easycure

Moreover, I don't understand why the magazines can and the reviewers on Debaser cannot. Why are they paid and we are not? It seems a bit undemocratic to me.. let's thank Soulseek :-D

Trell, this whole story of waiting for albums to come out has always seemed like a farce to me... I don’t understand, if someone downloads it when it comes out, is it less illegal? Or more respectful to the artist? If you download it when the album is released, do the royalties reach them? :-D ... I don’t know, I’ve read other reviews, I got curious, I went to look for it and it was already there. So I downloaded it. Period. Given that I wouldn’t have waited to buy it anyway (even though, yes, since I like it, if I find it later I’ll buy it), waiting for it to be released before downloading it seems inherently "hypocritical" (quotes to lighten the term).

I was just listening to it again.. and it has some really genius pieces.. like Drive on, driver.. a true '50s melody, or Please stop dancing, which sounds like a pseudo-'80s disco song :-D.. they all have an echo of the Pet Shop Boys, but they are ultra lo-fi with that blend of distorted guitars in the background that’s never too noticeable.. lo-fi shoegaze trash. Too genius :-D a hi and a thank you to everyone!

oh stop spamming.. it's the fourth review, damn. Promoting yourself like this is really a bit sad.

Uh, I'm really happy to hear from Orione again and I'm thrilled that the forum is lively again, but this time I’m staying out of it.. :-D Sorry, but I couldn't read everything (and I’m staying out of it to say that, in fact I'm already here talking about it); anyway, I didn’t read everything, I want to make that clear.. in responding, I only refer to that point where, Orione, you talk about technique as something fundamental because ultimately what matters is the "how". Attention, on both fronts: without wanting to touch the topic, which is a bit nauseating now ;-D of the DTs, I will limit myself to what we can call aesthetic issues: as for the fact that in the end the "how" is important, we have to be cautious, because if everything is reduced to language, there is a risk of eliminating the very concept of expression, which imposes content or substance, however you want to call it. The desire to admit an art without expression, I may be "classicist", but it is frankly a somewhat unacceptable drift. Regarding the discussion on technique, Orione, you are not wrong: in the sense that, objectively, centuries and centuries of practically every form of art support your point. But, there's a but, if technique were fundamental then cave paintings wouldn’t be art, because there you can’t talk about technique, not having a codification in terms of execution schemes; yet probably cave paintings have all the characteristics to be defined as art, at least for those who experienced them at that specific moment. Going to more relevant times and contexts, the universally recognized peculiarity of rock music is its status as popular art. This means that you don't need, certainly not necessarily, particular or unique technical expertise to create art with rock. Even if there were doubts about the aforementioned definition, there are indeed hundreds, perhaps thousands of examples. From this, I don't think that if someone wants to make rock they need technique; they absolutely need, as in all forms of art that are necessarily culture, a consciousness that is not necessarily scholarly nor technical. It’s obvious that technique can also be a concept related to so-called "basics". But what changes peculiarly in rock is how such technique is obtained: to make rock one can easily construct it flexibly for one’s own use and consumption, in a completely A-schematic and therefore A-scholastic manner, and it's a "technique" (because given the premises at this point, the quotes are necessary) that can relate to everything: from purely sonic issues to completely meta-musical matters like the instrument played (in the sense that one can choose to play a synth, express oneself purely with that, and make their technique a matter purely related to loops and various sounds), to issues of out-of-tune tuning etc. etc. In conclusion, one can admit that technique exists in rock, but historically this is completely disconnected from the concept of competence, and is instead substantially equivalent to the concept of style. And these are two totally different concepts.

Yeah, but whatever, give it time.. and come on, poor Italian bands can't possibly do everything in a few years after the substantial nothing of the previous decades (with a few isolated exceptions here and there) :-D .. Anyway, I've always been an aficionado of foreign stuff, and now I'm defending the Italian environment even in a purely opportunistic way, I admit, for personal reasons that I’ll tell you next year ;-) .. Besides this, I think if you know where to look, you can find a great variety of stuff now in Italy, more or less for all tastes, and often quite high quality.. Speaking of Pere Ubu, you won’t believe it, but you’ve made an example that actually has an Italian disciple :-D it’s Samuel Katarro, the guy who won the rock contest last year and is from Pistoia. At first, I snubbed him, but damn, the kid has talent: imagine a guy playing acoustic blues guitar like a psychotic and singing like David Thomas. You can find him on MySpace :-)

lux, it's a discussion that I believe is irrelevant for a very simple reason: whether we like it or not, it's the USA and UK (especially the USA in my opinion) that are the homelands of culture and therefore of the avant-garde in rock. It's not reasonable to expect that everything that has been avant-garde there is also going to be so here. And if you think about it, one could argue that post-rock never really took off in the UK, certainly not the avant-gardes from Kentucky, just as, say, there has never been even half a progressive band or maybe Trip Hop in the USA. Perhaps in Italy, we lean more towards certain things than others, but I still see a lot of variety and very different references around. Indeed, it’s true, the Italian underground has been so little recognized (actually, paradoxically, it's starting to gain recognition abroad before it does here, a beautiful country of shit) that in the end, it's difficult to know even a small part of it. For example, here in Florence, there's Black Candy as the leading independent label. I know more or less all the Black Candy bands (with some we are even friends), but until not long ago, I had no idea that Seahorse existed, which is, instead, the independent reference from Naples. Everything is still very compartmentalized, despite the internet; bands mostly play concerts within their own region and rarely go beyond that. Certainly, no one is paying attention to them on a serious media level, except for Controradio (which is also organized on a regional basis).

I didn't know. Very interesting.

Ehm, perhaps I have been a bit "regionalistic" about the el-ghor... ;-) I found them interesting, though... I'm really into the Blessed and Jennifer Gentle. Still, I completely agree with you: there’s an air of urgency, which translates essentially into more sincerity and intellectual honesty compared to other scenes. And if you think about it, today in Italy, compared to 7-8 years ago, the quality (or at least, the quantity/quality ratio) is definitely superior. Let’s say that maybe the country is starting to get serious, not just for the single interesting group that occasionally emerges by divine grace. I’ve always struggled with the slow and the "touching the balls on the ground," especially the term post-rock, which is now as overused as the term Indie... well, many in the Italian indie scene are indeed like that, but if someone continues to mimic stuff that was consumed abroad over 10 years ago, at the same time I’m starting to see a widespread greater awareness and real willingness to at least keep up with the times. See you soon, Alessio!

I WAS already forgetting the band I’m listening to the most these days.. the Jennifer Gentle, I even wrote a review about them some time ago. The first Italian group to be signed by Sub Pop.. unabashedly Barrett-esque psychedelia, but there are some tracks that are absolutely beautiful and they can’t just be labeled as a simple revival. The best albums are Valende and Funny Creatures Lane; for El Ghor, there’s only the debut Dadà Danzè, and for Blessed Child Opera, I wouldn’t know exactly which album to recommend, as they’ve made at least three, if I’m not mistaken.. in short, something is stirring, especially if Sub Pop is starting to take an interest..