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German Import | The ‘armageddon gigolo’ is back: after the succinctly titled first album for Trisol, on their brand new album
Rotten Roma Casino the charismatic Italian heartbreaker SIMONE SALVATORI’s band once again define that which they have shaped like no other: ‘suicide pop’. That is to say: melancholy melodies, stirring guitar chords, emotional vocals and yearning string passages, but also solid-groove beats and macabre phrases.
Just as the recipe was fully finalised on Armageddon Gigolo, which defined the genre single-handedly, Rotten Roma Casino goes a decisive step further. They once more summoned together the proven ensemble featuring chamber musicians associated with ENNIO MORRICONE and created a whole series of musical gems which you can’t get out of your head after just a single hearing. As per the title, it’s about Rome – a metaphorical, decadent Rome however, a parallel to the Roma of FELLINI, full of wonder, monstrosities and passions. They pay homage to the orgiastic, wild and ambiguous in such a way, particularly on the intense video clips which are featured on the bonus DVD, as to conjure up the immortal spirit of RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER. The doleful ‘Sad Almost A Winner’ orientates itself towards his homoerotic melodrama, ‘Fox and his Friends’, while the clip for ‘Darkroom Friendship’ pays homage to the promiscuous bisexual passion of frontman SALVATORI. Shimmering skin in the twilight – ‘a friendship made of flesh and lust’. SALVATORI acknowledges that without FASSBINDER’s controversial ‘sex and death’ drama ‘Querelle’, he probably wouldn’t have founded SPIRITUAL FRONT. To all this are added harmonies which seem to derive from the legendary creators of film music, ENNIO MORRICONE and NINO ROTA. SPIRITUAL FRONT carry their unmistakeable Italian spirit into the post-modern.
With Rotten Roma Casino, SPIRITUAL FRONT consciously shake off their underground roots in order to invent their own unique variety of morbid folk-pop which blends indie rock, acoustic chords and tango into a new, intense and above all heartrending, genuine mixture. In a varied sequence of romantic, vibrant, cynical, sad and occasionally gruesome ballads, we dive into the incomparable world of SPIRITUAL FRONT: Kiss The Girls And Make Them Die’ as well as ‘Sad Almost A Winner’ or ‘Cold Love (In A Cold Coffin)’. It is still ELVIS PRESLEY’s libertine little brother: HELLVIS. With auratic timbre in his voice, he once again sings about the impossibility of love and the pain which it leaves behind. Love, it is said, (also) tastes of death…
Rotten Roma Casino is a fresh and original but at the same time mature and majestic musical work, without compromise but yet catchy; slightly sweet but yet disturbing. In any case a worthy redemption of the promise which Armageddon Gigolo once gave. Suicide pop in its purest form…
•CD plus DVD in jewelcase