'80s Emiliano melodic pro-Soviet punk

June 16, 2013 6:16 AM

CCCP Fedeli alla linea was an Italian "Emilian¹ melodic music pro-Soviet punk" band that performed and recorded between 1981 and 1990, disbanding on the same day as German reunification. For those who can read Italian, here is their story in their words. For the rest of us, Wikpedia does a pretty good job of thumbnailing the group, calling their sound a "genre-defying convergence of militant rock, industrial music, Folk, electropop, Middle Eastern music, and even chamber music." CCP's final album was Epica Etica Etnica Pathos (Epic, Ethics, Ethnic, Pathos), recorded live in an abandoned farmhouse/villa in the Romagna countryside. (exterior shot, and a couple more pics on this page)

Here are YouTube offerings of 12 of the 15 tracks on "Epica Etica Etnica Pathos."

Aghia Sophia
Paxo de Jerusalem (and "Sofia")
Narko'$ (includes Baby Blue)
Campestre
Depressione Caspica
Amandoti
L'andazzo Generale
Al Ayam
Mozzil'o Re
MACISTE contro TUTTI
Annarella

posted by taz (8 comments total)

I guess you'd have to think of yourself as something like an aesthetic or musical worker, not a hotshot in a band, to do the pro-Soviet thing with full commitment. I'm sure they have discussed this at length! Not so sure I'd care for a Marxist-Leninist band meeting.....
posted by thelonius at 8:00 AM on June 16, 2013

Not so sure I'd care for a Marxist-Leninist band meeting.....

That made me imagine the Spinal Tap "fate of drummer" cutaways, except every one ends up dead in a dark cell in the Lubyanka.

There'd be a lot of tedious caterwauling over "state capitalist" vs. "deformed worker state" vs. "bureaucratic collectivism." Sometimes they'd take a break to denounce hipsters for lifestyle politics, and lesbians for identity politics. Some chords would cause senior band leadership to frown and mutter that "some comrades are backsliding into bourgeois notions of chordal progress."
posted by mph at 9:50 AM on June 16, 2013 [3 favorites]

First record I bought when I moved here; pretty opaque stuff to try to learn Italian from (but nicely complemented by Frigidaire magazine). Giovanni Lindo Ferretti had a way of ranting his lines into earworms: "Non studio, non lavoro, non guardo la TV, non vado al cinema, non faccio sport"; "Spara Yuri, spara - spera Yuri, spera"; "Cuuuuraaaamiiii (curami)...".
posted by progosk at 10:26 AM on June 16, 2013

(Actually, the record I meant is their earlier "Affinità/divergenze..."; for Frigidaire magazine see here.)
posted by progosk at 11:04 AM on June 16, 2013

So basically, this was an Italian version of Laibach, except the shtick was real?
posted by jonp72 at 7:32 PM on June 16, 2013

Politics aside, this is more melodic folk-punk for me to enjoy, so thank you.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 7:57 PM on June 16, 2013

Per me lo so is great!
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 7:58 PM on June 16, 2013

There'd be a lot of tedious caterwauling over "state capitalist" vs. "deformed worker state" vs. "bureaucratic collectivism." Sometimes they'd take a break to denounce hipsters for lifestyle politics, and lesbians for identity politics. Some chords would cause senior band leadership to frown and mutter that "some comrades are backsliding into bourgeois notions of chordal progress."

I'm sure Crass' band meetings were like that.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 7:59 PM on June 16, 2013