After fourteen years the band The Gang has announced the release of a new album. As many readers of these pages know, The Gang is a band that revolves around Marino and Sandro Severini, who from the village of Filottrano, in the province of Ancona, have developed a musical project that connected them to the musical avant-garde of the seventies, largely British. In fact, the Severini brothers had the greatest inspiration – but it would be better to say the shock – by the Clash, the London band that, between the end of the seventies and the mid-eighties, not only stood out from the “traditional” punk movement, but also shook the musical establishment with an international mix of punk, rockabilli, dub, reggae and other genres. Following a trip to London Severini brothers began work on their style, defined in the context of accession to the punk and, in the same way, the poetry of the Italian musical tradition. In the wake of this double bind – that has led them to select and sing topics of social and political character, adhering even to many international initiatives in support of the causes of the proletariat with artists such as The Pogues, Blaster, Jesus & Mary Chain and Billy Bragg – have produced a rich discography, giving the national scene unforgettable emotions: Tribes’ Union, Against Power-Dollar, Barricada Rumble Beat, Reds, Le Radici e le Ali, Storie d’Italia, Una Volta Per Sempre, Fuori Dal Controllo, Controverso. But they also explored the world of popular songs. Since the beginning they touched the protests songs world, as from the father of American folk music Woody Guthrie (“This land is my land” appears in the 2006 album Il seme e la speranza, dedicated to the “historical testimony of the peasant roots of our country “), then move on to a stronger contact, which is merged into the project over time and over singing, in collaboration with the folk group of Marche La Macina. The album – which are reinterpreted in a mixed style between rock and folk, the most representative pieces of the two formations – has been a great success and has finally opened a new channel in the Italian music scene, where they meet and analyze each other seemingly different but structurally very similar styles.

Following their natural propensity for experimentation, the Severini brothers – as you can read in the band’s website, “attracted by the epic, poetry and fiction that brings to life the spirit of the singers, that sort of insight related to the golden age of word in relation to the memory “ – is now launching a new adventure. And call everyone together to collectively participate in the making of their new album, which will be titled “Sangue e Cenere”. The proposal is crowdfunding – a methodology increasingly widespread and that’s revolutionizing, more than any other to which it generally gives more confidence and on which the music industry is clearly investing more – through the platform becrowdy.com. The formula has now become commonly used, but any artist can customize and Marino Severini – singer of the band – proposes the following to the “lenders”, who are already participating in a number: “We must free them [the songs] from all those barriers that are between me and you: managers, record labels, so-called art directors, advertising … and then to interest rates, overdrafts and bank loans, since these leeches and large retail chains, from all this apparatus to serve the market, profit and consumption “.

At this address you can enter more specific in the project of the disc and consult the various “rewards” provided for those who participate in co-financing.

Autore: Daniele Cestellini

Daniele Cestellini ha scritto 752 articoli.

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