Gemello
Indiana

LA RECENSIONE

In 2014, "Niagara" was released, an EP that, despite its short duration and strong pop flair, was one of the best hip hop products on our local scene that year. Three years later, the Roman rapper seems to reaffirm the path he took, creating what can be considered the continuation of the famous EP: "Indiana". If in his first album Gemello created a style based on overlapping phrases (nonsense, pop culture characters, movie quotes, slang phrases...) that constituted a stream of consciousness, an unstoppable river of words, a slight shift in the flow and writing of the famous ex-In the panchine had already been noticed. Maturity and distance from the scene for Andrea Ambrogio become focus and synthesis capability: fewer words, greater incisiveness. If for the intimate "Niagara" this new regime had brought benefits, in the new EP there are times when you feel less cohesion or slight weaknesses in writing, albeit minimal, in the lyrics, especially when the Roman rapper mimics colleagues much more well-known than him, as in the single "Sirena" (the weakest of the batch, in my opinion). Nonetheless, a particularly dreamlike style remains, in which images and meanings overlap, almost as if to create in the listener's mind a huge fractal of people, words, phrases, objects, and buildings, very similar to the paintings produced by Ambrogio-the painter, an activity carried out in parallel to that of being a rapper. Tracks like "Nostalgia III" (which can only thrill long-time fans), "La parte migliore" or "Incognito" seem to be the best of the EP and, probably, those in which the silent dialogue between the narrating-self and its own half proves to be most effective. Special mention for the beats, produced by Sine: truly of excellent quality, with hints of trap, vaporwave, and lo-fi, and maintaining an original verve that blends well with the lyrics. The cover is a painting by Gemello.