Almamegretta

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Almamegretta
Almamegretta.jpg
General information
Genre (s) Dub , reggae , world , trip-hop
founding 1991
Website http://www.almamegretta.net
Current occupation
Drums
 Gennaro Tesone "GennaroT"
singing
 Lucariello (from 2003)
singing
 Zaira Zigante (from 2003)
Keyboard
 Paolo Polcari (1992-2000, from 2006)
guitar
 Fefo Forconi (from 1999)
bass
 Mario Formisano (1995–1997, from 2003)
former members
singing
 Raiz (1991-2003)
singing
 Patrizia Di Fiore (2003-2004)
guitar
 Gianni (1991-1994)
bass
 Tonino (1992-1993)
bass
 Ash (1999-2000)
Soundman, Dub Maker
 Stefano Facchielli "D.RaD" (1993-2004)

Almamegretta is an Italian music group that was founded in Naples in 1991 . Their music consists of a mixture of reggae , rhythm & blues , Neapolitan folk music and Arabic lamentations. The band sings their songs almost exclusively in Neapolitan .

history

The beginning

Almamegretta was founded in 1991 by Gennaro Tesone "GennaroT", Raiz and Gianni. In 1992 Paolo Polcari and Tonino joined them. The name Almamegretta comes from an old dialect that represents the transition from Latin to modern colloquial language and means “Anima migrante”, which can be translated as “migrant soul” or “wandering soul”. After completing their first mini CD, Almamegretta went on their first tour of Italy.

In 1993 Stefano Facchielli "D.RaD" joined Almamegretta as a soundman and dub maker during the production phase of the first studio album Animamigrante . The album, produced by Ben Young, won the Targa Tenco best debut album in 1994 and the title Sole was named the most requested track by the 105 Network . Towards the end of the Italian tour, the bassist Tonino left the band.

The Napoli Trip

In 1995, thanks to Ben Young, there was a collaboration with the trip-hop band Massive Attack who offered Almamegretta to remix their piece Karmacoma - The Napoli Trip of the Karmacoma EP was born. In the same year Sanacore was released , which received the Targa Tenco award as the best album produced in Italian dialect. In 1997 they recorded the song Canto do mar with the Neapolitan singer Pino Daniele for his album Dimmi cosa succede sulla terra , and Raiz went to London to record the album Rhythm & Stealth with the dance group Leftfield . The album Lingo was created in 1998 with the collaboration of other artists such as Pino Daniele, Laswell and Count Dubulah from TransGlobal Underground.

The first album completely produced by Almamegretta and mixed by D.RaD came out in 2000 under the name 4/4 . The studio recordings for this were made in Milan with Mauro Pagani , who also appeared on the CD with Count Dubulah and Sahinko Namtchilak. In the same year the soundtrack for The Cell by Tarsem Singh was released , to which Almamegretta contributed the song O sciore cchiù felice . Despite these successes, Paolo left the band to devote himself to a solo career in London . In 2001 the band again won the Targa Tenco for best dialect album with their fourth album, Imaginaria , and its cover won the Italian Grammy Award for best graphic project. In 2003 Almamegretta left BMG and founded their own label Sanacore on which they released their next album Sciuoglie 'e cane . For this CD Patrizia Di Fiore and Lucariello stood in for Raiz, who had left the band in the meantime to begin a solo career.

Farewell to D.RaD

During the winter tour 2004 Stefano Facchielli "D.RaD", the inventor of the "AlmaSound", died in a traffic accident near Milan and asked Almamegretta a decisive existential question. However, the band members decided to continue the Almamegretta project as a homage to D.RaD and organized a concert on December 29th in the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome in memory of Stefano.

In 2005 the album Sciuoglie 'e cane live was released in 2004 , which was still in production before Stefano's accident and thus became the last CD with the collaboration of D.RaD.

