Review of a CD 3

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AULICINO

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You get in your hands a cd which in its envelopment is great. Now that everybody has got an i-pod and listens only to mp3, handling a cd is just a pleasure for antiquaries. Not a plastic packing (eco-un-friendly) but red cardboard and a graphically perfect booklet. This puirsit for perfection tries to pass from the extern to the content. Aulicino’s 12 songs aim at a clear sound and at the common goal that all songwriters share: telling a story, emotioning, empathize. Aulicino partially reaches this objective.

The beginning is deceitful: the first track, “Ov-Est” is great. An atmosphere which recalls Franco Battiato and a voice which reminds of Pau of Negrita. Pleasant echoes, not heavy similiarties.  But then, songs like “Tu Paradiso” and “Sono Innamorato” badly run into classical melodical Italian pop. Not much originality, especially in the lyrics. Dream, love, heart: words which repeat themselves in a loop that can last even 45 minutes and that make you forget the first well-done song. It seems like being listening to a great songwriter who waste his talent with silly songs. A further gold-fingered Alex Britti who just creates summer hits.

What a waste! Songs like “Ov-Est” and “Fuga” are really good. Only two songs among 14 tracks written and performed exclusively by Aulicino. Is this just an istance?

Original Italian review on ROCKIT: http://www.rockit.it/magazine/album.php?x=00009439

what’s writing in the web for me

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If you know me just a little bit, you know that I love words. Their sound but especially how they can touch you, both if they’re uttered and if they’re written. I’ve even written two books, but they rest completely asleep in my hardware. Unpublished. Nobody wants to publish if you’re not famous. And, obviously, you cannot become famous if nobody publishes you.

I’d like to transform my passion for writing into a job, but it is impossible. I’ve resigned to the idea that  I won’t make a living with my novels. But internet gives me the chance to make my works widespread. I’ll put my two books here in this blog. You will be able to download them in a pdf format and I’d really like to know what you think about them. I want at least to have my dream partially come true. I want others to read what I write. In this sense, I’m fully aware the web is so powerful.
I hope you’ll be more careful than publishing houses…

Assignment 1 (appropriate title)

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Assignment 1: the best title ever for what I will be writing in this 200 words. The word assignment together with a number: food for  thought… Being a student means just being a machine which must produce regularly and efficaciously. I don’t see much difference with any working experience. You produce and you get a number: a mark if you’re a student, a pay envelope if you’re a worker. In this capitalistic side of the world, only money seems to matter.

I’m not protesting against this particular “homework” I have to do for my university career. I love writing and there is no better thing for me than spending some time typing words on my best friend’s eyes (i.e. my MacBook). I just can’t stand the fact that knowledge can be quantified. I spend almost 25 hours par week in class for a total of 5 exams which corresponds to 35 “credits”. It is just as in Wesch’s video: numbers, assigmnents, numbers, assigments againa and again… I don’t get any emotional approach to what I’m pretending to learn.

Maybe it’s better to talk to my friends on FB. They really know what’s inside my heart and not what is on the surface of my brain.

Review of a CD 2

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Four Fried Fish

Catfish for Breakfast

Take four great musicians all together and you get a wonderful band, the Four Fried Fish. Add then a wonderful section of winds, the Flyn’ Horns, and you can listen to an amazing cd. If you add to all this some famous guest-stars like the bluesman Marco Pandolfi, the wonderful singer Tiziana Guerra and the excellent musician Chinito Teremoto, you get a masterpiece.
“Catfish for Breakfast” is undoubtedly an important album for Italian jazz. First song:  “So Long” transforms your room into a barrelhouse in Chicago: the blue devils take their tool on you as only Albert Collins and Freddie King can do. “Homeway Blues” is a pure standard, both for the lyrics and the daring improvisations. Then facing the swing of “Blues for Mr. G” means getting in touch with the most élitarian, fascinating and dicty jazz. Actually it is dedicated to one of the best jazz guitar player Michele Giacomazzi. From the wild dance you listen to a sexy atmosphere in “Making Love” and the crazier “Honey and bread” which is linked to the jam session “H5N1”. Tiziana Guerra shines with the cover “Three Cool Cats” by Lieber&Stroller where she whispers at the rhythm of the farfisa of Teremoto (a name, an omen). “Maybe a Man” is the perfect end to this full our of ten little masterpieces which bring you to the old South Side. In the end: a wonderful cd.

Original Italian version on ROCKIT: http://www.rockit.it/magazine/album.php?x=00009339

Review of a CD 1

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JADE SHINING

Jade Shining

Sai che una volta non vuol dire niente. Sai che due volte non vuol dire sempre (transl: You know that once means nothing, You know that twice doesn’t mean always). You know that only five songs cannot and mustn’t label a band. Maybe in a 12 song album the Jade Shining could better express themselves, just showing something newer than a cover band of the Black Sabbath. Here the hints are scarce. Just at the end of the demo, with “Alba”, the Jade Shining respect their name and start glowing. Good lyrics (Un fiore che profuma di sangue, Colto da dita fredde, Bianche come il sale/ A flower which smells like blood, picked up by cold fingers, as white as the snow), a gloomy guitar riff and the voice which scratches and emerges. The rest is a delusion.

Original Italian review on ROCKIT: http://www.rockit.it/magazine/album.php?x=00009313

Is this the end of any freedom?

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ROCKIT is now facing a bizarre situation set off by a simple video you can find here on the right side of the homepage.
The use of the expression Do It Yourself by the journalist, vj and writer Carlo Pastore has created a real fuss about the role of this MTV vj who is not alleged- critics say- to express an indie concept as he works for a commercial network.
Fans, journalists and musicians have created a huge discussion on this theme which regards a wider field: the democracy of speaking.
Here below all the links concerning this controversy.

http://www.rockit.it/user/ugc.php?x=11112
http://www.rockit.it/user/ugc.php?x=11113
http://www.rockit.it/user/ugc.php?x=11128

Diary: one day with Paolo Benvegnù

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Here it is the link of my article on Paolo Benvegnù. He’s a well-known Italian artist as far as “underground music” is concerned. In Italy we define this kind of music as Indie/Rock. Actually I don’t like labels and definitions. And neither does Benvegnù. Music is just what you feel and share with others. This is the very essence of the interview with Paolo and the half a day we spent together with his musicians. A truthful experience in Rome, Eur, during the ROCKIT Festival Il Sorpasso.

http://www.rockit.it/magazine/articolo.php?y=a&x=00000685

Why Chez Bu?

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Well, every respectful beginning must get you into the general idea of the whole aim of a project. To be simple and clear, you cannot follow this blog if you don’t know who is behind this html language.
Chez Bu is a couple of words which sum up my origins, i. e. who I am. My mother is half French and, in this sense, I’ve always liked the condition of ambiguity an immigrant lives. Being someone elsewhere than your country is scaring and fascinating at the same time. Moreover, the preposition chez reminds of restaurants and food is one of the few pleasures of life I’m fond of. The other word, Bu is just my nickname. It comes from butriona, a dialectal term which in Arezzo, my town, refers to a fat peasant who is strictly bounded to her fields. Actually I love my town and Tuscany in general: I’ve got a deep esprit de clocher.

That’s just a brief explanation of the title of this blog where I will put all my articles on music that I publish in Italian in the website Rockit and that I will translate here into English.