Garage 29
Amnesia

By scrolling through the few news stories about them available online, one can easily imagine what followed in the heart of Garage 29 after the release of the previous EP Auto da Fé: first, the bankruptcy of Linearecord (despite the complete sale of the album's run), then the marriage and subsequent departure of keyboardist Carlo Ascoli. In 1998, the same happened with the essential drummer Ciccio Nicolamaria.
So... on one hand, there was the disappointment and bitterness of not being able to follow up on such a well-started project; on the other hand, however, there was an opportunity for growth. Without the aid of keyboards, Ermanno Monterisi's guitar and Claudio Fusato's bass had to sound much more dynamic, with more harmonics - however distorted - and a more mature and modern sound, according to the tastes of the time. Moreover, the arrival of an experienced musician like Luca Piatti on drums (previously the second live guitarist), emulating Jimmy Chamberlain, the flamboyant drummer of the Smashing Pumpkins, turned the band essentially into an even sharper and more aggressive power trio than it had been in their previous, perhaps somewhat raw, record production. Brian K's voice, in the meantime, had honed its technique, along with his personal growth as an author of existentialist lyrics.
This is perhaps their most artistically interesting period, certainly the one that made them most famous in the underground realities of northern Italy and beyond, given the enthusiastic receptions they received abroad, especially in Cuba. And we're talking about Cuba, a land certainly not famous for a love of rock.
Finally, after years of refinements and attempts (there was talk of unsuccessful interest from CPI, namely CSI as producers, and from Lilium of Monza, the label of Giancarlo Onorato and Underground Life) and after recognition even from Amnesty International for a piece against imprisonment, "Istituzione Totale", in 2001, they caught the attention of MAP of Massimo Monti, a label then primarily dedicated to jazz but which had decided to launch a rock series. Annals speak of a troubled experience, also due to the limited adaptability of a studio primarily conceived to record jazz. The first mix was rejected, the four decided to record elsewhere, multiplying costs, thus halving time, and perhaps risking degrading relationships.
The result was this maxi-single, Amnesia, another title extensively plundered later. On the cover, a color-altered photo of a disco in Corsica after an attack. Inside, a quote from Sgalambro and 3 incendiary tracks, though perhaps with a recording not yet at the professional levels that would do them justice.
It starts with the new single, "Bisturi", a song with a meditative and troubled start but subjected to guitar explosions that transform its mood. The scalpel is invoked to remove up to a lobotomy the sense of guilt for a life dedicated to ambition and materialism, a feeling as of rape but evanescent, perhaps never truly succeeded, and where, in the end, the only one suffering is the failed rapist. A song that, like few others, makes one reflect on the egotistical ambitions now accepted.
It continues with the acclaimed "Istituzione Totale", another very intense track, where reflective atmospheres enriched with crystal-clear arpeggios alternate with angry swells of distortion and crescendos. The asylum and prison thus become metaphors for everyday life, and the hallucinatory perception of those who want to escape becomes a purpose of redemption. In the end... life sprout. It closes with the tribal percussion of "Icaro", a mantrapunk, their invented rhythm, a sort of percussive raga. Six feverish minutes where Icarus's guilt becomes the contrappasso of human ambitions, giving the first "Bisturi" new meaning. The interrupted flight changes the man who falls, but the one who "sang victory too soon" has new opportunities to "seek fortune".
Online, there exist versions of the CD with 3 extra tracks taken from the rejected first mix. Indeed, the recording is decidedly more unpleasant, much less dynamic and as if boxed in mid frequencies, but the tracks are three masterpieces inexplicably excluded from the final album (except for the usual damn financial reasons). "Atama (G.P.)" is one of the first tracks composed with Luca Piatti, who, in the constant and unexpected alternations of emptiness and fullness, enriches with obsessive drumming. "Tanto Ha Stretto" starts as an intense and tortured ballad, then becomes a furious denunciation of urban neurosis. Perhaps the masterpiece and the sum of their art, certainly one of their longest-lasting pieces. It ends with the disconcerting "L'Egiziano" (elsewhere subtitled "a strange pizza-maker"), a song infused with esoteric themes and, together with "Beetleseller Dream", one of their prophetic mainstays on the social problems - and opportunities - posed by growing immigration.
Still too short a product, Amnesia (with its outtakes) at least has the advantage of illustrating the golden and "classic" period of Garage 29, trying to bridge the gap that had developed with their more successful record companions in sound exploration Marlene Kuntz and Afterhours. Perhaps they succeeded, yes, but... now that they seemed to have made it, now that they really should have restarted... we know... due to one of those unfathomable mysteries afflicting national rock... what would have made them immortal was lost.