Monday, January 5, 2009

Salmon Cakes Without Eggs

Matilde Politi – “Si eseguono riparazioni dell’anima” (CD – Arcimiccica ERA 0800833, Italia 2008)


Tornavo in auto a casa, proprio mentre radio (RAI 2 program "The Misfits", I believe) promoting his latest book (a 'pamphlet', have defined the core ...), Gino Castaldo 'reflected' sull'amaro fate of the music today. Hearing him talk about the market, corruption of the music, no 'soul', I thought that the times we live in are nothing short of paradoxical if one of the major causes of the moral decay of the musical culture of our country has the gall to write a book about fate of the music and no one has the courage to take on farts. A little 'as if Mussolini had written a pamphlet against the dictatorship and had promoted through the Institute Luce o Berlusconi tenesse una conferenza stampa contro il consumismo e la pubblicità televisiva a reti unificate sui canali Mediaset…

Per fortuna, prossimo allo svenimento e alla perdita di controllo dell’auto, ho potuto traslare dalla radio al lettore CD con la semplice pressione di un tasto (miracoli della tecnologia!) e ritrovare l’ultimo album di Matilde Politi , uscito da qualche settimana.

Può sembrare retorico, e confermare paradossalmente le tesi ipocrite di Castaldo, ma dischi così non se ne registrano quasi più. I nuovi tredici pezzi cantati da Politi, dopo l’ottimo, raro “A tirannia” (cfr. http://www.lucaferrari.net/articolo.php?ID=287) confermano che la musica folk (geneticamente modificata) sopravvive ormai solo grazie a sempre più rari fuochi fatui, a dispetto di Castaldo & C. che hanno fatto e disfatto per ridurre la musica in Italia a un fatto di consorterie, mode vuote, prodotti da vendere.

Qui, al contrario, è contenuta una risposta inequivocabile al periodico piagnisteo ipocrita di chi, appunto, dichiara la ‘fine della musica’ con la rivoltella ancora fumante tra le mani: la musica, quella ‘autentica’, creativa, che sa farsi poesia, che sa penetrare nel profondo sentimenti e coscienze, esiste, è disponibile; si tratta di volerla incontrare, volerla ascoltare, decidere di farla conoscere, ‘raccontarla’ agli altri anche quando – soprattutto quando, diremmo – è indifesa, indipendente, esiste al di fuori delle conventicole giornalistiche, dei poteri forti della discografia, non muove grandi interessi economici.

La bellezza di “Figghiu miu”, terzo brano del disco - un’invocazione da madre a figlio che sembra nata da una dimensione amniotica dello spirito da tanto è intensa, profonda, sentita - esprime un valore incommensurabile se accostata a quella presunta da più parti delle 'più belle canzoni della musica italiana' degli ultimi anni: al suo raffronto, scompare “La cura” del furbo Battiato, ad esempio; impallidisce il tormentone rap Jovanotti of 'mystical' (or papal?) of "Mud" - the sound of plastic that poisons.

Matilda's voice intones in simple terms with the power of those 'really feels' to which he sings. His is the Song of Songs sung by the many unknown women of the world popular peasant farms of the Po Valley or the tonnage of Sardinia is the song that rises from Pajari Puglia Sicily or from the fields, some of the modest houses of an Italy more poor and backward but more real, the same missed by the Pasolini "Corsair Writings". A song by the power and grace of expression that comes from the pride of their roots, you find a form of communication that is ancient and modern together because it is capable of re-translation of the feelings experienced.

It takes humility, Castaldo, and freedom to hear and 'feel' the music seriously in the world!

(January 5, 2009)


The tracks on the disc :
1. "Amuninni" (Di-Gregorio Politi) 4:14
2. "Cumar" (CIMO-Politi) 4:33
3. "Figghiu Miu" (Politi)
3:49 4. "Ri Cascia Suli (Pereira) 3:59
5. "Aria of departure" (Politi-traditional) 6:21
6. "Ringo" (traditional) 2:18
7. "Acula Riali" (Politi) 5:53
8. “Santaninfara” (tradizionale) 2:51
9. “Marzapaneddu” (tradizionale-Politi) 3:58
10. “Acqua chi curri” (Politi) 2:49
11. “Matri Terra” (Politi) 4:55
12. “Semu ancili” (Politi) 3:58
13. “Ruciaruci” (Pessoa-Politi) 3:23

I musicisti :
Matilde Politi - voce, chitarra, fisarmonica, concertina, tamburello, bendir, castagnette, sonagli, campane;
Gabriele Politi - violino, viola, oud;
Simona Di Gregorio - organetto, tamburello, concertina; voce in 1, 6 e 8; coro in 12;
Dimitri Voutsinas - voce in 9; choir 12;
Guido Politi - chorus in 6 and 12;
Lelio Giannetto - bass;
Lajos Zsivkov - darbouka, djembe, copa, dun dun, bells.

