Italian Eighties part 2

NEGAZIONE



It's time to speak now about what for me was the greatest band in those years, and probably as well one of the most known outside of Italy. Negazione started playin in Torino in 1983 and kept the flame high for nine years. The band rose as a side project of 5 Braccio, where Tax (guitar) and Orlando (drums) used to play. The idea of Negazione was to give a much more individual approach to the lyrics and attitude and avoid slogans that were very common in 5 Braccio. Negazione changed a lot through the years, even though their best period for me is concentrated in their first three years when there music was a strange hybrit of fast and furious hardcore, bitter melodies and the unique screamings of Zazzo, one of the best hardcore voices ever. The lyrics as well are awesome. On this post, I uploaded "Early days, wild bunch", which is a collection of their first three releases (the split tape with declino, the 7" of Tutti Pazzi and "Condannati a Morte Nel Vostro Quieto Vivere"EP, where I think their best tracks are) and "Lo Spirito Continua", an album released in 1986 that many consider their best work. What came after those years was nice, but nothing at all compared to the intensity of their first music.

The Early Days, Wild Bunch
Lo Spirito Continua

CHAIN REACTION


I'm gonna leave now northen Italy for a moment and have a look at what was going on in the extreme south, in this case the city of Bari. The big wave of hardcore punk in Italy's eighties mainly touched northern cities as Milano, Torino and all the sorrounding area, but some very valid things were moving in the south as well, like Chain Reaction. The band, which many people don't even know about existence, was one of the fastest complexes playin in the first eighties in Italy. I really know little about them, only that they were active between 1982 and 1986 and that "Gabbie"EP (1985) is their only release. The music is mainly a fast kind of hardcore punk caracterized by some street punk elements, while the singer reminds me a lot of Siege somehow. A really good one, I heard they reunited sometime ago...

Gabbie

UNDERAGE

Lets stay in the south for this one. Underage come from noneless than Napoli, and definitly know what oldschool hardcore punk is about. They were active between 81 and 83."Africani, Marocchini, Terroni" is their 7" from 1983. Young, pissed, raw and screaming hardcore with no compromises. Seriously, I dont think I have a lot to add about them, download and understand.

Africani, Marocchini, Terroni

BLOODY RIOT


Roma capoccia! Moving anly a bit northen than Napoli, it's time to speak about Italy's capital city, Roma. This city's scene in the eighties was probably the most punkish, rude, ignorant, drunk and apolitical scene in Italy. During the eighties, roman punx were kinda considered like flees by northern anarcho-puv from ambients like the Virus squat. But Rome's punx revenge on the northern political punx was the infamous slogan "we do mess, we break everything but at least we wash ourselves". 20 years later, did anything change??? Eheheheh, anyways Bloody Riot was the main band in Rome's scene. Very aggressive and metallic hardcore punk, musically few steps above most of other italian hardcore punk bands then. They were formed ion 1982 and broke up in 1987, "Disubbidisciti" is a collection of all their released material published in 2001. These dudes were known as a very angry and dangerous wrecking crew, they were some sort of godfathers of modern chaos punk, though their lyrics were far better than most of the mohawked shit floating around today. Enjoy it!

Disubbidisciti

EU'S ARSE



Literaly, a diminutive of Europe's Arse, which was how other punks in Europe were defining Italy's scene. Eu's Arse started playing in Udine (next to the border with Slovenia) in 1981 and released "Lo stato ti vuole? bene, fottilo!" in 1982 and a split with Impact one year later. Many consider these dudes the Italian Discharge, due to thei rawish versuon of punk and the lyrics obsessed with war and horrors. Today most of these things are boring, but remember we're speaking of fukken 1982. The first song in this CD is an anthem. The split with Impact I'll upload in the SPLITS section.

Lo Stato Ti Vuole? Bene, Fottilo!

IMPACT

This is another thing many of you might know already. Impact were formed in 1980 in the city of Ferrara and played one of the fastest, inventive and angriest hardcore punk in the whole peninsula! "Solo Odio"from '82 , as far as I'm concered was their best release and what I'm posting here. Their split with Eu's Arse you can find in the SPLITS sections i'm gonna upload on the next Italian Hardcore post. Extremely powerful trio that will shake your balls if you still never heard of them. Hardcore punk spaghetti style!

Solo Odio

RAW POWER
Imagine the year 1985. In the USA, speaking of fast and thrashy hardcore punk,next to the names D.R.I., Cryptic Slaugher and C.O.C. people name Raw Power, an extremely fast, technical and powerful band that made all the road from Italy to play some shows. Same year, you get on a plain to Italy and ask people about this great band. "Raw Power", they would say, "Isn't that an Iggy Pop album?".
The point is that, Raw Power, maybe the best band to play in Italy's 80s gained much, much, much more success anywhere else than Italy, maybe cause their lyrics were in English? who knows... I just know that these dudes from Reggio Emilia started playing awesome hardcore in 1981 and had to wait 5 years to get some audience in the peninsula. Anyhow, "screams from the gutter", released in 1984 on an american label and followed by an american tour, is their ultimative master-piece. Extremely technical and fast hardcore punk with a big touch of thrash.
If you dont know it you should really be ashamed, but here I give you the chance of listening to it without anyone noticing. Download and enjoy every second

Screams from the gutter



Well, so far today. be prepared in the next days for another huge and maybe final post about italian hardcore. meanwhile enjoy this!