Upcoming Releases
Almost five years after Manifesto (2022), Italy's Hakan return with their fifth album “V”, making it the longest pause between albums since the band was formed. You can hear that pause in the record. A lot happened, both in Hakan’s lives and in the world: post-pandemic society, life, death, near-death experiences, love and curses, tours, and the struggle to keep playing live music when you start getting a bit older but the world outside, especially your own city, still treats you like a child. Underneath the classic nonsense and hilarious-yet-clever lyrics, there’s a more cynical and slightly darker meaning hiding in these 15 new songs.
Trying to pin Hakan down to a single genre is probably missing the point. Their sound lives somewhere in the sweet spot between punk, power pop and garage - all played with just the right amount of recklessness. The songs are short, sharp and lightning-fast, rarely making it past two minutes. Double vocals, infectious choruses, flat guitars, many greetings: everything is here. With this new record, Hakan have stepped out of their comfort zone and tried something a little different with the songwriting. The main theme hasn’t changed dramatically, it’s still poppy punk rock at the end of the day, but there are more solos, more guitar work, and a production that, thanks to Sandro Specchia, digs a little deeper into the soul of the three-piece band. The result sounds fresher, almost like something coming from a brand-new band. And that’s not something you can take for granted on a fifth album.
Some might say Hakan is Bergamo’s - perhaps even Italy’s - number one garage-punk band. Think early Marked Men with a snottier edge, Radioactivity, Kidnappers, and even Mind Spiders. The band has a lot in common with the Texas bands: the same taste for acidic, melancholic melodies, and the unhealthy obsession with playing pop-punk a thousand miles an hour. But comparisons only get you so far. Hakan have their own thing going on: the songs are frantic but never sloppy, catchy without ever becoming clean, and stupid without ever being boring. They don’t miss a beat, and thankfully, they don’t seem particularly interested in slowing down.
Hakan formed in Bergamo in 2014, when guitarist Andrea Carminati, bassist Andrea Facheris and drummer Marco Facheris got together with a shared taste for speed, hooks and brilliantly stupid lyrics. All three contribute vocals and songwriting, giving the band that restless, collective feel that runs through their records. With four albums under their belt, Hakan have taken their particular brand of noise across Europe, as well as to the USA, Canada and Turkey.
