Alberto Camerini
Comici Cosmetici

THE REVIEW

The love for commedia dell'arte, for rock'n'roll, joints, electronics, and girls are at the heart of this work by Alberto Camerini from 1978, produced by Shel Shapiro right after the revolutionary punk wave that shook the country a few months earlier.

The idea stems from the decision of our protagonist to construct a sort of concept-album around the unreal figure of "Neurox," inspired by the Ranxerox comic by Tamburini and Liberatore and indebted to the complex and explosive universe of Andrea Pazienza, a sort of electronic robot suitable for all purposes and a forerunner of the future "Rock'n'roll robot" ten years later.
Now jukebox, now nanny, now lover, Neurox moves between social centers ("Macondo"), shopping centers ("Comici Cosmetici"), concerts ("Rock Show"), each time encountering new friends and situations, musically different as well.

The album opens with the meeting between Neurox and a mysterious character already known from another concert, perhaps a girl, a friend of Cinderella (further references to the imagination that he would adopt more firmly in the future, and indeed, all the references to Alberto's loves are already present: The comedy, the carnival, Harlequin, and always being a child: practically a constant from here on out).

The presentation of Neurox takes place among dark and surreal atmospheres, the robot droid is consistently described in all its details and advanced functions: "it runs on batteries but never stops", a programmed and calculated being, cold and precise, made of plastic, a musician, the only defect is the thirst for love that will lead it to wander through the city. When finally, perhaps, it finds a love, it feels tied and frustrated, "for her, I am a toy, an appliance, that turns on and off."
At this point, it almost seems as if the monster/robot succumbs to triangular temptations (it was the era of R. Zero, triangles, and marvelous thoughts) the reference to Goldoni will be completely twisted by many hungry for ambiguity and even the phrase in "Sciocka" that reads "I will be the servant of two masters", although it refers to the "Arlecchino Goldoniano," implies in itself an implicit sexual reference.

Neurox, who is primarily a musician, finds himself mocked at a concert, the usual self-reductionists accuse him of having sold out to show-business, again a clear reference to personal experiences lived by various Italian singers in those years of protest (see De Gregori). "But look, he's gassed, thinks he's made it.... You've changed, I don't understand you anymore! Fool, fool, now you're the fool."

Heavy guitars and crazy speed break a bit the harmony of the record, until now quite delicate with moderate use of electronics (unlike later works). The entire ensemble introduces us to the magical: "Comici Cosmetici" a track that's hard to place among various DJs yelling radio spot jingles, bits from operettas, disco music happily cribbed from "Saturday Night Fever," and still heavy guitars as if it were raining. Neurox/Camerini finds himself with old friends and acquaintances, overwhelmed by the immensity of a shopping center with everything inside, autonomous, models, policemen, DJs... a Festival of the Absurd where everything is centrifuged and gleefully reprised while our hero, high on drugs and wonder, wanders bewildered and fascinated by all the colors swirling around him.

The whole thing, as per the script, is bought by a passing billionaire intending to make a movie of it (nowadays it would be repurposed as a reality show on Mediaset networks...) as it is also masterfully described in the comic included in the inner sleeve (oh, blessed are the "great" long plays of 20 years ago, where you could also express certain concepts represented in music through graphics, a practice completely lost with CDs....).
Among the tracks, the delicate "(Anna) Amore che felicità," the rebellious "Poliziotto Per Favore" dedicated to society's outcasts and against all censorships, supported by almost punk guitars, the dreamlike search of "Siamo Tanti" built on the theme of the "Carnevale di Bagolino," the ambiguous "Shokka" and the wonderful "Macondo" dedicated to social gatherings, with a two-voice structure rich in comic references.

Comics are well represented throughout this album which, revisited today, despite being a precursor of a "certain Italy" that is evident to all, loses a bit of that surreal touch and that "ambiguous" charm that aroused curiosity and at the same time destabilized quite a bit back then: the "mythical" 80s were now at the doorstep (with all that would entail!). Iside+Stronko