Soerba
Playback

THE REVIEW

The Soerba are a Milanese duo (Luca Urbani and Gabriele D'Amora) that base their sound on early '80s electronics, attempting to give it a personal and modern structural vision. The lyrics and messages of the songs are cryptic but also hermetic, built upon non-trivial and intriguing depictions of everyday life.

Produced by Morgan, "Playback" is the title of their debut album from 1998. Driven by the very successful and clever hit "I Am Happy", the album, as mentioned, is constructed with electronic elaborations, samplers, synths, and percussions that do not result in easy dance sounds. The dreamy melodies of "Disco Volante" are decidedly captivating, as are the peculiar and magnetic electro-rock blends of "Noi Non Ci Capiamo" (… no we do not understand each other yet we use the same language…), a track presented at Sanremo in 1999 (youth section) amid the bewilderment of the event's outdated standards, with critical success but not chart-topping. In pure electro-industrial style is the ingenious "Il Tipo Ideale" (… I never win any game for too much goodness…) that closely recalls the late-era Kraftwerk in sound.

In "Perché Non Dirlo" and "Abito" (… it's not the habit that makes the monk but the monk that makes the habit…), the lyrics garner the most interesting mentions, imbued with a sequence of clichés (the trademark of Luca Urbani) describing how humans are tied to quirky yet entirely relatable customs and habits. More carefree and oscillating, but less fascinating, are "Fuori di Testa" and "Frittata" (… if the omelet turns by itself I certainly won't object…). Notable is the perfect "Early Eighties" harmony in true early Depeche Mode style of "L'Esperienza" (…experience and the years steal something from us…) or the pseudo rock blend of "Ci Sono", the perfect classical and electronic combination of "Stare In Posizione" (… other people's houses have a strange smell…) and also the dense and obsessive "Normale Tu". However, it is with the psycho-lysergic collage of "Felice Di Stare Sull'Erba" that the greatest sound variations are found compared to the strong electro-synthetic connotation of the rest of the album (… happy to lie on the grass, simply looking up at happiness, success, shame…).

"Playback" is a very unique album and difficult to classify, reminiscent of pages from Bluvertigo but also Devo and the aforementioned early Depeche Mode.