Bugo
La Prima Gratta

THE REVIEW

“the earth spins, you feel nauseous, everyone thinks about taking a break, the laces tighten hard and you feel like a loner” (Bugo, "Solitario")

In recent years, few have stirred the waters of the murky Italian music scene, and no one has done it with the boldness and naturalness of Cristian Bugatti, known as Bugo. "La Prima Gratta" is his first album, and it shows.

The sounds are exclusively lo-fi, conveying a sense of claustrophobia and sonic congestion where chaos reigns, an evident stylistic pursuit full of brave experiments. Bugo is an alien from a distant planet, an heir to the provocation of Rino Gaetano and the style of Lucio Battisti, aspects that in this album are embryonic, if not entirely absent. In these 20 tracks, Cristian's oblique style takes shape in what will be the most inaccessible, most intimate work of his career. His outburst is expressed through confused metropolitan events, discomforts that the artist conveys through snapshots, images that reveal themselves as paintings, eloquent expressions of his prevailing sense of inadequacy.

The contrast between irony and melancholy, absurdity and reality, presents him simultaneously as a victim (Spermatozoi) and perpetrator (Quante menate che mi faccio) of his own existence. Loneliness blends with the dim lights of nightly Milan, synthesizing with emotions and amusements, rendering everything mechanical, as Bugo explains in "Oggi come sto" and in the tender "Solitario". An atmosphere of hidden words, solitary walks, and moments of daily misunderstanding show an art-laden soul, yet not ready to be squeezed. It will take four years and three albums to have it, but "Golia e Melchiorre" is another story… .

Recommended for those who love lo-fi and Beck's "Mellow Gold", not recommended for those who hate Bugo. Unfortunately, there are quite a few detractors of change.