When we travel I always try to pick up local music, and our recent trip to Italy was no different. One of the shops we visited was Transmission, located near Rome’s Termini train station, and it was chock full of great rock records across subgenres. I could have easily spent a few hours there, but as always on a vacation, there is a lot to pack in and time is short. But I did come away with a few things (I try to make it a point of buying at least one thing in every record store I visit, because if nothing else I want to support small businesses), including Contrasto’s debut Statico Senso.
Contrasto can probably be accurately described as political hardcore. The songs are fast bursts, a couple of minutes apiece, and they’re catchy as hell even if I can’t understand the Italian lyrics. Fortunately, however, the insert booklet included provides the lyrics to all the songs in both Italian and English, along with various essays and treatises so we non-Italians can get a better sense of the message.
The education given us since we were children tends to reduce the perception of the potentially infinite possibilities of choice that belong to us. This happens across the attainment of that deep “sense of duty” that makes us “trustworthy persons”. This mental cage transforms us, thinking being, into mere slaves of consuetude and compromise. We must rid ourselves of this cage at all costs.
The message is clearly one of striving for your own independent thought and not allowing yourself to be absorbed into the system. While I, quite arguably, live my life comfortably within the system, with my white collar job and middle class lifestyle, I both sympathize with and respect their position – we would all be better served by regularly exercising our critical thinking, not taking the messages we receive on face value and constantly striving for a better path forward. I respect Contrasto’s message as much as I respect their music, and even if you’re not political there’s a lot to like about Statico Senso brisk pace and hooks.