Chrisma: We R. (1979)

Onward goes Christina and Maurizio’s story. In 1979, Chrisma were dead tired of all the recriminations going back home in Italy. Their last performances were as I described in my previous post, simply full of antagonism towards their audience and the industry itself. For once, they needed to regroup and refine their plan of attack. They were threatening to internally combust from all this newfound pressure. How did they adapt and survive? Well, rather than strictly focus on the Italian market, now they chose to branch out exponentially by aiming towards the English market. The first course of action was to establish a home base in London, away from Italian paparazzis. Freed from their peering eyes, they started to record Hibernation the final album they would record with Nikolas at Vangelis’ Nemo Studios.

Hibernation first and foremost refines their aesthetic and sound to a pristine level. Aesthetically, they knew they couldn’t run away from their Italian image. This first video gives you a glimpse of this turn inwards. They were now rejecting nearly every bit of their quasi-punk look for something that looked devilish sophisticated, like Armani and Ermenegildo Zegna on a coke binge or better yet For Your Pleasure come to life. Likewise, they were fully embracing the idea of having more elaborate songs that could invoke more adult situations and feelings. All the while, taking time to mold an image that would be distinctly theirs.

The cabaret punk style was now a thing of the past, this was the time for them to be electronic romantics, not quite New Romantic or Goth (since both scenes didn’t exist then) but something that portrayed their brand of sexuality in a more abstract way, somewhat ahead of its time. Their sound and vocals became even more electronic, everything, even violins, were now treated as synthetic objects to buff into one Chrome-like sound. All of this, is what makes this video for “We R.” quite interesting.

Christina once again, now in TV color, looks as striking as ever but in a different way. Wearing a pocketed conference dress with strappy heels ensemble, which normally at this time was used to denote business attire, it now gets the alta moda treatment by being forced into a new style by Christina’s insanely modern pulled back hair and look. This new fashion/imagery is as important to the sound because it draws contrast to the genuinely adversarial outfit Maurizio is wearing.

Maurizio in a fitted suit with touches of punk accessorizing (a direct precursor to David Bowie’s yuppie lampooning image as seen here). Its those dreadful, mirror sunglasses and coiffed hair which serve to be the most antagonizing items in the whole video. On purpose, they evoke/foretell the upcoming 1980s me decade. For a video given to one of the earliest music video programs ever, Italy’s Sereno Variabile, it was more of a tool to foreshadow music and imagery that was yet to come.

“We R.” itself, even without the imagery, is just as visionary. This song is a slice of GGG-pop, updating Lou Reed’s sounds of the sly-side for a new generation that, like Christina and Maurizio, were now openly giving and receiving a different kind of fun. For their Italian audience, well, this was just one more tease before they could get Chrisma’s true release, more of that tomorrow…

//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TkxQKhfYJag?rel=0

Listen to We R. through Grooveshark here.