Paranoid, alone, possessed, vibrant… has this ever been your state of mind on your morning commute to work? Just a human lost in the city, lost in the sea of machines, overwhelmed by fate, facts and the inevitability of those train tracks that someone has already laid out for you.
Named after the subway C line that runs through Roma Est and the Pigneto neighborhood, Metro Crowd are an industrial post-punk quartet that have carved out their sound on massive doses of 9 to 5 paranoia, metropolitan psychosis, corporate cubicles, government jobs and total annihilation. The four members represent an eccentric crosspollination of the florid Roma scene: cartoonist Vic Sinex, Gabor from acid minimal synth duo Holiday Inn, Ludovico T from hardcore chaotic punks Sect Mark, Toni Cutrone from Mai Mai Mai, one of the primary Italian occult psychedelic movers with his label No=Fi Recordings and Dal Verme venue.
Planning:, their first album for Maple Death (following an acclaimed first record on My Own Private Records/Legno Dischi), is a complete outer space Kafkian journey through a post-industrial landscape where mankind is fighting just to keep its head above water, basically to survive. Metro Crowd’s sound is built upon that sense of disgust, repulsion, unease. It’s a world where alien guitars meet factory tribalism, shifty bass patterns fight over circular rhythms and dramatic sloganeering. They inhabit that same oddball cosmos that gave birth to bands like Chrome, Z’EV, the old Subterranean Records catalogue, Foetus, Cabaret Voltaire, Flipper, early EBM tinged Ministry. What really sets them apart is their theatrical deadpan, shall I dare say a Mediterranean tinged New Wave flare and their giddy take on furious eccentric punk that probably comes from the Italian tradition of early 80s where bands like Move and Gaznevada were creating synthetic paths made of fog, lasers and flanger effects.
Are you controlling your trajectory, is the train fully automated or is there a driver steering your life in the wrong direction?
Planning: was recorded, mixed & mastered by Valerio Fisik at Hombre Loco Studios in Roma (Holiday Inn, Giuda, Trans Upper Egypt, Zu, Trouble Vs Glue). Final track L-Fields features Mai Mai Mai on it. LP comes with insert and download code.
https://mapledeathrecords.bandcamp.com/album/planning
