere con l'IRA, l'etichetta che pubblicò i primi album epocali dei Diaframma a metà anni 80, come no... chissà, magari si riferisce alla guerriglia cattolica nordirlandese...
Si è parlato spesso di un tentativo di Fiumani di recuperare le sonorità new wave degli anni 80, dopo la svolta a metà tra cantautorato e pub rock degli anni 90. In effetti un paio d'anni fa aveva anche realizzato un tour particolarmente dedicato alle canzoni di quegli anni, e si può individuare questo sforzo nel precedente album, Il Futuro Sorride A Quelli Come Noi, a partire dalla copertina... ma in realtà questo tentativo è stato condotto con saggezza, evitando di abbandonarsi ad una sterile nostalgia e continuando il proprio percorso originale.
In questo senso il nuovo album sembra confermare questa tendenza: ormai la canzone di Fiumani si è stabilizzata su un rock d'autore, a volte vigoroso, altre delicato, che si pone al di là della contemporaneità, ma anche del revival.
Fiumani è semplicemente sé stesso, come sempre, nel bene e nel male, senza cercare ulteriori mutazioni, che del resto non avrebbero senso dopo 20 anni di carriera come patriarca del rock alternativo italiano.
Dopo avere gettato al vento, negli anni 90, due occasioni per il grande successo, la prima perchè non voleva sanremizzarsi, la seconda (più grave) perchè non voleva aspettare Maroccolo che stava per far decollare il Consorzio, continua per la sua strada, esempio di vera indipendenza in senso artistico ed organizzativo.
A parte stampa e distribuzione, fortunatamente curate dalla Self, Fiumani si produce da solo, si fa le copertine da solo e si procura anche gran parte delle date dal vivo, forte del fatto che può contare su un eroico zoccolo duro di fans, disposti anche a viaggi lungo l'intera penisola per seguirlo, e persino ad aiutarlo nella stessa fase organizzativa. Fiumani è stato il primo ad incarnare il punk (quello vero, mica quello da fighetti dei Punkreas e delle centinaia di cloni del finto punk californiano) in Italia, rimane anche l'ultimo ad impersonarlo nel modo più autentico.
Quest'album parte bene, Il Disprezzo, robusto ed ironico punk tra wave e garage, è anche il brano migliore. Ma anche la travolgente title track è davvero ottima. Seguono buone canzoni più in linea con la tradizione anni 90 come Sua Maestà e Il Disco Dei Replacements, ed è quasi superfluo ribadire i testi splendidi, tra umorismo e poesia, e un episodio davvero divertente come Nella Firenze Degli Anni 80, anche Signore Che Pulisci Il Mare è convincente. Sei buone canzoni, a cui ne seguono altre sei che lasciano un po'più perplessi, molto più approssimative, soprattutto dal punto di vista melodico.
Certo, unendo i brani migliori di ciascuno degli ultimi album otteniamo un capolavoro. Invece Fiumani pubblica spesso i suoi album e così ci ritroviamo con un album che è diviso in due con una precisione sorprendente. Del resto molti grandi artisti pubblicano album che hanno solo tre o quattro canzoni davvero eccellenti, solo che magari le distribuiscono meglio all'interno dell'album per cui quelle mediocri passano in secondo piano e l'album viene maggiormente apprezzato nel suo insieme. I brani migliori salvano abbondantemente I Giorni Dell'Ira, senza considerare che, nell'attuale decadente panorama italiano (tenendo conto che l'unico altro album degno di nota uscito nel 2002 in Italia è Amorematico dei Subsonica... che nostalgia per i fermenti di metà anni 90...), svetta come una delle uscite migliori.

