Offlaga Disco Pax
Encyclopedia
Background and discography
The band was formed in Reggio EmiliaReggio Emilia
Reggio Emilia is an affluent city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 170,000 inhabitants and is the main comune of the Province of Reggio Emilia....
in 2003 by Daniele Carretti (guitar, bass guitar) Max Collini (lyrics, vocals) and Enrico Fontanelli (bass guitar, keyboards). They have defined themselves as a collettivo neosensibilista contrario alla democrazia nei sentimenti, roughly "neosensibilist collective against democracy in feelings".
ODP's songs are not sung, but rather recounted by Collini, resembling a spoken word
Spoken word
Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
performance. Lyrics, defined by the band as ideologia a bassa intensità (low intensity ideology) are often related to the Italian years of lead, with recurrent references to the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
and Eurocommunist
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
prominent figures at the time. Their lyrics typically deliver a nostalgic portrait in first person of a past political scenario, the one of Cold War and communism in Italy, which does not exist as such anymore.
Musically, their records have elements of electroclash
Electroclash
Electroclash is a style of music that fuses New Wave and electronic dance music. It emerged in New York and Detroit in the later 1990s, pioneered by acts including I-F and those associated with Gerald Donald, and is associated with acts including Peaches, Adult, and Fischerspooner...
, typically by means of retro analogue synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s. They have been paired to bands formed in the late 1970s and the 1980s such as Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
, Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...
or Cocteau Twins
Cocteau Twins
Cocteau Twins were a Scottish alternative rock band active from 1979 to 1997, known for innovative instrumentation and atmospheric, non-lyrical vocals...
. Their most significant resemblance in attitude is to now defunct Italian band CCCP Fedeli alla linea
CCCP Fedeli alla linea
CCCP Fedeli alla Linea were an Italian band formed in 1982 in Berlin by vocalist Giovanni Lindo Ferretti and guitarist Massimo Zamboni. The band's style was self-defined by the members themselves as “Musica Melodica Emiliana—Punk Filosovietico” Their name, CCCP, stems from the cyrillic script for...
.
Their debut album Socialismo Tascabile (Prove Tecniche di Trasmissione)
Socialismo Tascabile (Prove Tecniche di Trasmissione)
Socialismo Tascabile is the debut album by Italian indie/electronica band Offlaga Disco Pax. It was released in 2005 and received mostly positive reviews.-Track listing:...
was released in 2005. Its follow-up, Bachelite
Bachelite
Bachelite is the second album released by the Italian indie/electronica band Offlaga Disco Pax. Recorded between May and October 2007 and mastered in October in New York, the album was published by Santeria Records on February 8, 2008...
, was released on February 8, 2008.