Scritti Politti

Scritti Politti

Line Up: Green Gartside ld voc, Nial Jinks bs, Tom Morley dr, Matthew Kay kbd ===Initially a left-wing-inspired post-punk British rock group, Scritti Politti developed into a more mainstream pop music project in the early to mid 1980s, enjoying significant success in the record charts in the UK and the US === The name Scritti Politti was chosen as a homage to the Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci: The name is generally understood[by whom?] to refer to Gramsci's political writings[citation needed] (although the correct spelling in Italian would have produced "Scritti Politici"). Gartside changed it to 'Scritti Politti' as he thought it sounded more rock and roll, like "Tutti Frutti".

To the raw energy of punk, Scritti Politti added a creative spontaneity and a mock-philosophical intelligence in their lyrics, with scholarly allusions to Marx, Bakunin, Derrida, Deleuze, and Lacan. In early tracks, the punk-like fracturing of language and spikiness of the sound were held together by more lyrical melody than the more austere music of other left-field groups from the post-punk scene, such as Gang of Four, London art-rockers This Heat or the Bristol based The Pop Group.

"Skank Bloc Bologna" picked up airplay on John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show, and the band were signed to Rough Trade under Geoff Travis in 1979, making them labelmates with the other Cardiff avant-garde band, Young Marble Giants.

The band exhibited an explicit do-it-yourself attitude, which manifested itself in their hand-made record sleeves with detailed breakdowns of production costs, including addresses and phone numbers of record pressing plants, and even their own Camden squat address for feedback.

First Session

First Broadcast 13/12/1978

The Humour of Spitalfields, Knowledge and Interest, Doubt Beat

Available: Mooo

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scritti_Politti