Good old 90's again: Nuvolablu / Sensounico, Eversor / Tempozero.

Mid 90's again.

Nuvolablu and Senso Unico shared this 7" released on Krikk'e Kasteddu on 1996.

I can't say any further about Senso Unico firstly because I have never heard anything else apart these two songs and secondly because their ska-punk is not really my cup of tea. Nonetheless, the record is worth just for the Nuvolablu side: two songs of poppish Washington DC/Fugazi- punk oriented, even if in my humble opinion they were a representative example of a typical and original sound of the northwestern italian bands during those years.

If Torino was Nuvolablu's hometown, Aosta was Tempo Zero's one: once again north-west and, without breaking the rule, again a band strongly influenced by a Dischord sound.

I should write a post apart and spend too many words to talk about Eversor instead, one of the longest-lived italian punk bands.

Maybe I will do it later on, one day, if I ever manage to upload their full discography. For the time being you ought to know in 2000 they changed drummer and became the Miles Apart.

SENSO UNICO / NUVOLABLU

Band: SensoUnico / Nuvolablu

Title: s/t

Label: Krikk'e Kasteddu

Year: 1996

Genre: punk

Geographical Location: Torino - Piemonte (Nuvolablu). Cagliari - Sardegna (SensoUnico)

1. Senza Coscienza (Sensounico)

2. Calma (Sensounico)

3. Odio senza occhi (Nuvolablu)

4. Senza parole (Nuvolablu)

Nuvolablu/Sensounico split. rar

TEMPO ZERO / EVERSOR

Band: Tempo Zero / Eversor

Title: s/t

Label: Enphasys

Year: 1997

Genre: Punk

Geographical Location: Aosta - Valle D'Aosta (Tempozero). Gabicce, Pesaro - Marche (Eversor)

1. Container (Tempo Zero)

2. Video (Tempo Zero)

3. In the threshold (Eversor)

4. Shield (Eversor)

Tempo Zero/Eversor split 7inches.rar

Mid 90's Italian emocore: Mourn. Snowfall. Stellina.

Thirteen steps behind, one per year, and straight back to the mid 90's again.

An ancient era in which, if a semi-unknown band split up you wouldn't have had any chance to know that in a decent time, and neither to stalk them on the Internet with the mere scope of finding out what they were up to.

And the same sort of suddenish and unexplainable end is what the three bands I am going to introduce had in common.

MOURN

Mourn, originary from Guastalla (near Modena) after the 7" that follows, had the chance -and the skill- to stand out and released a full lenght cd on Green Records, that, as previously said was a fundamental benchmark label.

All of a sudden though, they changed genre becoming more and more melodic, and after a while split up or at least this is what it was said.

The drummer is still playing nowadays in loads of different bands such as By all Means, The Death of Anna Karina, Irma Vep, Lady Tornado, and it is probable this list is lacking of some more bands I can't think of right now.

Band: Mourn

Title: s/t

Label: Insociale Records

Year: 1996

Genre: Emocore, Punk

Geographical Location: Guastalla, Reggio Emilia - Emilia Romagna

Related bands: too many...

1. Ilse

2. 1# minute

3. Remember

Mourn - s/t . rar

SNOWFALL

I don't really know a lot about Snowfall, apart from the fact they were from Vicenza (north-east side of Italy). The thing is that I bought their vinyl by chance during a gig back in the days. I was just having a look at some records when the cover of their 7" captured me. The guy behind the distro nodded and smiled as saying "yeah go for it, it's amazing". I trusted him. I still think it was worth.

By checking their myspace though, it seems they are back. I honestly don't know what are their plans and i haven't listened to those new song either, but... sometimes I feel like I just want to preserve the good old memories...

Band: Snowfall

Title: s/t

Label: Twilight Records

Year: 1996

Genre: Emocore

Geographical Location: Vicenza - Veneto

1. Shades of Grey

2. No time

Snowfall - s/t . rar

STELLINA

Even if the loss of memory is getting a serious matter to me, I think I ought to remember something more about Stellina, as this band was originary from my hometown.

In my defence though, I have to admit that, as far as I can remember, I don't think I saw them live more than three times: after all at the age of 16, poor me, I wasn't allowed to go outside town by night, ( I can tell you how much I used to love matinees), so I might be wrong.