Voto: 7/10

A Certain Ratio - Early

acrearly We must be extremely thankful to Soul Jazz Records, which is resurrecting some unfairly forgotten punk-funk material. Music that is as futuristic as untrendy in these times of safe bets even in the supposedly alternative field...
There's In The Beginning There Was Rhythm, a compilation with 23 Skidoo, The Slits, Gang Of Four, Pop Group... how many teenagers know these bands? And still they were making music for today twenty years ago, but they didn't know that music in the 21st century would have sounded like their parents' music... There was still the illusion of looking forward, of mixing strong stuff, tunes and rhythms, and of Doing It Yourself, whatever your knowledge and means were...
The best band in that compilation is A Certain Ratio, who also have this very compilation of their own, a bunch of clueless teenagers which have been as lucky as unlucky...
They were lucky because they wanted to sound like Earth, Wind And Fire, they wanted to play real funky, not new wave... but they didn't know at all how to do it, and were corrupted by Tony Wilson and the Factory gang into mixing punk and funk... they didn't plan it, it came out of lack of knowledge and circumstances... Simon Topping wanted to sound like that hot rare groove stuff from America, and yet he had that voice that sounded so much like Ian Curtis... the perverted genius of Martin Hannett did the rest, not teaching the guys how to play the funk, but filtering their poor instruments through a load of new wave effects.
So you get this unique bass which is like New Order's Peter Hook playing jazz at an underground New York party, and the fact that it came all out from pure luck makes it even more funny. Unconscious funk genius corrupted by punk bastards, you'll never have a band like this on the scene anymore. Were ACR able to play as they wanted, they wouldn't have sounded so good... had they found a honest producer or manager, and we wouldn't have had such a great band... A similar story to New Order, creating their best electro stuff trying gear they didn't know how to play, especially Gillian Gilbert... they wanted dance, but made something slightly different...
ACR were unlucky because as soon as they learnt how to play the funk the most of the people lost interest in them... they did some excellent soul and funk music, but didn't sound unique anymore and Factory didn't treat them at the level of the other Madchester bands... they tried a major label deal, and of course it was a disaster, also because they couldn't completely get rid of the indie attitude, it was soul, but alternative soul... they went back home at Rob Gretton's label... small label, small success, and they were already untrendy by then... Creation rereleased the albums in the 90s, but was too busy with Britpop to give any proper attention, so ACR's music, after four good labels, may still be rare to find... The funny thing is nobody knows it, but ACR still exist and play gigs in small clubs.
But let's go back to their most glorious days, 1978-85, when they did this austere and exciting mix of punk and funk and played Banbarra's funk anthem Shack Up dressed as boy scouts and promoted their gigs with posters of Nazi parades (that was Saville, one of the perverted bastards). Of course the press accused them of fascism, deciding to ignore they were lefties with a black drummer, but that was all part of the fun. Every song here is a casual masterwork, from the funeral party of Flight to the spiky funk of The Fox... and the latin acid fo Blown Away and Skipscada... percussions were excellent, after all Donald Johnson was the onlty one who could actually play his instrument... but still you have the fabulous bass of tracks like Knife Slits Water... by Sounds Like Something Dirty they had eventually learnt how to play, and play damn well too, but they also bacame fond of the new wave attitude and actually won't ever get past it, fortunately enough...
This is not a plain compilation, you get also a booklet with a very interesting retropsective interview and a second CD full of rarities: the pearl is the video of Tribeca, ACR live in New York, 1980, black and white, they all play percussion locked into a room... they play the wonderful Forced Laugh which isn't included in the audio tracks... and what about the original 7" of All Night Party, when they hadn't yet a drummer, and Tony Wilson didn't even think to get one for the record... or the Peel Sessions, the fabulous Felch, the truly rare Tumba Rhumba and Abracadubra, a 12" which was released by the mysterious Sir Horatio... yes, it was ACR trying to sound more funk and dub, but everyone could still recognize the Mancunian indie element, however they tried to hide it... glorious punk-funk by accident.

Rating: 10/10

New Order - 316

New Order 316 DVD This DVD features two of the best New Order concerts ever. You know what? I don't even own it. I still have to buy a DVD player actually. But of course I already have the video tapes of the concerts, that's what's important to me as a fan (I'm not a collector of every item if I already own the content).
316 is not a random number. Apparently it must be read as "Three-sixteen", because it means there are three Joy Division songs and sixteen New Order songs between these concerts. It could be a coincidence, but it isn't, as the rule is followed on 511, the DVD with the Finsbury Park concert.

