La Cretina Commedia -
https://www.ramtatta.de/s/reviews/f/details/id/3655/ 9 out of 10
Gran Gala
- https://www.ramtatta.de/s/reviews/f/details/id/4100/ 10 out of 10
Silent Town
- https://www.ramtatta.de/s/reviews/f/details/id/7541/ 9 out of 10
Just to name three of the reviewed albums by TALCO on ramtatta.de.
TALCO is an institution.
With their album “Mazel Tov,” released in 2008, they made the leap to fill not only small clubs but increasingly larger venues in Italy, Spain, the Basque Country, and even Germany.
The last concert in Berlin was at Huxley’s Neue Welt, as part of “Punk Italia.” It was an anniversary show for “Punk Italia.” “Punk Italia” was and is initiated by the owner of the punk rock pizzeria “Il Giradischi” in Prenzlauer Berg. They rocked Huxley’s. Then came Corona, and TALCO experimented with an acoustic setting. In this context, the band also released an album and simultaneously closed this chapter of their history, born out of necessity.
With “Insert Coin” (review at https://www.ramtatta.de/s/reviews/f/details/id/9147/), they already gave us a taste of what’s to come.
Now they are back with the new album “Videogame”!
The album addresses the theme of fear in many of its facets. However, it is not a concept album, to say that upfront. It is much more an album as we know it from TALCO. Socially critical lyrics, observations, descriptions, and questioning of how we interact with each other, to name just a few points. The whole thing is, I almost want to say, dressed in the typical TALCO garb. It shows a lot that the band has largely remained true to their style. A style they have shaped themselves and that hardly any other band plays in the same way. They call it Punkchanka.
I call it music to go crazy to!
Just the first song of the album is such an incredibly awesome track that I get dizzy just listening to it. Fast, absolutely danceable, exhilarating is an understatement, and simply inspiring. A piece that only TALCO can write. A piece of music that simply makes you happy.
However, the album also shows a certain development. The songs are not all high-speed throughout. There are also beautiful, sometimes relatively long quiet passages. I think this is very noteworthy, because even though I find all of TALCO's last albums great, there had been, especially live, a sense of fatigue setting in, as high speed can become monotonous after a while.
Maybe it’s because the album is fresh and new, but I am optimistic that this slight overall fatigue has vanished.
TALCO have perfected their style with “Videogame.”
However, there is a small downside. We are all getting older, our eyesight is getting worse, and our glasses are getting more expensive. In short, the printed lyrics in the beautiful digipack are quite small, making them hard to read, and while it’s logical that they are only printed in Italian, an English translation would have been nice.
