Punkreas
90-93

Other years, other tastes, other periods. Today, I respect all the genres and subgenres in the world of music (except hardcore and techno). But Punk, although an important genre, has never fascinated me, never intrigued me, never said anything to me at all. In the old days of high school, during a school occupation, on a stereo owned by the student representative (a typical fake nonconformist with rather confused ideas) there was a compilation that often (if not always) stopped at one song: La canzone del Bosco. We all used to hum that little song. A few years later, on the bus everyone was singing another song: Canapa. It was by Punkreas, I didn’t trust them, but then people told me: "Listen to them, try them, they're not the typical noisy punk where you can't understand anything, they’re something more commercial, more for kids."

And now, after so many years, I can say it: Punkreas make a high school punk. They make a Punk that is fun, easy, with choruses that stick in your head by the second listen, with chord progressions that everyone at home after school can try to mimic. In short, it's true, they are a band for young people aged 14 to 19. They are liked by those kids who don't understand a damn thing about politics but after getting familiar with the lyrics, they find a vocation: "I'm an anarchist." Punkreas (at least as far as this album is concerned) try to express as much as possible their (perhaps necessary) admiration for an anarchy not as a utopia, but as something seriously applicable.

That this musical politics serves their image is another matter; the style of the music suits what they want to represent. Raw and animalistic drums as should be the spirit of a Punk boy; the bass, as always in the genre, is quite complex and "playful." The voice is not the same as in “Paranoia e Potere,” but given the different context of the album (in paranoia you complain - more intelligently - and that's it, while in 90-93 you demonstrate and get angry) maybe it’s for the best.

Every self-respecting Anarchist must (obviously) repudiate the cops since they try to enforce the law, which for a nonconformist Punkreas follower should not exist; hence we have "No-cops," a cute track instrumentally, but without substantial lyrics. Perhaps the most punk piece of all is "Isterico," but even "Persia" doesn’t stray far in style. "Antysocialism" is an anthem that should show us how brave these guys are: "I'll turn around and spit on the ground, and then you'll say you want war" besides "Il vicino," which is a cross between a fake ska and an underdeveloped reggae, there are many tracks that seem cloned from each other, but when I was a kid and listened to them with pleasure, I went crazy for "disgusto totale"; I would always rewind it and listen from the start, I agreed with the words, I felt like one of them, so much so that I put this album in my favorites collection.

Today, after such a long time, I see it, I listen to it, and I have a few laughs: “What people…” I think, 80% image 20% music... I'm sorry to admit, I don't want to offend the group's fans, but these guys are all hyped up, they think they're revolutionaries, field experts, but they say NOTHING interesting, nothing debatable. The songs that make up the album consist of a mix of technical instrumental games + choruses that make the verses immediately get stuck in your head, and you almost automatically hum them, they are fun and melodic in their way, but in the total context (and I'm referring TO THIS ALBUM) they are almost pathetic...