METROPOLITAN MADNESS

Appartenenza is the second album by Milanese prog band Macchina Pneumatica and was released in 2022 on the independent Black Widow Records label with a confirmed line up featuring Raffaele Gigliotti (lead vocals, backing vocals, guitars), Carlo Fiore (synth, Hammond, electric and acoustic piano, backing vocals), Carlo Giustiniani (bass, backing vocals) and Vincenzo Vitagliano (drums) plus the guest and co-producer Alberto Ravasini (former member of historic Italian prog band Maxophone - backing vocals). The new album reflects all the good qualities of its predecessor with its excellent mix of vintage sounds and original ideas. The colourful art work by Beatrice Traversin probably describes the musical and lyrical content better than my all words...

 

The raging opener “Appartenenza” (Belonging) conjures up a dark atmosphere with heavy electric guitar riffs and powerful organ passages. The music and lyrics evoke a dystopic society where different groups of humans act like packs of wolves avoiding to mix with each other. Whites with whites, blacks with blacks, reds with reds, that’s the way to preserve their spawn...

 

The nightmarish, bluesy “Pazzo” (Mad) gives voice to an outcast, a stranger in his own home city who is going through a personal crises and is sinking in a sea of doubts. He can’t find a way out and is rejected by the conformist people who look at him like at an old king who has lost his crown and now is useless and helpless. He can feel the contempt of the straight against the different and that’s driving him insane. Then a kind of nursery rhyme sung in German leads to the disquieting finale...

 

“Fuoco d’agosto” (August fire) tells in music and words of a desperate story of alienation. In August, in an empty city, a lonely boy sets himself on fire as a consequence of his inner desert. He’s alone in his room with his television and his mobile phone when calls a live television broadcast announcing his self-immolation. In a few moments his naked skin burns under the summer sun and on all the TV screens...

 

The long, hypnotic instrumental “Il cerchio” (The circle) is an excellent track that leads to the following “Rendimento garantito” (Guaranteed performance), a disquieting piece about human commodification and blind conformism. The lyrics evoke images of misleading elections, losers supported and comforted by analysts, old people crossing the streets without paying attention to the traffic, men queuing up to donate their blood to the pawnshop...

 

The last track, “Venerdì sera” (Friday evening), starts by a delicate piano introduction, then the rhythm rises while the music and lyrics depict the effort of the protagonist to escape from his daily grind evoking a dream of absolute freedom and excess, a dangerous plunge into the nightlife under a false name in search for fun and lust. The protagonist seems to get lost while devils and witches play with his thoughts and the border between virtual reality and real life melts...

 

On the whole, a very good work!

 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

 

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/macchinapneumatica/ 

REFLECTED MACHINE

Macchina Pneumatica came to life in 2013 in Milan under the name Atom Age Empire (later changed into Nudo and finally into the current one) on the initiative of Carlo Fiore, Carlo Giustiniani and Michel Nesti. After six years spent honing their skills, composing original material and playing live on the local scene, in 2019 the band released an interesting debut album entitled Riflessi e maschere (Reflections and masks), distributed by the independent label Black Widow Records, with a line up featuring Raffaele Gigliotti (lead vocals, guitars), Carlo Fiore (synth, Hammond, electric piano, backing vocals), Carlo Giustiniani (bass, backing vocals) and Vincenzo Vitagliano (drums) plus former member Michel Nesti (drums) who left the band during the recording sessions and is credited as a guest. The overall sound mainly draws on seventies influences but these musicians are not stuck in the past and are able to shape their own ideas with energy and enthusiasm...

The opener “Gli abitanti del pianeta” (The inhabitants of the planet) blends hard rock and distorted electric guitar riffs that could recall Iron Butterfly with more symphonic passages where piano and keyboards take the lead. The music and words draw images of a dystopic, nightmarish planet inhabited by special machines built to destroy each other by a cynical, unknown maker. There’s too much pain, that’s why a desperate, almost hysterical voice claims anaesthetic for the humankind...

The caustic “Quadrato” (Square) portrays in music and words, in a derogatory sense, a square man, one who pursues his goals without looking at anyone, perfectly at ease with social forms and conventions and always hypocritically smiling, one without doubts and who plays it safe, optimistic at an exponential level, a perfect example not to follow...

 

The introspective, melancholic “Come me” (Like me) describes the feelings of a man who realizes that he is not the same he used to be. The music and words evoke a strong sense of bewilderment and anguish, in some way the protagonist has turned into someone else and now thinks he sees a stranger in the mirror when he’s actually looking at his own reflection, he does not recognize even his skin...

The nervous, “Avvoltoi” (Vultures) tells of a desperate escape from a crumbling world. The only hope of survival is running fast and looking for a way out, far from the ruins of a city that has fallen to pieces, a safer place where you can start again on a new basis. And yet, those who destroyed the city might be running as well, and laughing at you...

Macchina Pneumatica on stage, 2019

The disquieting “Sopravvivo per me” (I survive for myself) depicts a kind of metropolitan nightmare. Here every now and again the music reminds me, in turn, of an Italian seventies band called Capitolo 6, then Area and Le Orme. The vocals conjure up the image of someone who emerges from a flurry of engines and smoke where he was left stunned. Now he’s enraged and screaming for vengeance...

The long, complex “Macchina pneumatica” (Pneumatic machine) is an excellent instrumental piece divided into four parts where you can find hints of psychedelia, hard rock, delicate piano passages with a classical flavour, a touch of jazz with a swinging organ and a pulsing rhythm section and many more, all mixed together with gusto, freshness and personality. A good way to close the album!

On the whole, a very interesting work that deserves a try!

You can listen to the complete album HERE

Macchina Pneumatica: Riflessi e maschere (2019). Other opinions:
Henry Schneider: Macchina Pneumatica is a neo-Italian prog band that pays homage to their forebears, with Riflessi e Maschere being their debut album. And a killer it is!... Symphonic Italian prog with ties back to the 70s mixed with a contemporary sound... (Read the complete review HERE)

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/macchinapneumatica/

https://www.macchinapneumaticaband.it/