Australia’s Arditi Daggers has a dark name that alludes to the weapons used by the Arditi del Popolo (or The People’s Daring Ones) to murder fascists. Comprised of Chris Cornale and Colin Thompson (Bura Bura), the band was borne out of “friendship and a mutual distaste for the state.” Cornale’s Northern Italian ancestors, risking everything, were supporters of this resistance – thus, the beat of antifascism pounds in the core of this band’s heart.
Their new single “Janitor” pulsates and boils with sinister cold wave synth soundscapes and guttural guitars; invoking a magnetic lo-fi goth sound…the perfect soundtrack for its lyrical material: the crushing forces of late capitalism. We hear elements of The Cure, The Sisters of Mercy, Grauzone, Sextile, Belgrado, and INXS in their general sound, but the atmospheric and political qualities also bring to mind The Damned and a much more gothic Midnight Oil.
The band filmed the video for Janitor in Sydney, Australia, in an abandoned aqueduct and a once abundant river system…one now too toxic for swimming. Using the overgrown, beautifully menacing landscapes and a Super-8 occult-horror oeuvre, The Arditi Daggers artfully illustrate the deprecation and degradation of humanity and nature. It is a distinctly Australian venture, showcasing a unique, fragile homeland that has been ravaged by the worst of humanity in the name of corporate greed and imperialism. In the video, disturbing spirits take us on a journey through the colonised, unceded Gadigal lands, and offered a glimpse of what has been lost and destroyed to man’s folly. And yet, this bleak constraint yields a pathway toward passionate artistic collaboration, and perhaps – a new utopia that honours Mother Earth.
“Within this darkness there is a conjuring of subversive possibilities for creativity, collaboration and community for escaping alienating and destructive societal constraints,” says the band.
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