Subsonica
Microchip Emozionale

THE REVIEW

When the mainstream music scene seems asleep, we often forget what spreads in alternative circuits. It's 1999, and Subsonica reaffirm, after their self-titled debut album, what abroad would have certainly gained more visibility. Through well-crafted and innovative arrangements, the Turin band blends funk and dance-style music, sounds sometimes metallic and sometimes simply technological, distorted voices, and samples that inject a desire to dance in every chorus, yet at the same time, there are lyrics that are sometimes weighty, sometimes nonetheless full of meaning, in which the Turin group demonstrates a certain mastery of lexicon, an increasingly rare case in Italian music.

The mini-track "Buncia" anticipates the subsequent "Sonde," which projects onto the listener the feeling of being watched by something much larger, finding oneself momentarily lost. "Colpo di pistola" is an invitation to react, an authentic manifesto of the "subsonic" spirit, a stance against the abuses of those tired of enduring, a bullet to be shot. "Aurora sogna" is a technological dance almost surreal along the thin line between human and automaton, dreaming of a better future that perhaps doesn't exist. "Lasciati," with its sweet and distorted sounds, is an electronic-style ballad not at all sugary, where the awareness of the fleetingness of the moment in the face of an inevitable future mixes with melancholy. In "Tutti i miei sbagli," a song that catapulted them onto live television on Italy’s most discussed stage and at the top of radio airplay, the Sanremo arrangement never overshadows the group's spirit but advances alongside it, composing an acidic regret. "Liberi tutti," performed with Daniele Silvestri, is a scream, an invitation not to play the game of the masses, to break free from daily mediocrity, in a sort of intellectual hide-and-seek where one becomes more and more standardized, all on a whirlwind dancefloor rhythm. "Strade," harmonic and poised, is one of the few light moments of the album, with a compelling funk groove supported by Casacci's liquid and sinuous guitar.

But there is no respite; the keyboards introduce "Discolabirinto," a track where Samuel's voice blends with Morgan's, painting claustrophobic yet liberating atmospheres, an imaginary "hundred-square-meter disco from which you cannot exit". "Il mio dj," pulsating with life, where the typical life of a DJ immersed in his work is portrayed, thanks also to Claudio Coccoluto's contribution, helps to provide the most danceable imprint. "Il cielo su torino" outlines a Lombard capital with a leaden sky, shrouded in fog, in yet another union of two opposites: love and hate for this metropolis. Here, Subsonica disrupt the usual lexicon of songs: the delirious and psychedelic "Depre," a chronicle of a descent (or a flight?) into depression, presents verses composed exclusively of the repetition of the most well-known antidepressants' names, while "Perfezione" uses a strictly chemical register. "Albe meccaniche" is an awakening in the stupor of a cold and foggy monotony before the explosion of the awareness that "in the bitter litany of usual things one can die, you know."

The album, as the title suggests, is an emotional microchip, where technology and feelings are equally blurred, music and lyrics, the most alternative and intimate spirit. A medicine to avoid being trapped in the too-canonical schemes of life and current pop music, excellently composed by Subsonica.