CCCP Fedeli Alla Linea
Affinità-Divergenze Tra Il Compagno Togliatti E Noi

This is perhaps the most important group in the history of Italian music, born from the Berlin-Emilia axis and created by two gurus of Italian rock, Giovanni Lindo Ferretti (singer) and Massimo Zamboni (guitarist), punk rockers from Emilia who meet in a club in the German capital back in 1981. Returning to the pro-Soviet Reggio Emilia, they founded Mitropunk with Umberto Negri (bassist), soon becoming CCCP Fedeli alla linea, with the addition of the people's artist Danilo Fatur and the soubrette Annarella Giudici. Armed with a drum machine, they released two EPs ("Ortodossia" and "Compagni cittadine fratelli artigiani") that prepared and anticipated their first real album ("Affinità - divergenze...") in 1986.

The album is a milestone of the new Italian rock that was taking shape during those years (a year prior was "Desaparecido" by Litfiba, two years earlier "Siberia" by Diaframma) and contains unforgettable tracks with a strong emotional impact. Primarily punk, but not just that, also acoustic folk and dark and industrial sounds... Ferretti is a charismatic and expressive declaimer of fascinating slogans, he shouts, he speaks, and his phrases get stuck in your head leaving a mark, while Zamboni grates the guitar in an unmistakable way, accompanied by a bass and a drum machine with obsessive rhythms: creating dark atmospheres, spectral and desolate landscapes. But beyond the anthems ("CCCP") and the pounding, desecrating nightmares ("Allarme", "Noia", "Trafitto") there is also a touch of irony and more pop songs ("Mi ami?"), pseudo-love declarations ("Curami"), quotes from Romagna mia ("Valium Tavor Serenase") and meditations on life ("Io sto bene") and death ("Morire"), without any minor episodes. But what makes this album unique is the long, crazy, and heart-wrenching torment of "Emilia paranoica", a depressive journey in search of an increasingly indefinable emotion.

After such a cornerstone, they managed to churn out more essential albums, even after the fall of the wall and the inevitable end of CCCP, being reborn in a new guise, also thanks to the arrival of Litfiba members Gianni Maroccolo, Francesco Magnelli, Giorgio Canali, and (for a short time, unfortunately) Ringo De Palma, giving rise to another great story...