Negramaro
000577

This text you are about to read is not a review in the strict sense, since someone has already done it and quite well. I don't even pretend it to be a story, so let's call it my point of view on the Negramaro phenomenon, from someone who can say "I was there".

'000577' officially comes out in 2004. In reality, it was released the year before. Musically, the five have always made a great effort, winning various competitions and contests for "new voices." Their first major live performance was in 2003 at the first Coca Cola Live@Mtv in Lecce: in front of a respectable crowd, convened to enjoy for free an acoustic set by Alex Britti and a dance one by Planet Funk, they opened the event with "Solo", "Es-senza" and "Come sempre". The audience responded with a barrage of roaring whistles, they were there to party and not to endure some whining sung poorly... all this to promote "Negramaro," released on the Sugar label and written and arranged by the guys. Among us "locals," it circulated, of course, in pirated copies (so much so that few could describe the cover) and, you have to admit, after a bit of listening, you couldn't escape the perverse charm of those raw sounds, which seemed to struggle to set sail like a butterfly from its cocoon. Those angry, distorted, dirty guitars clashed with the singer's voice, all high-pitched, and ended up creating an odd ensemble that sounded little like pop and much more alternative. Few ballads, giving way to "Coldplay style" rock (a comparison I've never understood but which fits in this case). "Negramaro" was distributed at a nice price during their gigs (I remember the presentation one at Gorillaz with the audience divided into two factions: those singing along against those who came specifically to boo them), which they laboriously conquered in the live pubs of Salento.

Then, an eclipse: Corrado Rustici arrived in their path, and after a year, "Negramaro" returned to shelves with the same cover but a different name. Now it’s called '000577' (merchandise code for Negramaro wine) and it's a whole new music: first of all, they add what still remains their most beautiful song for me, "Scusa se non piango" ("Now that I feel the world, the wind is stronger as I climb up... who knows how many times I've entrusted the song to the same wind to lull you a bit more"). The rest of the tracklist remains unchanged, but something has changed in the sound.

Rustician arrangement has softened everything, as if Coccolino had laid on the CD. The guitars don't roar, are no longer angry, don't fight with Giuliano's alien voice: now everything is more harmonious, cleaner, more cohesive. Those who listen to the first and then the second have the sensation of facing a refined cover band: their "peculiarity" struggles under layers and layers of sophisticated technological equipment that have changed them so much as to make them fall into pop. Despite this, they gain the favor of Caterina "golden helmet" Caselli and begin to grind miles after miles up and down Italy, distancing themselves from that Salento from whose cellars the Negramaro they owe their name to matures. The rest is recent history and you know it too: when they took the stage at Sanremo, unknown to everyone but not to us who had already known for several months about that participation, we all sat waiting for what turned out to be an expected explosion. We knew that Giuliano, Ermanno, and the others had given everything to be there, and we also knew that from that precise moment they would never return to Gorillaz to say, at the end of the concert, "Thank you guys, if you want to buy our CD outside there's a stall". Indeed, that’s exactly how it went, emerging from the almost cushioned niche of semi-anonymity to be thrown into that multifaceted tormentonic dimension that I still struggle to recognize as theirs... born as suburban kids with a passion for rock and grown into demigods of Italian pop.

"Mentre tutto scorre" breaks sales records week after week, but after a few listens reveals an underlying banality (except for a few exceptions) that wasn't here nor could it be foreseen. In between, the soundtrack of the film "La febbre" (obviously sold-out theaters in Lecce despite the film's poor quality, everyone proud in their seats of the 'Salento nature that conquers spaces') and even before Alessandro D'Alatri (later director of the video "Mentre tutto scorre") who chose "Come sempre" as the background for the celebratory spot of 50 years of RAI. As you might have understood, not a success achieved by chance, but a presence sought, obstinately pursued and persistently obtained. Far be it from me to express other judgments on these who, before being singers, I consider fellow countrymen (and I'm hometowingly and inevitably proud of them) and almost "friends." Sure, they sold out, but it makes me smile to see your comments, deBaseriani, ranging from "interesting band, they are said to be the new Muse, I will get them" of the first CD to "what crap, this is the usual Italian Sanremo pop crap, death to Negramaro" of the second.

Take note... what few know, perhaps because of this, is alternative and thus is beautiful, what is of the mass sucks because everyone listens to it. The summary of the story is this. That then "Nuvole e lenzuola" really broke everyone's balls this summer is a known fact and it's another story.