BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO: URGENTISSIMO (1980)
1) Senza Riguardo; 2) Dove
Sarà; 3) C'E Qualcosa; 4) Luna Piena; 5) Paolo Pà; 6) Felice; 7) Ma Che Idea;
8) Il Cielo Sta In Alto.
Fresh, sizzling, off-the-grill electronic Italian
dance-pop from 1981, anyone? Didn't think so. Perhaps the move to a blatantly
commercial sound was as inevitable for Banco as it was for the absolute
majority of their progressive brethren — but even such brethren as Yes, Genesis,
or Gentle Giant managed to handle the transition with more self-esteem: thirty
years on, it is still possible to think of a few reasons to dig out 90125 or Abacab other than pure childhood nostalgia. This transformation, in comparison, results in such utter shite
that the only reason to listen to Urgentissimo
is strictly culturological, as in — you thought US and UK mainstream pop tastes
in the early 1980s went down the drain? have a look at the Italian pop taste!
In the short term, the strategy worked: the
band managed to launch several local hits on the Italian charts, of which
ʽPaolo Pàʼ was the biggest, convincing Banco that this was, indeed, the way to go on. In the long run, these
corny abominations serve as the perfect textbook example of how it is possible
to take the worst aspects of a successful «intellectual» band and use them to
reforge it into a conglomeration of happy pop idiots.
It is not just that these «post-disco» Eurodance
tunes are utterly primitive in comparison to you-know-what. I am not sure that,
composition-wise, ʽPaolo Pàʼ or ʽDove Saràʼ are that much more «dumb» or «simplistic»
than, say, some Oingo Boingo ditty from the same time period. ʽDove Saràʼ, for
instance, has a fairly liberal lead guitar score from Maltese, and ʽPaoloʼ has
several keyboard parts with the Nocenzi brothers still competing for the
listeners' attention like they always used to. Basically, if you want «totally
primitive», there are much, much worse examples in the same genre.
The one thing that is really disgusting is a
complete loss of a sense of «adequacy». DiGiacomo's vocal talents are now let
loose to convey «serious emotions» in a musical context best fit for a teenage
disco club — the songs are sung as if they are supposed to mean something when they really don't: the only meaning implied is
«please keep on buying our records so we don't starve in this strange new age».
And the only real purpose behind the Nocenzi brothers' keyboard hooks, this
time, is to get your sorry butt wiggling to those Hot New Funky Sounds — best
illustrated, perhaps, by the repetitive six-note chorus melody of ʽMa Che
Ideaʼ, which could, for all I know, be an old AC/DC riff transcribed for
synthesizer.
Only two of the tracks still preserve faint
traces of more worthy purposes: ʽSenza Riguardoʼ, once you have suffered
through its Big Heavy Mammoth Riff (which honors the slowly emerging pop-metal
movement), has some free-form soloing in the middle, and ʽFeliceʼ has a brief
nod to the band's former fusion pedigree (but even so, integrates the
fusion-esque chord changes into a totally club-oriented dance number). Note
that this paragraph has been inserted strictly out of considerations of
courtesy and politeness — it is not,
by any means, recommended that anybody go out and look for these songs as «lost
delights». They are simply marginally less disgusting than the rest. Also, the
brief instrumental album closer ʽIl Cielo Sta In Altoʼ is supposed to work as
an artistic atmospheric coda, with two synthesizers trading «heavenly»
lite-jazz lines against an irritatingly repetitive clavinet bassline.
Does it work? Well, even if it did, what's two minutes of soft, inobtrusive, jazz-poppy textures
to us after thirty minutes' worth of complete embarrassment? Welcome to one of
the cheesiest sellouts in European pop music history, with a crashing thumbs down.
"such utter shite"
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. Fortunately the first song I listened to was Felice. While it's absolutely not my cup of tea - it's more or less like light weight jazz; very suitable for a restaurant where you are expected to avoid all noise - I can hear it's well written and as such it has some artistic value.
The other two I tried - Dove and another one I have forgotten - are so cheesy indeed that I don't care anymore if they are well written or just dumb. I didn't make it into the 2nd minute.
What's sad is that DiGiacomo has gained in power - if he had sung that well on Darwin and Sono these albums would have been absolute masterpieces - or at least very, very close.
'Ma che idea' = 'Rock n' Roll Damnation'
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed - with a stupid vocal melody added.
Delete