aaamusic | On 24, Mar 2012

Rome, 23^rd March 2012

As most of you know, I’m not a big fan of Italian music, and I think  that only few bands and artists are remarkable, not because I’m a stupid snob, but, apart from few exceptions,  I don’t like the Italian sound, that’s it.

Yesterday I found myself watching one of the best gigs of this year, first of all because musicians were great and songs were really beautiful, but especially because I had fun, and it’s not banal, not for me.

I was listening to Ex-Otago music and I smiled, I was happy to hear that music and to stare at that band of fools playing and got excited on stage creating a magnificent show.

Who are Ex-Otago? They are a six-piece band from Genoa, mysteriously unsigned, who released the third album called “Mezze Stagioni” (Mid-seasons), self-produced and co-produced by fans, a very original and up-to-date initiative in these times of crisis.

These six lads tell stories about normal people, Marco (an athlete who doesn’t want to surrender to the old age), Patrizia , Samanta and Cristina (three lovers lasted just a summer), you can live those stories through their lightness, and they use it to face serious problems  like the crisis of thirty-year-old people, who have to survive with what they’ve got (“…and if you can’t manage to earn money with what you want to do, you shall do that with what you don’t want to do…”), or they use it to define people of my generation “figli degli hamburger” (hamburgers’ children), children of a banal and superficial society, raising a bitter smile.

Someone noticed the band, Davide Bertolini, bass player and producer for Kings of Convenience, followed them during the recording session  of “Mezze Stagioni” in Norway, but in Italyn it is still hard to be noticed by good producers, so they keep on touring all over Italy to entertain people and increase their fan base.

Musically speaking Ex-Otago create an original sound mixing the Kings’ one (listen to “Costarica” to believe it, a delicate song gliding along between soft guitars, a sycophant piano, tambourines and the clear vocals by Maurizio Carucci), contaminated by the fast rap sung by the factotum Alberto “Pernazza” Argentesi, it’s not a case if they define their music style as hip pop.

Ex-Otago universe is made of simplicity and an obsessive attention to details, as the many quotes  scattered inside their album showing  all the cultural references of these young boys, like  “Superclassifica Show” (a music tv show very popular in the 80s), Corona (they covered “The rhythm of the night)”and  the 90s dance on “Dance A.M.” .

If you come to Italy check http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ex-Otago/25442634061 and www.ex-otago.it to see where they are going to perform.

Author & Photos: Roberta Capuano