Setting Tina is the new single by KICK, out today July 5th, 2021 via Anomic Records (Germany), Dischi Sotterranei (Italy) and Sour Grapes (United Kingdom). Like the full new album coming next fall, the song was produced with Marco Fasolo (Jennifer Gentle, I Hate My Village) and features moreover Scott Reeder on bass, longtime member of Kyuss and currently of Fireball Ministry.
Very active also live, both in Italy and abroad, KICK are Chiara Amalia Bernardini (vocals, bass) and Nicola Mora (guitars, electric piano, synths, samplers). Their sound combines rough elements and others more dreamy in a sound that could ideally be defined “sweet noise”, a style on their own melting the noise with the softness of the atmosphere, without any limits of genre. The backgound of the duo from Brescia ranges from the hypnosis of trip hop to the New York no-wave, up to stoner and desert rock.
Setting Tina introduces a natural change of direction compared to what was previously released by the Italian band (the debut album Mothers of 2016 and the EP Post-Truth of 2018): the sound become less electronic and at the same time more analogue, minimal and heavy.
Marked by a compelling psych-r’n’r groove, Setting Tina reveals also a social theme because it’s a peculiar interpretation of the language of populist propaganda, which aims at people’s anger and frustration to manipulate and “set” them as if were machines to be exploited. The name Tina was inspired by the famous Thatcherian slogan “There is no alternative”, with which the former British prime minister declared neo-liberalism as the only possible model of life. Times have changed, but the sense of inevitability unfortunately is still here: we feel victims and mere tools of a sick system that is leading us to collapse.
The videoclip of Setting Tina, premiered on Post-Punk on line and directed by Marco Armando Alliegro using mainly found footage, reinforces what is suggested by the lyrics of the song, that is the restlessness of belonging to the machine of capitalism and the need for a rapprochement with the simplicity of nature. According to the director: “The clip offers different keys of interpretation, such as the relationship between civilized life and wild life which start from the same basic needs but in very different ways: in the first one there is a cruelty that acts on a sneaky and mocking level, while in the second one it acts in a bloody way but perhaps also in a more respectful way towards the others and the environment“.
No-Wave Duo Kick Sends Nationalist Propaganda to the Curb with “Setting Tina”
