First of all, I have to say thank you. My previous article got unexpected attention, it shot up as I would never expect. I got a lot of good feedback from people and the article got even mentioned on a national radio show (thanks to Tropical Pizza’s guys).
But these are just vanity measures (yes, I’m a Lean Startup big fan). I need to collect actionable measures to validate the idea, also because most of the reads came from outside Medium. Actually, only 0,05% of the views came from inside the platform, leading to really few interactions right under the article.
But this is material for another article, so let’s go ahead with the real topic of this story: another cool Italian band you probably don’t know.
Il Triangolo
Il Triangolo (The Triangle) is a rock band, they get inspiration from beat music, especially the Italian scene from the 60s. I have to digress a bit here: you probably don’t know how weird but fascinating the Italian beat was. Basically, a lot of Italian bands were taking songs from foreign artists and translating them. Or, at least, keeping the same structure and changing the lyrics. This might sound like plagiarism, but at that time there was no internet, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were becoming popular all around Europe, and that was nothing but a natural process. Italian youngsters didn’t have internet or knowledge of the English language, but these “stolen” songs allowed them to dream about the British Invasion.
Marco, Thomas, and Mauro come from Luino, a small town located in the north of Italy, almost on the edge with Switzerland. It resides on the shores of Lake Maggiore and looks like the typical happy town you can find on a postcard: flowers, small boats, sun, old people walking dogs.
If anyone ever described me a city like that, I would never choose it as a place to get inspiration. It sounds too fake to have a soul, too boring to give birth to anything interesting.
But you never know what influences and motivates people: three guys met there and somehow found the right alchemy to form a band and start to compose great music.
Their first appearance on the Italian musical panorama came with “Giurami”, an EP composed of three songs. I played it the first time while driving my car, it was a sunny day, possibly the end of spring. Their music was in between a bunch of other songs, and when it started playing I had the sensation that it was something familiar. I didn’t really know what that song, “Battisti”, was, but it was just perfectly suited my mood. At that moment I felt like everything was fitting together: the weather, the guitar, and the air through the window ruffling my hair.
“Giurami
Che rimarremo sempre giovani”
Everything worked so well together that I played the EP again. And again. Three songs were enough to fascinate me. I loved their style, they sounded retro and fresh together. I kept listening to those songs, even if they weren’t perfectly recorded, looking forward to their debut album.
Finally, in 2013, the album came out. It was even better than what I expected: not only beat music but a lot of other influences like spaghetti-western movies (by the way: Ennio Morricone finally won a proper oscar, congrats master) and Italian pop like Lucio Battisti (actually one entire song is dedicated to him).
“Johnny era il mio preferito, era un cowboy davvero
Lui non ne andava fiero”
Among the album, the main feeling I got wasn’t just nostalgia but also fear. As everyone, they were scared of growing up, they were in that phase when you realize that adult world is not as good as you imagined. The phase where you begin to understand that the feelings you are living with will probably never come back: spontaneity, freedom and light heartedness gone, leaving room for maturity.
After the first album, I think everyone (me included) involuntarily started to build in his own mind an equation: Il Triangolo = 60s-like music. But they weren’t just that, their musical background was much thicker and they felt the need to explore new styles. They say they were inspired by Band of Skulls, The Savages, Tame Impala, Deap Vally and St. Vincent. I think there is also a not-so-hidden reference to Alt-J in their name: Alt-J is the shortcut to write ∆, a Triangle.
“Portami in centro a Varsavia e ti prego parlami
Se dirò cose sbagliate potrai correggermi”
That is where the sound of the second album comes from. The first listen I had of “Un’America” was quite surprising: the beat style was almost gone, only a few songs were there to remind you the glorious past. Distorted guitars, electronic synths, wide reverbs and harder drums took its place. Il Triangolo was evolving, tripping a few times here and there, but, as a whole, achieving another good album.
Il Triangolo is another cool Italian band I’m always proud to share: I really respect their work. I think their music can easily be enjoyed without understanding a single word of Italian but, of course, I always suggest you go hunting for a translation of their lyrics.
I went to check their profile to see if they were about to release anything soon, I just found a reply they gave saying they’re working on something (Their last album was dated 2014). Meanwhile, if you liked the retro mood of their song, you can kill some time reading an article I wrote about pomades.
Thanks for reading my article, I will come back to you soon with another story. Just don’t forget to give some feedback, anything you might think about this piece is useful!
Follow Il Triangolo on Facebook
Bonus: Do you remember my previous article? I spoke about that collection of cover songs they made. They kind of resurrect a band (883) giving hem a second youth. Well, Il Triangolo was also part of it and I actually think their cover was one of the best. Enjoy!
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