Malfunk
Randagi

I don't know why certain words and tones weigh so heavily when set to music, but the fact is that Malfunk, with their 'Randagi', found themselves wandering through my streets, and I followed them. I followed them skeptically in a corner rummaging through the barrels of feelings that we all carry with us, I watched them as they furiously dug into the tangles of sticky and angry emotions that break your breath as much as they hurt, and I swallowed the whole, just like all those words, without thinking about it. They warmed me, and I wouldn't have believed it. They woke me up when I wouldn't have wanted to. With that straightforward and reasoned interceding, the decisive almost detached tones, the precise and measured words, they eased the breath and sent the head elsewhere.

It all begins with a sad harmonica and a whispered voice, the guitars almost shy look around folding shamefully on themselves. The fifth studio album from the Tuscan band led by the handsome Marco Cocci, released back in January 2007 for About Rock, begins like this; with 'Ti Giuro' a straightforward song with firm hues. It’s clear what goes through Malfunk's minds: love is not a matter of compromise, and life is deaf and turns its back on you if you don't respect it. It is no longer time for half-truths. There’s no more space for dawn dreams, those that baffle with their dim, blinding brightness. Now there is only now. The voices and speeches of now, the strength of this moment.

The tracks, decisive and authentic, rarely lose enthusiasm and always bitterly sting for the sometimes burning, sometimes laborious words, follow one another, mingling with punctual guitars always in the foreground and never lagging behind a powerful drum nor a direct and dry voice.

This is what involves their latest effort 'Randagi': the sincerity, the honesty of the text's manners, the slightly dirty and free sound of the guitars, the tenacity in being able to bring out one's feelings, and certain things that often weigh on the chest like a boulder.

Eleven tracks for just under 45 minutes of great urban rock, real, played with passion for a band that has put forth strength and consistency. An aggressive and tough rock ('Un Cuore Enorme', 'Ti Mangio La Testa') but at the same time intimate and warm ('Niente Di Più', 'Su Di Me'), perhaps repetitive and mechanical only on a few occasions but always careful to offer blazing pieces ('Randagi', 'La Forza Del Danno') and fiery ballads ('Niente Da Nascondere', 'Ti Giuro'), always ready to make you think, reflect, believe; to make you dance, get angry, scream... like this; stray on your street, in your city, in your wandering mind.