The southern Italian troupe – let’s call them CGS – offer a lesson in how to turn local music into a global brand, having updated Puglia’s pizzica tradition of song and dance into eclectic, festival-friendly theatre. Mixing originals and age-old songs, this latest album comes loaded with their customary drama, setting individual and collective vocals against handheld tamburello drums (think bodhráns on steroids) and backings of squeezebox, bouzouki, violin and pipes.
Openers Balla Nina and Orfeo alternate rapid-fire male and female vocals (suggesting Italian is the natural language of rap) with massed harmonies that have one foot in pagan folk, the other in church. The production of guitarist Justin Adams (Robert Plant’s lieutenant) adds clever touches of dub and drone to proceedings.
Recorded during lockdown with time as one of its themes, Meridiana has contemplative moments such as the title track and the traditional Ntunucciu, where the mood is wistful and forlorn, set to intricate accordion backings, but on the first half of the album, on numbers such as Stornello Alla Memoria and Ninnarella, thumping percussion lurks, waiting to erupt. Joining forces with New York bhangra band Red Baraat for the self-praising Pizzica Bhangra is a natural, if noisy, fit.
