Italian band Angus McOg whose latest album ‘Cirrus’ we reviewed on these hallowed pages a number of months ago, have released a new video to their brilliantly inventive song ‘Communist Party Party’ in advance of some UK dates next week, which you can find below, and hey how many music websites will you find Gramsci mentioned in passing?
Antonio Tavoni, the Modena band’s frontman and songwriter says: “The idea behind this song was to play around the mismatch between something which is so rooted in the place we are from and how that is pretty much unknown elsewhere, so much so it may sound totally odd and unlikely. The thing is that for decades the largest communist party in Europe, west of the Iron Curtain, had its hotbed here, between the cities of Bologna, Modena and Reggio Emilia, in northern Italy. And their summer festival, the Festa de l’Unità (from L’Unità, the newspaper founded by Antonio Gramsci) used to be huge, a really massive gathering of people. There was a real popular sense of belonging, a genuine aspirational feel, and at the same time the hint of alienation that comes with mere panem et circenses. And I think that ‘Communist Party Party’ really has got something to tell about that. It’s really a folk song in a way. The video was directed by our friend Fabio Fiandrini, mixing images of the band at the actual “Festa de l’Unità” in Modena and frames from the Russian formalist avant-garde cinema of the ‘20s.”
I once was asked by a British girl what we used to do to have fun where I’m from in those lazy and warm late summer evenings. So I told her that pretty much everybody just goes to the Festa de l’Unità. ‘What’s Festa de l’Unità?’ she asked. Well… how to explain that around the cities of Bologna, Modena and Reggio Emilia, in northern Italy, the largest Communist Party west of Berlin used to have its stronghold? And that they used to throw these massive summer festivals, with concerts, rollercoasters and just an insane amount of stuffed pasta, salami and Lambrusco wine? Such an Italian way to Marxism… The video was directed by our friend Fabio Fiandrini, mixing images of the band at the actual Festa de l’Unità in Modena and frames from the Russian formalist avant-garde cinema of the ‘20s.”
Angus McOg UK Dates 2023:
Fri 22 Sept – Biddle Bros, Hackney, London
Sat 23 Sept – Chalkwell Hall, Southend-on-Sea (w/Harriet Bradshaw & Alfie Firmin)
Sun 24 Sept – 20th Century Speedway, Folkstone (DIY Label Market & Record Fair w/Pete Astor & Robert Rotifer)
You never post my comments, but nevertheless, I’m going to comment – however fruitlessly – the I thoroughly enjoyed “The Communist Party Party.”
Angus McOg – great stuff, more Brit (to my ears) than the mod retro Brit we hear all too often. Italian music stallions, for certain.