I remember though, of an amazing secret gig in their tiny rehearsal room with two or three more local bands: they hung up the flyers all over the town but without giving any indication about the location and the venue, with the aim of spreading the voice and creating an aura of mistery about the event. In spite of this, surprisingly, the whole youth of the town showed up at the gig, forming a massive crowd and turning the private secret gig into a public saturday night amusement. Definitely good fun.

Anyway, Stellina (must be also mentioned that the drummer will later join With Love) were able to record and produce this 7" and let themselves be known with a tour around the country before prematurely breaking up.

STELLINA - S/T

Band: Stellina

Title: s/t

Label: self-released

Year: 1997

Genre: Emocore, punk.

Geographical Location: Pordenone - Friuli Venezia Giulia

Related bands: With Love, Amon, Members of Parliament, Smart Cops, Pain, Dejligt, Ninos Du Brasil.

Stellina - s/t . rar

HAVAH - demo

I am pretty sure that whoever knows who Michele Camorani is (and he does know very well who we are - ops! that's an inside joke, sorry), has wondered how he is able to manage such a committed life, supposing that he lives in the same spatio-temporal dimension as we do.

After La quiete, Raein, Contrasto, Scena, several yearly tours all around the world, his screenprinting (full-time) job known as Serimal, and various appereances as a guest in few different bands, HAVAH is the last and umpteenth solo-project of the above-mentioned and most active italian drummer and diy-er.

What does it sound like? There's just one word to describe it: Blank Dogs.

Or, to be more precise, a really trendy mixture between new wave, and lo-fi garage.

This is so 2009!

HAVAH - HdemoH

Band: Havah

Title: Hdemoh

Label: Ammagar

Year: 2009

Genre: New Wave, Garage, Lo-fi, Punk

Geographical Location: Forlì - Emilia Romagna

1. Forever true

2. Troubles

3. Spread

4. Warehouse beat

5. In G and E

6. 23 channels

7. Glue

HAVAH, hdemoh.zip

To The Ansaphone

Back. or at least it seem so.

The return in the Big Smoke after the 2-months-summery homecoming, has been stressful and tough as predicted, and, consequently this blog, as any project borne in my mind, hard to keep updated.

So, this post will be a sort of tribute to a friend who really rescued me by giving me shelter.

To The Ansaphone, his Florence-based band, had been active from 2000 until 2004.

With a sound between new wave and late 90's San Diego punk - something absolutely new in Italy at that time - they literally drove everybody crazy.

The first 7" came out on Heroine Records in 2001 whilst the full lenght on Heartfelt in 2003.

Surprisingly, in late 2007 Holidays Rec. released a new 10". Even though To The Ansaphone have said they are not surely meant to come back together as they all live in different cities/countries now and carry on different projects.

TO THE ANSAPHONE 7"

Band: To The Ansaphone

Title: s/t

Label: Heroine Rec.

Year: 2001

Genre: New wave, San Diego stile, 80's

Geographical Location: Firenze - Toscana

1. Anacronistic state of mind

2. Insetti mangiatori di uomini

3. Iguana

4. J.O.E.

5. zzz

To The Ansaphone 7". zip

TO THE ANSAPHONE, s/t

Band: To The Ansaphone

Title: s/t

Label: Heartfelt Music Rec.

Year: 2003

Genre: New wave, San Diego stile, 80's

Geographical Location: Firenze - Toscana

1. Basel

2. Obscure desire of Bourgeoise

3. Sambasa super modern

4. Fouir de la realitè ce n'est pas de libertè

5. The subtle trap of looking back

6. Sur grader

7. Tel Aviv

8. Smart drugs enterteinment

9. Chloroform

10. Eh eh...output

11. La discipula del velocimetro.

To The Ansaphone, s/t. rar

Lago Morto

It seems that the new trend for the summer season 2009 in Italy is setting up all-star bands. Lago Morto though is more than just a band. Or less, if you consider it lasted for about 20 days only.

Lago Morto is an (artistic) project, born and dead in Vittorio Veneto, a small town of almost 30.000 inhabitants nearby Treviso, and conceived by Nico Vascellari, With Love's singer, whom I already mentioned in the previous post. A project carried out by members of With Love, A Flower Kollapsed and Lucertolas, all living in the north-east area of the mediterranean peninsula.

It is not clear if Lago Morto was a short-lived punk band or a noisy artistic experiment, but it has certainly spread rumors all over the web between the so-called hc scene and the unaware witnesses bumped into the shows.