With Almamegretta presents Dubfellas , released in 2006 , the band finally embarked on the path to dub music . Paolo Polcari, who left the band in 2000, joined Almamegretta again.

style

The "Alma Sound"

With their music, Almamegretta manage to harmonize styles that seem incompatible at first sight. The starting point for the band is rock music , which, however, has to subordinate itself to the reggae and sound building blocks of Algerian Raï and North African melodies. From this a dub form develops , which sometimes changes very much to synthetic sound such as trip-hop , trance or house . Due to the personal roots of the band in the culturally very self-confident Naples , with its songwriters such as B. Pino Daniele , Almamegretta, who sing almost all of their work in Neapolitan (a dialect that is very different from Italian) , manage to build a bridge between Mediterranean, Oriental / African and finally Jamaican music.

Some articles describe echoes of the style of Adrian Sherwood 's On-U Sound Records label , which has produced some of the band's albums.

The texts

Not only the very own sound, the "AlmaSound", creates a direct connection to the Arab and African world; The texts also show solidarity with the so-called “Migranti” ( immigrants ) in Italy. With the song Figli di Annibale , Almamegretta puts forward the thesis that the Italians inherited their dark hair and skin color from the African mercenaries of the general Hannibal , who stayed with his army in Italy for a long time (around 216 BC. ). Almamegretta thus form an issue on racism and the widespread xenophobia in Italy.

The play Fattalla 'is preceded by Almamegretta: “ Fattalla' is what is said to people who come here from Africa or Asia to find a little legitimate happiness after civilized Europe has devastated their home countries. All that is said to these people is Fattalla '. Fattalla 'means in Neapolitan ... Get out ! "

background

The founding members of Almamegretta met by chance in a rehearsal room in Naples in the early 1990s . At that time Italy was just being hit by a wave of student unrest known in Italy as La Pantera . Members of the band also took an active part in these protests.

Another historical development of these years has significantly influenced the band. In the 1990s, the strong increase in immigration of people from less developed parts of the world was noticed for the first time in Italy. This was the first time the band came into contact with non-Italian music.

One final important factor that made Almamegretta what it is today is its hometown of Naples . The city, which, due to its diversity and heterogeneity of cultures, could be described as Europe's border with the Orient, appeared to the volume as the last bastion of the north on the one hand and the first city in Africa on the other.

The name Almamegretta indicates both geographically and temporally a great interest in other cultures; Almamegretta comes from ancient Italian and means wandering soul. In this context, the band tries to bring the foreign (foreign cultures, foreign appearance, different perceptions, ...) closer to modern society and to reduce fear of contact. With this assignment, Almamegretta have not lost their relevance in the ten years of their existence:
"Il mondo ha un futuro solo se si sviluppa una capacità di comprensione e commistione tra culture, modi di vita, costumi, lingue differenti. Altrimenti c'è il baratro delle pulizie etniche, delle guerre di religione, della "democrazia" esportata ed imposta a suon di bombardamenti. " (The world only has a future if cultures, lifestyles, customs and languages ​​are understood and blended together. Otherwise, the abyss of ethnic cleansing, religious wars and the "export of democracy" awaits amid the roar of bombs)

Discography

Albums

  • Animamigrante (1993; CNI)
  • Sanacore (1995; CNI)
  • Indubb (1996; BMG ) Remixes
  • Lingo (1998; BMG )
  • 4/4 (2000; BMG )
  • Imaginaria (2001; BMG )
  • Venite! Venite! (2002; BMG ) live
  • Sciuoglie 'e cane (2003; Sanacore)
  • Sciuoglie 'e cane live 2004 (2004; Sanacore) live
  • Almamegretta presents Dubfellas (2006; Sanacore)
  • Vulgus (2008; Sanacore)
  • Dubfellas Vol.2 (2010; Sanacore / Arealive, distr. Edel)

EPs and singles

  • Figli di Annibale (1993)
  • Sanacore Reprises (1996)
  • Fattallà (2001)
  • Fa'ammore cu'mme (2001)
  • Drop & Roll (2010)

Remix

  • Re-Born Again Cretin (1999) Robert Wyatt

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Don Snowden on Allmusic.com
  2. ↑ own interview with band member GennaroT → original text (Italian)