Baustelle
L'amore e la violenza

In our beloved Beautiful Country, there exists a trend, a modus operandi of doing and thinking that is incredibly difficult to shake off once it has wormed its way into us: this magical and irritating element could simply be called SHODDINESS. In our boot-shaped nation, the sovereign people usually prefer to listen to pseudo-musical sounds (I believe the term fits perfectly, in this case) which, in my very honest opinion, have nothing to do with the term MUSIC proper; as if all this were not enough to manifest as an emblem of the average cerebral poverty of the typical Italian listener, unfortunately, promiscuous groups of living beings that stand for the general community as new Bertoncelli, Luzzatto Fegiz still survive today…

It has almost become a real habit to practice the sport of denigrating an artist or a musical ensemble that perhaps does not manage to at least reach the third place on the podium of the musical preferences of the denigrator; by perhaps taking the right time to reflect in a reasoned, thoughtful, and attentive manner, the denigrator in question might manage to identify or at least glimpse on the horizon some healthy and genuine living musical elements certainly much better than the "mass filth" he is usually accustomed to listening to. For example, our dear friend could try to deepen his knowledge of an interesting Italian group named BAUSTELLE.

Baustelle, originating from the splendid Tuscan town of Montepulciano, musically formed in the distant year of grace 1997 and after their debut album "SUSSIDIARIO ILLUSTRATO DELLA GIOVINEZZA" dated the year 2000, have racked up a series of records that have gradually become cult albums in the Italian indie-pop realm: LA MODA DEL LENTO, LA MALAVITA, AMEN, I MISTICI DELL'OCCIDENTE, FANTASMA... In the meantime, they also found time to devote themselves to the film soundtrack with Valeria Golino and Valerio Mastandrea GIULIA NON ESCE LA SERA (where the unreleased PIANGI ROMA sung by frontman Francesco Bianconi with the actress is present) and they have recently published ROMA LIVE! documenting the tour of the album Fantasma during a Roman stop. And here we are in the year 2017.

On January 13th, the guys release their new recording effort L'AMORE E LA VIOLENZA, composed of 12 tracks that cut deep into the soul, into the daily malaise, and become lethal and pure almost as if to paint true and merciless "slices of lived life" in the listener's mind; in interviews preceding the LP's release, Bianconi labeled the record as an obscenely pop album like a blasphemy. And indeed, the album seems to want to detach itself from the previous gem which was FANTASMA, choosing to veer towards greater accessibility in the comprehension of music and lyrics by employing a lot of electronics (in the mix appears PINO “PINAXA” PISCHETOLA), but without giving up the emotions and reflections that each song carries with it. The album's lead single, AMANDA LEAR, is very enjoyable and in some parts, Bianconi takes the listener to reach moments of absolute intellectual and emotional catharsis; another note of merit for IL VANGELO DI GIOVANNI, long an example of "Battiato-like" musicality.

BETTY also appears very intense, a clear representative picture of the aforementioned malaise narrating the progressive physical and mental decline of a girl; innovative sounds also appear in EUROFESTIVAL, where the female voice of the group RACHELE BASTREGHI narrates about a love that is reaching its "end credits," just like a song participating in a song contest.

Final mention for the album's closing track RAGAZZINA, in my opinion among the most moving and emotional tributes to the music of Francesco De Gregori.

Welcome back Baustelle.