Lydia e gli Hellua Xenium
Guai a voi! / Invocazione

WOE TO YOU!......O RICH AND POWERFUL, WHO ARE ALREADY SATISFIED

WOE TO YOU!.....WHO NOW LAUGH, FOR SOON YOU WILL WEEP

WOE TO YOU!.....O FALSE PROPHETS; WHO BELIEVE IN NOTHING

WOE TO YOU!.....RACE OF VIPERS, WHO POISON THE WORLD.

The nascent Rock scene in the early '70s in Italy was christened by the significant countercultural youth fringe, traditionally positioned on the left alongside the workers' struggle and the total female emancipation aimed at guaranteeing strongly desired rights such as abortion and divorce. The record companies, in their obvious balancing act between offering quality products without neglecting economic return, made those years of enormous musical ferment the most vivid and appreciable testament, in its posthumous usability, of the behavioral, stylistic, and cultural changes initiated in 1958 by that epochal "change of course" brought about by Domenico Modugno, a breach further widened by Fred Buscaglione and Adriano Celentano in their ability to reinterpret what was already racing at supersonic speed in the States.

However, not everything that came out was gravy; from 1970 to 1974, those same record companies tried every way to break those well-established boundaries by skillfully shuffling the cards in the deceitful game of mainstream disguised as underground: and thus the great success of Delirium in Sanremo was magically explained, the ambiguous music/lyrics combination of Le Orme and even the unsettling downward trajectory of Alan Sorrenti. That scene did not yet need certain compromises, the ritual of Pop Festivals was at its peak precisely in those years, if anything, a plus was constituted by a kind of militancy of the artists in that political context, to get closer to the audience, Stormy Six and Area would have much to say on the matter.

But are we sure that was really the Underground? The Italian underground scene was so vast and unreachable as to make the English one envious, with the only difference being related solely to the format of the products released: here it was an authentic 45 RPM underbrush that ruled, and with the cry of "O la va o la spacca" (hit or miss), tiny record entities, often locally distributed, circulated improbable hit-singles, major flops with a capital B but also some sensational releases soon buried by time and scarcity, resurrected by passionate junk dealers in recent years, with the Cult Status imprint stamped in bold letters.

Lydia e gli Hellua Xenium is a partly revealed mystery, which can only be addressed in the conditional or through suppositions, and personally, it adds even more allure in wanting to handle it with gloves...dirty and old black gloves stained with blood.

Three are the key figures in the matter: the master and arranger from Busto Arsizio Fernando Lattuada, author of the music for a song given to a very young Milva over half a century ago, imposing her to the general public, but losing track immediately after. In 1973, in the midst of the Italian Progressive boom, he finds himself collaborating with the Milanese singer-songwriter Rinaldo Prandoni, a character on the fringes of our pop scene, an album completely unnoticed with the trio In Tre Sulla Strada and some lyrics for other artists under the pseudonym Complex are his recent background. Joining them is compatriot guitarist Piero Giavini and other unidentified musicians.

The idea for the two tracks is to successfully pair lyrics of clear millennium-apocalyptic mold with a sound that would be as heavy and menacing as possible, drawing gothic analogies with the best English Dark Sound, from High Tide to early Atomic Rooster. Blasphemous choruses and a disruptive rhythm anticipate the first prophetic verses, in a sort of collective descent to hell before a bone-chilling refrain...the exploiters, liars, hypocrites who pollute the planet already roam in chains and there will be no mercy for them, "a great white fire from the sky will fall, the dead will rise, and the world will burn"....not the abstract or mystical-philosophical lyrics of many of our "alternative" authors. In this case, the countercultural movement is like an iceberg that ended up by chance at the equator! And shall we talk about Lydia? That strange vocal timbre almost accented in the labials and dentals only heightens that sense of bewilderment...and if I told you it was an adept contralto simulation by guitarist Giavini, would you believe it? I don't entirely, but it seems it might be so.

Invocazione is even more adventurous musically, daring much with that devastating initial rhythm to make way for a descending organ melody Proto-Doom: the band is nonetheless phenomenal, a sound impact worthy of the big names....at least knowing who the subject is that seems to demolish the drums in more than one phrasing! The invocation to the creator seems to come directly from the flames of hell, and Lydia/Piero's voice takes on supplicating contours, "I am not even worthy of praying to you," the certainty is that there is no genuinely Christian reference in conceiving a few minutes of pagan ritual like this, even though the words can easily deceive. I have been asking myself for years.

A single released by Rusty Records in 1973, completely unnoticed, to which a second 45 RPM "Diluvio / Conoscevo Un Uomo" was added, released in 1974 on Radio Records in a JukeBox version. The very few owners prefer not to share it online, they have only shown the cover and label. They say it’s magnificent.

Woe to you! should be played to our lousy politicians.