Bobby Is Dead is a journey, a strange kind of blasphemous odyssey. Bobby Is Dead is the second heavy pop album by the Italian band God Of The Basement, out on CD and on all digital platforms on June 25, 2021 for the independent label Stock-a Production, managed by an international collective active between Europe and South America.
God Of The Basement, often abbreviated with the acronym GOTB, is a project born exactly in a basement in the East End of London from the minds of Tommaso Tiranno (vocals) and Enrico Giannini (guitar and sampling), then formed in the Tuscan suburbs thanks to the arrival of Rebecca Lena (bass and visual art) and Alessio Giusti (drums).
Their explosive mix of sound and image moves between grooves and old school samples, catchy melodies and soul, heavy riff and hip hop deviations. All of this is fused together with an aesthetic that combines surreal visions and pop culture, diving in urban atmospheres that are as contemporary as retro-futuristic.
Bobby Is Dead is a multiform record. It is a record by a modern rock band, structured in an anti-classical way, alternating radio friendly moments and narrative interludes, featurings and remixes. It is no coincidence that the band points to eclectic artists devoted to contamination as sources of inspiration, from Talking Heads to Gorillaz, from TV On The Radio to St. Vincent. In addition to universal sci-fi landmarks: Back to the Future, the animated series Rick and Morty, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy…
Bobby Is Dead tells the story of two mysterious characters. We don’t know where they come from. We saw them for the first time wandering in a desert, dragging the corpse of Bobby Bones, to whom was dedicated the song of the same title contained in the eponymous debut album by God Of The Basement, released in 2018.
The first single Six Six Cigarettes rolls to the rhythm of a crooked pop, with unprejudiced disco falsetto, dissonant strings and soul music samples. “When with a glass more than necessary you feel the best version of yourself, you talk too much and do unthinkable things, only to drown in shame between after-effects and regrets of the next day“. The lyrics reveal also an irreverent irony, including self-quotes that draw a dividing line in the band’s path. The video for Six Six Cigarettes, directed by Rebecca Lena with photography by Eugen Bonta, continues the story of Bobby Bones: the two silver characters mentioned above, after burying Bobby, drive a car and find themselves catapulted into a nocturnal world, made of artificial lights and fog. A strange curse, perhaps connected to Bobby who continues to sing in his grave, takes over their bodies, which shake, suffer and dance without any meaning. Probably in a remote place another silver being, a female one, is making fun of them among cassette tapes, needles and some voodoo dolls.
The second single Never Made It To Hollywood is a tribal march to the red carpet. Hollywood is the highest expression of self-affirmation at all costs, a symbol of appearance and fiction. In this immediate song, a kind of Loser from the new millennium, is cited as an antithesis to the real inclination of the band. The song has a synthesizer in evidence and a rhythm that refers to the golden age of Hollywood, also present in the almost “circus-sound” of the saxophones. The refrains invite listeners to join the band in an unfortunate and penetrating sing along, repeatable until exhaustion.
The tracklist of Bobby Is Dead unveils various other surprises, from the robotic rock of Yeah Yeah Yell to the danceable gait of Honestly, from the instrumentals NDRTKN #1 and NDRTKN #2 – with the collaboration of producer 10G – to the nu-R&B vocal contribution of X and Her in Remix Six Cigarettes. It continues with the hallucinated 80’s science fiction mood of Seven Eight Night, to finally leave room for two other guests: Gabriel Stanza of Dust & The Dukes in the shamanic hymn of redemption The Haunted and maestro Rocco Brunori in the epic New Orleans-style jazzy funeral that’s the instrumental title-track Bobby Is Dead.
Bobby Is Dead was elaborated through two distinct working methods: a first more canonical phase, in the rehearsal room, was followed by a second one due to the recent lockdown and carried out remotely through video calls and file exchange. The album was finally recorded at the Blue Moon Recording Studio in Florence by Samuele Cangi and Tommaso Giuliani, as well as produced by the band with Cangi. Bobby is dead, long live Bobby!
