Italia 90 unveil their protean new single ‘Harmony’
In the late 2010s, Italia 90 broke onto the scene with a collection of sludgy punk tracks steeped in art-school disillusionment. Eight years and three singles later, they’re back with ‘Harmony’, the latest single from their long-awaited debut album.
It’s an odd beast – that much is unignorable. Halve this new single with a butcher’s knife, and you’ll see the words, “I’m a wrong-un, and my haircut knows it”, streaked all the way through. Of course, there’s no real point in taking a knife to Italia 90’s latest effort; it’s already a song of thirds.
The first of these sees frontman Les Miserables (That’s Les as in Les Dawson) “describing the seemingly endless bad behaviour” of an unnamed ne’er-do-well. Beneath that: a sea of waterlogged guitars, lapping basslines and a-tonal distortion. Italia 90 always felt more rabid than their London gloom-core contemporaries. With tracks like ‘On The Scene’, they were able to turn pub venues into maelstroms. Unfortunately, it’s hard to envision ‘Harmony’ having quite the same effect.
According to the band: “The middle section references radical feminist groups that have played a central role in countless revolutionary movements and their commitment to challenging the roots of oppression. We’re joined by Emily ‘The King’ King on saxophone for this part. The song ends with a more straightforward punk outro which we improvised in one take during a writing session.”
‘Harmony’ is the closing track from Italia ’90s forthcoming album Living Human Treasure, which is out on Brace Yourself Records on January 20th, 2023. The band’s previous releases have benefitted from a certain rough-and-ready production style. For this debut, they travelled to Eastbourne’s Echo Zoo studio. Two days later, the entire album was tracked, leaving the band time to explore its “nooks and crannies”. Time will tell if they were right to spend the extra 500 quid.
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