□ Recorded in 2008 at the Blue Studio Monreale (PA). Mixing and
masterizzazazione Maurizio Curcio

Contact Info:
mat.politi @ gmail.com
http://www.matildepoliti.com

Monday, December 15, 2008

List Of Stores That Have Layaway

Luca Ghielmetti – “Luca Ghielmetti” (CD – Old Times Record OTR005 CD, Italia 2008)


It's really a nice surprise this CD, the third in eighteen years (!) of Como Luca Ghielmetti. Refractory as we always take care of Italian music after the storms of the songwriters of the seventies and scimmiottature new wave eighties and nineties who have approved the scene, you come across an anaphylactic shock - even more rarely, actually - in all-round artists, masters of the composition of the so-called 'new singer-songwriters', poets.

want to trivialize, it may summarily terminate Ghielmetti debt that pays some of the major Italian authors in disseminating their songs tracks of Paolo Conte, slag Fossati, De Andrè best of moods, images disruptive à la Capossela, or find behind the broad shoulders of certain melodies chansonnier French, but as we go from writing time is well pleasing to the effort of forcing himself to recognize in each groped his expressive figure, the unique identity, even when, inevitably, is mixed with the totems of a present / past so cumbersome: Ghielmetti has a powerful voice, from grain thick as jute, which grate the melodies and words that recall the choking Maier inspired by "The Vif" or the ballad of Tom Waits "Blue Valentine" or Gianmaria Testa of the tribute to iron ("Leo", a great hard!). Sang a solid and straightforward, at times declamatory, which warms the heart as he rummages in the odds and ends of our daily lives:


"(...) But some girls are better
shake before the wind carried them away
throw them a boomerang of love, then come back here to see them

With rest on the bottom was better to pretend
be just a little 'film but ...
sign an implied covenant of love for six hours then
not see you again ... "

(from" Just a step away from the clouds ")


"What a beautiful trains an hour
those who depart from the lake
quelli che partono dal lago
e portano in città
ed ogni volta è come a Santa Claus
arrivano in silenzio e vanno via
ti affidi a orari vecchi
chiedi conferma a tutti
ti sembra strano che passino di qui
senza una voce che li annunci e li saluti
o un vagabondo che ci salti su…”

(Da “I treni di un’ora”)


I pezzi, scritti nel corso degli anni e suonati spesso dal vivo, si perdono in felici suggestioni blues, folk blues, tango, canzoni other times, fado suggest that the image of a universe as personal as accessible, given the expressive power of story telling, authentic passion (perceived listening) for existence.

small masterpiece, even for limited duration, the album feels like a happy balance noise and sounds like a 'classic' right from the start. Thanks also good musicians involved, including in particular a Greg Cohen on bass by impressive resume (Waits, Coleman, ... Newman).

(December 15, 2008)


● The track listing Disc :
1. "Antes que muda el mar"
2. "Those beautiful kisses in Paris"
3. "The grandfather of cornelian Rasouli"
4. "One step from the clouds"
5. "The face of the father"
6. "The trains an hour"
7. "Dr. Charles"
8. "Barbara"
9. "The Amsterdam's red"

● Words and music by Luke Ghielmetti
● Produced by Greg Cohen

Musicians :
Greg Cohen - bass, guitar, harmonium, percussion, marimba;
Cyro Baptista - percussion
Tim Sparks - guitar
Greg Leisz - steel guitar, lap steel, Weissenborn, guitar electrical
Mario Arcari - oboe, clarinet, harmonica, flutes;
Franco Piccolo - accordion Jimmy
Villotti - electric guitar;
Ghielmetti Luca - vocals, guitar, piano, harmonium, Hammond.

● Promotion and Press Office : Carta da Musica – via della Marrana, 94 – 00181 Roma http://www.cartadamusica.it


ALTRI DISCHI DI LUCA GHIELMETTI
“City Record” (LP – fuori catalogo)
“Le corniole di nonno Rasouli” (CD – 1990)
“Dolci spose mancate d’un soffio” (CD – 1998)

Info e contatti
http://www.myspace.com/lucaghielmetti  

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Why Does My Sucker Fish Always Die

Etnoritmo - "Tondomondo" (CD – UDU WWWDTGA 035, Italia 2008)


In 2003, we excluded dall'abbecedario of "Folk Genetically Modified" because, in our humble opinion, he had nothing to folk. Today, as then, and several years after that its ambitious and ambiguous "Sitanafri" which aroused unanimous specialized magazines (including a glowing review for Sergio Palumbo from the pages - incredible to say - of "Folk Bulletin"!), Paul Farina returns with a new album presented as "an album of song writing, singing mostly in dialect, with arrangements that refer not only to ethnic music, especially Southern Italy, del nord Africa e dell'Oriente, ma anche al rock, al reggae, al blues ed all'elettronica" (intervista a Farina di Nicola Morisco, La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, 30 aprile 2008).

