Casino Royale
CRX

Rummaging through the piles of my "old" CDs, what do I stumble upon? Damn, I agree that when you overindulge sometimes memories fade, but we're only in 1997! (yeah, 8 solid years ago, brainiac!) the year this album, "CRX," the 10th album of Casino Royale, a band with a history and sound that have always fascinated me, was released.

Casino Royale has always been "ahead," alternative and detached from the Italian music scene, one of the most strongly traditional and entrenched.
Their journey is one of experience, starting with excellent "instrumental ska" and passing through Rock-Steady, tinges of Reggae and Hip-Hop, gradually giving more and more preference to dub electronic.
For this reason, "CRX" is their last album where Casino Royale also means the wonderful voice of Giuliano Palma, who has always characterized their productions, along with that of Alioscia; after this, part of them (including Palma) happily decided to return to their roots, founding the current Bluebeaters together with part of Africa Unite, leaving the electronic scene to the other part of Casino with enjoyable productions, albeit less successful, under the "Royalize" label.

Having said that, you will have understood that "CRX" is the final landing (and of the end of the millennium, too) of a group in constant evolution and change...
In this album, Dj Gruff has certainly worked more than in other past productions of theirs and it shows; the result is a record with transversal tracks, not cyclical; Hip-Hop rhythms, dubbed Rock-Steady that have a life of their own... The tracks are not homogeneous (each one being a small invention) and are characterized by somewhat dark, tense, hypnotic, and sweaty tones... But that is not enough, oh no! I wouldn't want to overlook a note of merit for the lyrics, both for some of the content and for the way they are sung, because there is much to understand in the lyrics of disillusioned denunciation and inner anguish of this album.

We are faced with an album that if it probably had been released recently, it would have gained more followers and recognition for the band that coined it... reflective, dirty, paranoid, and devilishly deep and fascinating... this is "CRX".
What more do you want, guys? They are Italian, they are now "old" and "experienced" (like Hendrix) and they have always preferred their passion for music and their ideas over fame and commercial glory... isn't that enough to give them a listen???