The first concert is early New Order at the Ukranian National Home in New York, 1981, and was released by Factory as Taras Sevchenko. So, it's ealry New Order at their best, from the start, with a powerful Chosen Time (mistitled as ICB), you already see they're on great shape, Barney's guitar, Gillian's keyboard (probably the prototype of the chords which will be used, in various sequences, on Everything's Gone Green, 586, Ecstasy and Blue Monday, I definitely see thread between these five songs), Steve's drums and Hooky's bass.
The early, wild and experimental performances of Everything's Gone Green are my all time favourite New Order moments (the best ever is the live video at the Ancienne Belgique, pure electro punk madness). This is one of those, though the song had already taken the definite shape.
Here the Movement songs sound even better, much more powerful, just like Truth, touching and fierce at the same time (Bernard especially, is amazing both as a singer and as a guitarist). And how is absolutely excellent when you have a storming Senses collapsing into a solemn Procession... One of the best things ever made in music is this earliest version of Temptation, with its pulsating minimal keyboard and the spacey, noisey grand finale, when New Order leave the stage one by one leaving the keyboard on auto-play.

The second concert is New Order at the Reading Festival, 1998. It's their triumphant public comeback (since 1993), after the secret gig at the Apollo, and the best thing is I've been at both. Unfortunately I was too young to see the early New Order at their best, but I saw the older Order, still at their best, even today, 21 years later. There are the greatest hits they had after the early period, like Blue Monday and Regret, there are some hits in new, wonderful versions, like True Faith, there are Joy Division songs, like Atmosphere, and even an amazing new version of Isolation, and a grand finale with 50,000 people (including me) singing along and jumping to World In Motion.

Saturday 18 January 2003

New Order - International

international-l This is the first time since 1987, when Substance was released, we have a collection in chronological order with the most of the main singles in the original version. This time it was harder, because they had to cover 21 years of career, and how can you fit such a career on one CD?
You just can't, in fact... "they" (those who compiled the CD, I think the band had very little to do with it) left off Temptation, certainly Shellshock wasn't as much essential... Maybe a 2CD set would have been more appropriate, here we miss also great successful singles like Fine Time and World In Motion. Also, there's not anything unreleased, though Here To Stay has been available only on sigle and on the excellent 24 Hour Party People soundtrack, which aren't so easy to find in the most of the countries.
So, what is International good for? I think the title is cool, and also shows its target. This is a compilation for the novices in the non-English markets. People who have seen a couple of video clips on TV or have only one album and want to know more about the band without spending too much before buying anything else.
And it works. If I should recommend a single album to a total novice, I'd say this. How can you resist falling in love with a band giving you all these good songs? The fact these songs cover such a long career guarantees that you'll find something excellent whatever record you'll buy next, whatever the year of release was...
And it's good for the fans as well. True, you don't have Temptation and other masterpieces, but you still have the most of the best songs the band did in 21 years. Having only one CD where you can listen to Ceremony and Here To Stay, Blue Monday and Crystal, it's a small miracle, and just makes you wonder how can a band be so great over all these years through different styles.
There's also some sort of rare track, the 12" version of Touched By The Hand Of God, you find it only here if you don't have the 12" or the CDS.
In the booklet there's a funny but sometimes pompous foreword by David Blot. There's also one of the most beautiful record covers ever, the illustration by Victoria Sawdon makes it worth the price of the CD alone. You can bet Peter Saville has still got taste. Just like New Order.

Tuesday 7 January 2003

El Muniria, il nuovo progetto di Emidio Clementi ex Massimo Volume

Da Rumore: E' stato battezzato El Muniria, dal nome dell'albergo di Tangeri dov'è stato registrato parte del prossimo disco: lo stesso in cui William Burroughs scrisse Il pasto Nudo, il progetto a cui l'ex Massimo Volume Emidio Clementi sta lavorando con Dario Parisini (già nei Disciplinatha) e Massimo Carozzi, mentre s'è perso per strada Theo Teardo.

Friday 3 January 2003

Debut by Johnny Marr And The Healers coming soon

From http://www.cdnow.com: "Boomslang", the debut album by Johnny Marr And The Healers is due Feb. 4 on iMusic, and Marr will play select club dates in the U.S. in January and February.

Thursday 2 January 2003

Live inedito dei Diaframma con Sassolini

Il Mucchio Selvaggio Extra attualmente in edicola contiene una lunga e interessante intervista con Federico Fiumani dei Diaframma sulla storia del gruppo, e soprattutto il CD con l'ultimo, splendido, concerto con Miro Sassolini alla voce prima del suo allontanamento dalla band.