Bugo
Sentimento Westernato

THE REVIEW

Cristian Bugatti, known as Bugo, was born in San Martino di Trecate, Novara. His is truly a story of how one can still emerge from the crowd with one's head held high. A factory worker, a self-taught individual who learned his first chords between home and military service. His story is quite ordinary, like that of many (myself included), it is he who is not exactly ordinary; an example is a fragment from this interview where, to the question:

“How likely is it that "Benzina Mia" will become the greatest Lo-fi Pop'n'Roll success in Italian history?”

Bugo replied:

“Well, if 3 X 4 = 12 and a euro is 1937, the height of a dwarf is lower than the lowness of a basketball player, thus the percentage of free carbon dioxide increases. Yes, if I think like that, there are good chances”.

Apart from this, 'Sentimento Westernato' was released in 2001, the same year as 'La Prima Gratta'. The small difference lies in the label, 'La Prima Gratta' with Bar la Muerte/Snowdonia while 'Sentimento Westernato' with Wallace Records/Bar la Muerte/Beware!. There’s no point in talking about our beloved Cristian's long apprenticeship amidst a thousand attempts with varying degrees of success or failure, “La pianta movente”, “Pane, pene, pan”, “Questione di eternità”; in reality, Bugo, more than anyone else, owes his current success to genuine word-of-mouth until that fateful (and perhaps cursed) day when he appeared at MTV's itinerant “Brand New Tour” (..does anyone not know MTV?). It’s 2002, in 2003 he opened for the Zwan concert at the Alcatraz in Milan. Then we know, “From the lofai… ..”, “Golia and Melchiorre..”.

Back to our 'Sentimento Westernato'; I can't stand those who talk to me about Cristian (even if he were my brother… .!) as the Italian Beck from Novara; without taking anything away from the Los Angeles artist, but is there all this musical similarity between the two?! Maybe yes, but I see Bugo as more edgy, frenetic, more improvisational and, let me tell you, even more likeable. Of course, these are just opinions.

The album: certainly more mature than the previous one, without losing the main characteristic of the Piedmontese's music, the lo-fi spaghetti western genre, always marked by considerable mental and physical confusion, is literally pleasant. The mix is the same as La Prima Gratta, and perhaps this is precisely one of the flaws that can be attributed to this second episode of the Bugatti saga; we could indeed say that the element of surprise is gone and this work is unlikely to impress us with novelty; there's no novelty but there are no tricks either, it’s a good album. Acoustic and electric are mixed with the usual metropolitan verve of the best Bugo; the lyrics are the expression of a songwriting so original and ironic (and dreamlike… ?!) as it is subversive and restless. The reality is that in the albums of the Piedmontese you find everything, blues, rock, singer-songwriter songs, lo-fi, “hip-hop” (not in this album), folk, pop. As mentioned above, it is not novelty we must seek here (unless it’s your first work of his that you’re about to listen to), rather a successful project, and notably well executed.

“Vorrei avere un dio”, the first track, is an interesting acoustic blues/rock, which makes one aware that our friend isn't only famous for being a quirky and zany character; here we are dealing with a small genius, and I was able to see it live a couple of years ago, opening a concert for Afterhours. As much as I adore the band of Mr. Agnelli, I truly missed the exit of young Bugatti, I swear. The lyrics: many have compared or at least associated his name with a certain Lucio Battisti, though I can’t see the causal relation; undoubtedly brilliant, like him deep down. Just enunciate a few titles to realize it: “Son drogato di lavoro”, “Io berrò alcool”, “L’amore è spentoff”, “Benzina mia”. We have some parts sung in English (it's true, it’s no lie!!), because as Cristian admitted: “It's fashion that imposes it on me”... ... ...

In conclusion, I blast all those who take the said artist as a buffoon; he is a singer, as he himself says (ironically but with a serious and determined tone), of Serie A; a character who can serve as a role model for anyone who, with his songs, admits the importance of never taking oneself too seriously and bears witness to economic, social, political, emotional/sentimental evolution, which is possibly slipping out of our hands, with a smart and deeply everyday humor.

A round of applause for Cristian Bugatti.