Ascoltatelo con attenzione: a dispetto delle illustri collaborazioni (Tonino Zurlo, Faraualla, Pino Martini, Giancarlo Parisi, Enrico Capuano, Alessandro Mancuso) e l’uso di campionamenti (“autorizzati”...) DOC (Matteo Salvatore e Enzo del Re), il musicista barese, trapiantato da anni a Milano, imbastisce sonorità con filo scadente e idee risapute, vagolando confuso tra suggestioni etno-world e un desolante, arrendevole disco-pop radiofonico (Jovanotti docet?) nell’evidente tentativo to scratch the wall of self-distrust that keeps him on the fringes of the mainstream music scene (the ones that usually do not attend our heroes, in short).

The equation probably, on this occasion, that the disc is the 'last frontier of world music, "which is now a' free music 'from the constraints of gender that folk, blues, rock, reggae are just tools of the trade to be used casually in the composition of matter to sound "fun", "dancing", "tap your foot", as also prescribe an idea - holographic - popular culture ... All reviews legittime, ci mancherebbe, non fosse che alle nostre orecchie questa musica suona semplicemente brutta, per niente divertente, priva di interesse. A lunghi tratti irritante. Persino pretenziosa.

Brani come “Sto bene con te” (un reggae-pop insipido da abbronzatura estiva), “Sono malato” o “Cudd ca sent” (un occhieggiare insistito al Battisti/Mogol più deteriore), “Le montagne sono alte” (che scimmiotta l’Eugenio Bennato sanremese) – per dire di quelle che ci hanno 'impressionato' di più - siamo convinti facciano male alla musica, contrabbandando l'idea di un progetto di sintesi multiculturale che è solo superficiale, facade, and relies heavily on the conventions that have severely affected the production 'world' of recent years (especially in Italy): enough to involve ethnic music and sing in dialect and you're (in form, composition, harmony, registers. ..)!
saturating a sound space near collapse, as this album confuse most deprived mixing talents only honest musicians, a nonsense dialect poetry in Italian, with a textuality worthy of a newspaper in the country.

"From the Fall" ("Do it and by"), a misguided attempt to capture an effective poetic Daniele Sepe, becomes the paradigm of risks of a political vision on the flat indifference to contemporary bar (that "all politicians are the same "...): preceded by a sampling of Matteo Salvatore, poetic and metaphorical (he says:" The state has always been stranded on the shoals of Eboli, the state is a stone wolf, does not bite because they do not have teeth, but it is the wolf, and the poor southern sheep without a shepherd with problems of food they are afraid "), the text of flour condensation in a few words the most worn-out obviousness of the 'common sense':

"Get the most stupid and do
Mayor foul, foul
mayor for four years

Anche la goccia scava la roccia
scava la roccia, scava la roccia
in tanti anni

Dagli e dagli che si scassa
che si scassa, che si scassa
pure il metallo...”.

Altri testi, più a carattere intimista, descrivono un universo di spensieratezza ed happy hour a noi totalmente estraneo che conferma il carattere ambiguo del progetto, candidato ai palinsesti di Radio Capital o di Radio 105. Da “Sono malato”, ad esempio:

“Miami Beach che caldo che fa
a Miami Beach qui sulla spiaggia
under palm trees sipping my Cuba libre
are an adventure in a film in black and white.

are in Paris with a friend
that "Cherie," he says in a bistro
and together we are Anais and Henry
la vie en rose, en noir et blanc. "

Two questions to finish:
1. How could they allow the use of sampling Matteo Salvatore and Enzo on a disk like the King?
2. Why Paul Farina has sent this CD to us?

(A third - because some of more authors of 'folk genetically modified' active in Italy have felt compelled to collaborate on a similar project? - We will keep for us ...).

(August 9, 2008)

● The tracks on the disc :
1. "I'm fine with you"
2. "Je to stor'j Chess"
3. "I am sick"
4. "Cuddie ca sent"
5. "Fall from the"
6. "The mountains are high"
7. "Giuanni"
8. "Tjmp d c'ros"
9. "Nan c'stè"
10. "Southbound"

● Text and music: Paul Farina
● Art director and production executive: Paul Farina

Info cont acts to indiriizzi :
http : / / www.myspace.com / etnoritmo
http://www.etnoritmo.it