Fifteen gigs in a row, a whole "tour" based exclusively in Vittorio Veneto, and above all the choice to play in unusual venues and odd locations such as pizza shops, restaurants, laundrettes, video megastores, old inns, etc. After that Lago Morto was actually over .

Think about your granma going to do the washing at the local laundrette and running into those crazy guys making an unbearable noise and stage-diving over the washing machines... This is enough to point out the weirdness and the brilliance of this project.

Exceptionally the very last Lago Morto's performance took place in a art exhibition in Graz, Austria.

With Love

Formed in 1995, With Love had been the first band in Italy to embody the prototype of the screamo band back in the mid 90's. In the beginning in fact, they used to play a caothic and screamed 90's emocore a la Ebullition. Known for their intense and passionate live sets, usually degerating into chaos with members of the band screaming and rolling on the stage, it goes without saying that they soon turned into the scapegoat in the vicious fight between the emos and the tough guys.

Gossips aside, their first full lenght came out on Greenrecords only in 1998, after a few 7"s or some - literally diy - releases such as the remarkable split tape with Concrete, recorded during a house show.

What made With Love essential though, was their constant evolution, the will to explore new sounds that drove the band in the space of a decade (they split up in 2006) beyond the border of punk music.

Another peculiarity of this band, is the massive influence they got from their own singer Nico Vascellari, a conceptual artist who often employed the band in his own performances and vice-versa: it is no accident therefore, that their musical experience ended up with "A great circle" a cd/dvd out on Gsl Records, not just a simple music record but the reprocessing on video of three past perfomances set to music by his bandmates.

Think whatever you want, if there had been a best live act prize, With Love would have certainly been the winners.

The first two With Love's albums (personally my favourite ones) follow.

Band: With Love

Title: s/t

Label: Green Records

Year: 1998

Genre: punk- emocore- screamo (?)

Geographical Location: Vittorio Veneto, Treviso - Veneto

1. Ciò che ho

2. Canzone veloce n°

3. Campane

4. Un solo concetto

5. Sparta

6. Brevi considerazioni sulla possibilità di comunicare

7. Prospettive per il futuro

8. Sbarre

With Love - s/t

Band: With Love

Title: I Love Cul-De-Sac

Lable: Green Records

Year: 2000

Genre: punk, screamo, whatever

Geographical Location: Vittorio Veneto, Treviso - Veneto

1. Blood is blood even if it looks like a smile

2. Swallowing indigestible food

3. Past is worse than a mutilated hand

4. M is for M is dead

5. I'll breath in the water

6. Welcome

7. Tongue Illustrations

8. Kiss me goodbye

9. Eat him! Drink him!

With Love - I Love Cul-De-Sac.rar

Related bands: Bluid, Enacoid, Stellina, Spunky Boyz, Lago Morto, Smart Cops, Ninos Du Brasil.

Burning Defeat - Seldom

Band: Burning Defeat

Title: Seldom

Label: Green Records

Year: 1996

Genre: Post-hardcore, emocore

Geographical Location: Alessandria - Piemonte

Related bands: One Fine Day, Handrail, Mudhead, Deep End, Green Like July, Permanent Scar, Carver.

1. agoraphobia

2. I-F 1889

3. Ravel

4. Holy diver

5. Chocked truth

6. Nightflight

7. "...I've partaken to nothing"

8. From rail to rail

9. Open gate

10. Frantic

11. Lullaby (lock-keeper)

Singlin' out the aims 7"

12. Pain addiction

13. No prospective

14. Rainy day

This is where it all began.

31st December 1996. The day when my stereo played Seldom for the first time. Until that day I had no clue who Burning Defeat were and I had never heard of a kind of music, or whatever it was, called Emocore before. What I am thoroughly sure of though, is that from that very moment Burning Defeat and their sound truly captured me and I couldn't help but listen to Seldom twice a day for at least 3 months in a row.
Burning Defeat were a band from Alessandria, a town in the north-west side of Italy, active in the mid 90's.
Seldom, which also includes their previous 7" "Singlin' Out The Aims" is their (sole) full length released in 1996 by Green Records, one of the best diy record labels active in Italy over the 90's (besides being a record shop and a mailorder).

Labelled by magazines and fanzines of that time as one of the best italian post-hc records (surely one of my favourite album of all time), the product of those 14 tracks was said to remind bands such as Quicksand or Jane's Addiction.

It was in 1997 or 1998 that, when they were just about to be appreciated outside of Italy, they decided to split up.

Burning Defeat, Seldom.rar