Italia 90 – Living Human Treasure review

When are radicals not radicals? Well, according to Italia 90, it’s sometimes when they’re in polemical bands. The nicely pseudonymized quartet – Les Miserable (vocals), Unusual Prices (guitars), J Dangerous (drums) and bassist Bobby Portrait – are childhood friends that gravitated to London from the south coast over the last decade and for them authenticity amongst their pseudo peers is in short supply.

Public statements like that need to be backed up with both actions and words however and the quartet’s debut album Living Human Treasure is as uncompromising sonically as it’s effective in taking on blaggers from across the spectrum of 21st century existence. With the group now together for more than half a decade, it’s also a collection of material which spans that period: older tracks were re-recorded as part of a process in which they also blended less obvious influences such as jazz, gothic rock and new wave.

The retro songs justify their inclusion, the scorched post punk of both New Factory and Competition ridiculing the drone like qualities of modern working, whilst The MUMSNET Mambo scats (Very) unexpectedly. It’s hard not to enjoy a little provocative needling though and Living Human Treasure is at it’s most entertaining with Leisure Activities and Tales From Beyond, both diamond-sharp critiques of bands who don’t walk the walk the way they should. Not perfect but distinctive in a very crowded field, this is an album that will have Italia 90’s back when the truths are being called.

You can read a full review here.