Duap
Solo Per Noi

In 2001, the greatest Oi! CDs had already been released, and the new millennium was approaching with few ideas and little money in our pockets. Youth is gone, crew is dead... But there was still something left to offer. Before Bull Brigade, before metalcore, before the crossover between hip-hop and hardcore, the Oi! scene still had a few records left to spit out: one of these was "Solo per noi" by Duap.

Musically, the most obvious artistic influence is Colonna Infame Skinhead, with whom the band in question released a split, but the sound here is tighter, with a heavier use of gang vocals and shout-along choruses, and perhaps it’s just a bit less varied. Don’t listen to this record hoping for great inspiration, because this album does exactly what it sets out to do: to fill up an evening in a live club on the urban outskirts, packed with skinheads waiting for a brawl. Don’t look for the emotion that made Banda del Rione great, and only expect the melodicism of Erode up to a certain point, because this is hard-hitting stuff; there is undeniably a certain melodic taste, but honestly, I’d rather call it a rhythmic instinct more than anything melodic. In fact, there are various tempo changes (I challenge anyone to get the choruses of "Odio" or "Eroe di nulla" right on first listen) that make the listening experience a bit more varied. The riffs hit the mark and the drums pound away, although by that point, after years and years of street punk piling up, it was hard to come up with a riff or chorus that didn’t sound half-stolen from some other track. The classic bass interludes are present too, the sort that make you say, "Hey, this bassist’s got it!" while in reality anyone who’s played bass for three days knows they’re as easy as pie.

One thing you can sense is how 25 years of heavy music were starting to take their toll on punks and metalheads. "Non s’accorgerà nessuno se sei morto oppure vivo" (from "Eroe di nulla") doesn’t it remind you of "feelin’ like nobody cares if I live or die" (hopefully it goes without saying, from "Breaking the Law" by the immortal Judas Priest)? The lyrics to "Vivi per te" seem to heavily reference "Asociale Oi!" by Nabat, just as "non ci caschi più, tu la colla non la tiri" (from "Uno stile") could be a nod to a Ramones track dedicated to glue sniffing. These absolutely shouldn’t be seen as plagiarism; on the contrary, the memories of a disillusioned skinhead took shape in these lines, which might sound obvious to us now, but they weren’t at the time. And they still aren’t.

There’s also something to be said about how certain aspects of the lyrics aren’t exactly shining examples of morality. I’m mainly referring to a very literal "cult of violence" and a display of political abstentionism that, while understandable for those living under certain conditions in those years, I can’t help but condemn. But after all, who would expect to listen to an obscure Oi! band in search of lyrics worthy of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso?

So what we have here is a solid half-hour of quality street punk which, for various reasons, wouldn’t be the starting point I’d recommend to someone looking to get into Oi!, but is certainly an important chapter. Excellent songs alternate with some slightly more boring episodes, but those are a definite minority and don’t really impact the overall impression of the LP. Old skinheads surely know this record already, and anyone wanting to discover this genre will have to cross paths with it sooner or later. Score: 80/100.