It was 1978 when UK post-punk band Scritti Politti, from their London squat wrote and released the single ‘Skank Bloc Bologna’, an homage to the traditionally leftist Italian city Bologna and its prolific punk movement circulating there at that time.
Subsequently, The Clash's call came into town, to arm boys and girls in "the faraway towns", confirming then Bologna as one of the most vibrant points in Italy to keep an eye on!
Many were the underground local bands and artists that heeded these calls, including the young eclectic sound-experimentalist Diego D'Agata (age 14 at that time) and 17yo visionary synth-obsessed Gaudi whom, driven by their mutual fanaticism for the atrociously cacophonic sound of Ralph Record’s The Residents, Tuxedomoon, Yello, Snakefinger, Renaldo & The Loaf and Chrome, in 1980 decided to form PARANOISE, a duo consisting of D'Agata on Korg MS10 synthesizer and distorted vocals, and Gaudi on Korg MS20 synthesizer, drum machines and tape echo dub manipulations.
The plan was to record an improvised experimental-noise album in just 24 hours then split and destroy all tapes, leaving no trace of what’s been created and recorded that day. And so it went, they brought their gear down to an underground cellar in the centre of Bologna, -part of the upstairs café ‘Bistrò La Jeunesse 22’ ran by Diego’s family in Via Irnerio-, and started the crazy project.
After one full day of non-stop recording session, the duo, exhausted and under the effect of alcoholic stimulants, kept the promise and destroyed everything!
It was only a few days later when they went back to the cellar to collect their instruments, that a random lo-quality cassette appeared from behind a wine box lying on the dirty floor, an evidence that miraculously escaped from that pandemonium and survived, till nowadays.
So, after the “Paranoise 1980 mission” ended, each of them took a quite different artistic directions from each other and consequently lost touch for decades, pursuing their own individual careers and achieving good success, each in their own field: Diego became a highly recognized bass player and frontman for “underground/jazzcore” bands such as Splatterpink, Testadeporcu among others, while Gaudi after having played keyboards on crucial albums for underground acts such as The Gang, Disciplinatha, Violet Eves, he signed-up with Multimedia Attack Punk Records for his 1986 hip-hop project Raptus. In the late 80s he teamed-up with Frank Nemola and Ricky Rinaldi and founded the production team ‘Tubi Forti’, working on a number of underground records including the ground-breaking ‘Stop Al Panico’ by Isola Posse All Stars. He then pioneered the Italian raggamuffin scene until 1995, when he moved to London -where he still lives and operates from-, establishing his stature as one of the most sought-after dub/electronica producers, working with the likes of: Steel Pulse, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Mad Professor, The Orb, African Head Charge, Killing Joke’s Youth, Scientist, Adrian Sherwood, Simple Minds, Afrika Bambaataa, Pete Namlook, The Beat, Grandmaster Flash & KRS-One to name but a few.
In 2020 Paranoise’s track ‘Jimmy is’ –remastered from the original 1980 cassette-, was released for the first time on CD by Spittle Records, part of their compilation ‘Voyage Through The Deep 80s Underground In Italy’, triggering the desire for D’Agata and Gaudi to reform Paranoise, with the intention of creating new dissonant and disturbing material for the already unsettled “COVID World”!
And here they are, 40 years later Paranoise is back, even more atrocious than before, hitting you straight into the forehead with their cacophonic soundscapes, delivering a brand new 7in vinyl for Skank Bloc Records, containing the tracks ‘Noizu’ and ‘The 2nd Act’.
The sound quality on this support is seriously impressive, while the production is nothing short than outstanding, you can clearly hear the analogue richness in the sound, enhancing the confident musicianship of these two knowledgeable music colossus! It all comes across with a super strong impact, a modern approach to the use of vintage technology resulting in a formula described as “industrial-noise meets shoegaze-punk”!
Differently from their first album-cassette, the recording process for this new release happened remotely, in a virtual cellar electromagnetically connected to them, somewhere in between London and Bologna.
Basslines, synth riffs, crunchy noises, dub effects and more, were sent back and forth across Europe, until both sides were happy enough and eventually crystalized that texture and delivered to us in the shape of these two creations that you are about to hear. Enjoy your listening.