I MAS RUIDO enter the Barley stable. They will soon be on tour to take their new and second album all over the Peninsula. 'Choose!'. Their sound is more and more international!... Because 'Choose!' is one of the most 'American' albums ever released in Italy, which does not show the slightest reverential fear towards the sacred monsters of the genre, playing with their own cards on their own table. It is an album that cunningly and intelligently (let's even say Italian) overcomes the structural limits of the punk rock from which it takes its cue.
It is no coincidence that the record, which was produced in Germany by Fabio Trentini (Guano Apes, Donots and H-Blockx), mixed by Gerhard Woelfle (Scorpions, Paradise Lost, Guano Apes, Rolling Stones) and mastered at Sterling Sound in New YorkIt opens with a veritable manifesto, 'My Angels', which in less than three minutes takes us all the way around the album without going through the start, hook-top-hook, leads us through a dark forest and immediately makes us come out to see the stars again, hair-and-cross-hair, shouting in our faces all that Mas Ruido want us to know about themselves. And that is that they are young and pissed off, beautiful and brazen, joyful, melancholic, colourful and colourful, fearless, unadulterated and yet a little bit filthy, melodic, delicate and violent, ancient and modern, gloomy and sunny. It is therefore natural that 'My Angels' was chosen as the first single, as it is the miracle of four guys who have the gift, perhaps divine but certainly punk, of synthesis.
And above all, these are guys who play. Not even the high-profile production and the presence of super-hosts (Henning Rümenapp of the Guano Apes and Henning Wehland of the H-Blockx) have managed to make a dent in their group sound.
"We were worried," Tony confesses. 'We were worried that the methods, rhythms and expectations of a big production might affect the spontaneity and energy. We still come from an environment where, in the name of immediacy and because of microscopic budgets, we are often content to just stick the jack in the guitar and be done with it'. Unfounded fears, evidently. Because the album, although it has a full-bodied and modern sound that will be its calling card abroad, is always fresh and direct, both when it scratches our cheeks and when it caresses our hair.
Mostly thanks to the songs. Which are thirteen small, very quick journeys into a world in which it is easy to find oneself. "I write about things I know," says Kate. "I talk about me and people like me, like us. I tell normal stories, and I avoid talking directly about politics, because I don't feel mature enough to deal with certain topics yet. To do so, I think one has to feel ready, strongly motivated or simply convinced that one is saying something intelligent." And so, from beneath those black fringes, Kate narrates in a simple but never banal way small intense stories of love, friendship, nostalgia, rebellion, hope, joy and sadness. Basically, the feelings of each of us, wherever we live in the world.
This spontaneous universality is precious fuel for Mas Ruido's international ambition. It is, of course, ignited by the music, but that has already been mentioned: it comes from punk but defiantly goes beyond it, and in doing so hints at an unsuspected love for the anthems of a certain 1970s rock, the one that under the banner of 'rock and roll all nite and party everyday' first demonstrated how powerful and violent a catchy tune can be. Mas Ruido's music conveys a feeling of joyful intensity that speaks of their age. It is young and mature. It is pop in the noblest sense of the word, it is rock in the most sanguine sense of the word, it is punk in the loosest sense of the word.
And so, if this is the result of a winding path, of an uphill mule track leading from A to B following the longest and most improbable route, perhaps we might as well hope that the rest of the world keeps its three-lane highways. Here are people who are not afraid to put a backpack on their shoulders and hit the road. Shortness of breath? Cramps? Thirst? Fatigue? Maybe, but you would be amazed at what a wonderful view there is from up here.
