Almamegretta
Controra

That Almamegretta is one of the best bands in the Italian music scene, there’s no doubt about it. Everyone was waiting for a reunion after Raiz stepped out, which finally, after 10 long years, has come.

It was indeed 2003 when Gennaro Della Volpe AKA Raiz, the band's iconic voice, left to pursue a solo project that didn’t make much of a buzz. As he himself admits in an interview with la Repubblica: ‘I wanted to escape from the house that was and is this band. And I wanted to sing more, with the massive sound of Almamegretta it wasn’t easy’. But when Raiz, Gennaro T, and Pablo (the original core) found themselves in the studio to sing the famous Nun te scurdà for the film Passione by John Turturro, they realized the spark was still there. And so Controra was born.

It’s the tenth studio album for the Neapolitan band, which boasts a twenty-year career in the European Dub, Reggae, and Alternative rock scene. Indeed, let’s not forget the prestigious collaborations with Asian Dub Foundation and Massive Attack.

As soon as you hear about Almamegretta’s participation in the Sanremo festival (which, as tradition dictates, ranks last), if you’re a die-hard fan, you get a little down, thinking the new album might not be great, but then you hit play and start listening to it.

Let's start with the title: the controra is that moment after lunch when it’s too hot to work, and you take a nap, or devote time to yourself. In short, you reclaim your humanity. It’s a moment that's now missing in the frenetic lives born of modernity. Controra is the praise of slowness, but not laziness.

The opening track Mamma Non lo Sa immediately makes you realize that the sound is still the old In-dubb and 4/4 groove, with the omnipresent bass and typical effects. The piece, which was in competition at the Festival, tells a story of ruthless civilization and the loss of fundamental human values, leaving no room, it will be a bit of the utopia on which the whole album is based.

Ancora Vivo is the track you expect, in Neapolitan, with Arabesque melodies set against a hypnotic Caribbean rhythm. It’s followed by Amaromare: here you realize the sound is really massive! It's a dubstep that continues along the oriental streak and tells of the tragic fate of the journeys of clandestine migrants who will find hell in a racist world that refuses to accept integration.

Custodiscimi slows the heartbeats to open the way to a true gem of rare beauty: a collaboration with Enzo Gragnaniello resulting in 'Na Bella Vita. One of the most significant episodes of the album, noteworthy not only for the collaboration but also for the beautiful and profound lyrics that ask for a good life for everyone, irrespective of the daily misfortunes and thus the total elimination of evil. An utopia for the human being as he's forced to possess a dark side within, compelled to wander in a valley of bastards (as the song's lyrics say), leading to the final reflection that there is no price even for a shadow of happiness [Nun ce sta prezzo e ne’ ricchezza vicino ‘a n’ombra ‘e felicità].

The title track is a beautiful electro-dub that somewhat recalls the sounds of Lingo; in la Cina è Vicina we discover the more pop soul of the migrant soul with a surprising Raiz who manages to be really melodious on a carefully curated reggae soundscape, the chorus of this track was, for me, the true summer hit of 2013.

I interpreted Disco Biscuits as a dedication to Raiz’s reunion with the other band members.

The following Onda che vai (the second track brought to Sanremo and excluded from the competition in the first evening) is particularly striking for its arrangements, which really lead me back to the sea, the East, to a distant land, great pathos, as well as for the text written by Federico Zampaglione (Tiromancino). The wave is thus the man who must never cease to dream, who, even when faced with a thousand obstacles, must not get discouraged and must seek new horizons.

All these atmospheres bring us almost to the conclusion with The Follower, featuring Gaudì, a spectacular dub worthy of ancient glories where a bit of the autobiographical story of the band members who dreamed of London and Jamaica is told, and who transformed Naples into Kingston at the time “making the sound” (singing Mario Merola like Capleton!), and now only wish to be followed in rhythm, and if you don’t like it “Cagna o canale sientete ata musica vattenne e nun ce ‘ntusseca’ compa’!” (change the channel and listen to another kind of music, go away and don’t bother us, buddy).

The closing track is Pane Vino e Casa with the distinguished presence of James Senese on sax. The piece that recalls ska is enriched with passages and phrases from Senese that make it precious.

Raiz here recites words taken from a speech that Adriano Olivetti (an enlightened industrialist who thought about ethics but who, seen through today’s eyes, is a subversive) made inaugurating a factory in Pozzuoli in the 1950s. A better closure was not possible.

A fine effort then for Almamegretta who once again confirm themselves as the best Italian dub-band, with an album that overall flows smoothly and leaves the listener with the taste of the Mediterranean with that unmistakable Neapolitan style that has given so much to Italian music, now emptied and devoid of meaning and taste.

A must-have album.