Springtime 2002: Demetrio and Filippo, after a few years have past on the scene inside cover and reggae groups, the Four by Art decided their new formation with the purpose to develop and recapture the topics interrupted 20 years earlier.

After some adjustments were done, the new formation becomes steady with the Francesco Biella solo guitar insertion – he already shared with Filippo the experience inside the Teto and Compagni di Merende - in addition with the introduction of Massimo Silva – solo voice and rhythmic guitar - coming from the Fragment Band of new wave area - also author of a recognized CD.

With the start up at the end of January 2003, the Band acquires many and warmth appreciations ended in the August 2003 with the Civitanova Marche Mod show.
After two years of live activity Demetrio leaves the Group, and following some formation changes, the band staff is achieved by the Dario Busa entry at rhythmic guitar and Stefano Cecchi at drums - both of them with various experiences with many different groups.

The band sound, even if keeping a strong bond with the psychedelic garage beat past, became highly stronger thanks to the guitars support that represent the main asset of the compositions. Thru this it has been created an irresistible dynamic impact, able to revive the 60’s great standards proposed by the Group appearance (i.e. ‘You really Got Me’, ‘Stepping Stone’ and ‘Wild Thing’).

In a short time it is foreseen a new material publishing in order to confirm definitively the stage return of this historical band.

 

 

Un’istantanea dal passato remoto: Piacenza, novembre 1984. Fuori, freddo e nebbia. Il bar è lungo e stretto, più in là una stanza con qualche tavolaccio di legno. Sotto, in fondo alla scala, un centinaio di corpi sotto le volte basse della cantina. E’ il Pluto, il nostro Cavern. Aprono i Beat Machine, genovesi, in attesa del gruppo per il quale siamo tutti lì pigiati come sardine, con la voglia di tornare a respirare rock’n’roll dopo gli ultimi anni spesi nel grigiore del post-punk. Sono i Four By Art, da Milano.

Avevo letto del loro singolo d’esordio autoprodotto, My Mind In Four Sights, sulle colonne di Rockerilla. Scrissi subito alla band e lo comprai. Quel pezzetto di vinile fu la classica falla nella diga. Senza esagerare, qualcosa nella mia onesta carriera di fruitore di musica cambiò: da quel momento, e per 3, 4 anni, sposai la causa del nuovo sixties-sound, con una dedizione totale. Erano classificati come mod, i Four By Art, ma il loro suono abbracciava globalmente gli anni sessanta: northern soul, beat, R&B, garage, psichedelia, aria pura. Quella notte al Pluto vennero giù i muri. Ogni dieci minuti occorreva uscire per prendere aria prima di rituffarsi in quella bolgia di sudore e buone vibrazioni. Una festa bellissima.

Oggi, 23 anni dopo quel concerto che celebrava l’inizio di una nuova stagione per la scena indipendente italiana, mi ritrovo a parlare dei Four By Art, e lo faccio con immutato piacere. Dopo My Mind In Four Sights venne la partecipazione alla raccolta-manifesto Eighties Colours e, sempre nell’85, il primo omonimo album su Electric Eye, al quale fece seguito Everybody’s An Artist With Four By Art, sempre per l’etichetta di Claudio Sorge.

I riflettori poi si spostarono su altri suoni, il neo-sixties si estinse naturalmente e i suoi protagonisti furono rimpiazzati da nuovi gruppi che guardavano agli Stooges, non più agli Small Faces. Oggi Area Pirata riapre lo scrigno dei ricordi con un cd antologico che raccoglie tutto ciò che i Four By Art hanno registrato in quell’arco di tempo, tra l’82 e l’86 (il singolo e i due albums, con l’aggiunta di alcuni brani inediti), e chiedendomi di redigere queste note mi da l’opportunità di ringraziare la band per avermi aperto gli occhi, quella notte di 23 anni fa, su qualcosa che stava nascendo e che avrebbe reso la mia vita, se non proprio migliore, perlomeno più divertente. Quei Four By Art suonavano come se dentro il Pluto il mondo si fosse fermato al ’66.

Fuori c’erano Craxi, ‘Drive-In’ e le prime avvisaglie del nefasto rampantismo yuppie per il quale molti ricordano i medi anni ottanta. Nel cuore sotterraneo del Pluto, invece, si celebrava la rinascita del beat. Per chi non c’era, in quella cantina, o per chi ancora doveva nascere, nel novembre dell’84, viene in aiuto questo cd, 25 tracce sospese tra il rimpianto, la nostalgia e la vibrante energia del rock’n’roll dei sixties, quello che nell’84 aveva già vent’anni, che oggi ne ha più di quaranta ma per fortuna sta sempre lì, al centro dei nostri discorsi. Non ve l’ho detto allora ma rimedio adesso: grazie, Four By Art.

LUCA FRAZZI, Rumore

 

 

A shot from the past: Piacenza, November the 1984. It’s foggy and cold outside. A long and cramped bar, beyond a room with some wood pallet.
At the bottom of the stairs, a hundred of people under the hole low roof. It’s Pluto’s, our Cavern. The Beat Machine, from Genoa, are opening the show on the wait for the Group: the Four By Art from Milan. We are all there, packed like sardines, being in the mood to start all over again breathing rock’ n ’roll after the last years spent on the post-punk dullness. I read about the single self-produced debut of the Four by Art – My Mind in Four Sights – on the Rockerilla columns, I wrote immediately to the Band and I bought the disc. That scrap of vinyl was the classic leak in the dam.

Not overdoing, something changed in my honest career of music user: henceforth, for 3-4 years, I embraced the cause of the new sixties-sound with a total devotion. The Four By Art were classified as mod, but their sound was globally stretching over the sixties: northern soul, beat, R&B, garage, psychedelic music, pure air. That night, the Pluto’s walls fell down. Every ten minutes it was necessary to get out taking a breath of air before a new dive in that sweat pit and good vibrations. A fantastic event.

Now, 23 years after that concert celebrating a new season start up of the independent Italian stage, I spoke about the Four By Art with an unchanged pleasure. After My Mind in Four Sights it followed the participation to the manifest-collection Eighties Colours and, still on the 85’s , the first homonymous album on Electric Eye, followed by Everybody’s An Artist With Four By Art, again with the Claudio Sorge trade label. After that the spotlights were addressed to other different sounds, the neo-sixties naturally died down and its protagonists were replaced by the new groups focused to the Stooges, not anymore to the Small Faces. Today Area Pirata opens again the memories casket with an anthological cd memories collecting all the Four By Art recordings of the 82’s and 86’s period (single and two albums with unreleased tracks). Asking me to write these notes, I grabbed the chance to thank the Band for opening my eyes that night of 23 years ago, for a new beginning able to better entertain my life, if not improving.

The Four By Art sounded as the world, inside the Pluto’s, was stopped on the 66’s years. Outside there were Craxi, ‘Drive In’, and the first symptoms of the negative yuppieism of which many people remember the mid years of the eighties. On the contrary in the Pluto’s underground heart, they were celebrating the beat return. For those not present in that cellar, or for the unborn of that November 84’s, it could help this cd: 25 tracks hanging among the regret, the longing and the vibrant energy of the rock’ n ’roll of the sixties also for who was twenty during that 84’s and today is over forty, but fortunately still there as centre of our talks. I forgot to tell you before, but I now make up for it : thanks Four By Art LUCA FRA ZZI, Rumore