Costa Sud [LP]

Banda Maje - Costa Sud [LP]

Five years after their radiant debut UFO Bar, Italian cinematic funksters Banda Maje are back
with Costa Sud to take us deeper into their land of ‘Salifornia’—a Southern province of
sun-drenched coastlines and decaying buildings where dreams of exotic escapism sprout and
bloom.
Once again, behind the eight tracks in the album—and behind the wheel of the fiery red
Alfasud on the cover—is composer and keyboardist Peppe Maiellano. He has meticulously
tailored each piece to his virtuoso partners in crime: a 'family' of exuberant musicians spread
between Salerno and Naples, all bound by deep-rooted ties to the region and a shared belief
in the grit of independent artistry.
The Costa Sud (South Coast) imagined by Banda Maje is a shimmering ribbon of sun-baked
asphalt stretched between the sea and the ancient pine forests of the Gulf of Salerno. It is a
land of enchanting but wounded places, where the grace of Ancient Greek civilization sits in a
restless silence alongside the scars of rampant building and neglect. “But if truth is beauty and
beauty is truth,” Maiellano explains, inverting Keats’s famous line, “with the right eyes, you can
find beauty and poetry even under a layer of moral and material filth."
Conceived and recorded entirely in Southern Italy, the album nevertheless lo(more...)