AREA PIRATA, Italy’s most active independent label, has a catalogue of almost 200 titles ranging from garage to psychedelia to hardcore punk. It also rediscovers Italian bands from the 80’s. Head honchos Tiziano Rimonti and Jacopo Giannetti tell it all to ROBERTO CALABRÒ.

“We started the label in 2003, after being a small independent distribution for a while. We saw ourselves as a part of an alternative community, we loved punk as well as pirate radio stations in the ‘60s, hence the label’s name and logo. Since the beginning we decided to release reissues of old bands and records of new acts too”, says Tiziano Rimonti who runs the label along with his long-time friend Jacopo Giannetti. “The first albums we released were a compilation of hardcore punk bands from Tuscany entitled “Urla dal Gran Ducato”,  a 10-inch EP 1by garage rock’n’roll band Radio Zero and a real nugget, “Land Of Nothing”, the lost album by Italian underground legends Not Moving that was due to be released in 1984 but never was”. 

Since then, Area Pirata have released about 200 titles, and the range of their releases has grown: not only do they put out punk, garage and rock’n’roll but also psychedelia, blues, and soul records. Initially only working with Italian bands, Area Pirata have now embraced international groups. Indeed,  the best-selling titles in their catalogue are the reissues of Californian 80’s garage-punks The Morlocks: “Emerge” and “Submerged Alive” have been re-pressed several times both in CD and vinyl.

In 2012 the label, based in the outskirts of Pisa, worked with English mod act Secret Affair to give their “Soho Dreams” comeback album an Italian release. A few years later, the beloved Aussie-rock classic “Roman Beach Party” by The Celibate Rifles was released in a luxurious gatefold sleeve edition, while last year NYC garage-punks the Outta Place ended up on the label’s roster with their explosive “Prehistoric Sound” compilation.

Looking to the past, Area Pirata has dug through the Italian underground archives to reissue albums (often expanded) by 80’s psychedelic, beat and garage bands like Not Moving, Sick Rose, Four By Art, The Liars, Gli Avvoltoi, Out Of Time, Backwards, Views. “Some of these bands reformed and we are happy to have released their new records”, says Giannetti, referring to act like psychedelic combo No Strange, garage-power pop act The Sick Rose and, more recently, Not Moving (now Not Moving L.T.D.) with their newest impressive “Love Beat” album. “We like to reissue old records and we are honoured to work with such legendary bands, but we are happy to launch new bands as well”, enthuses Tiziano. “Bands like The Trip Takers or The Backdoor Society gained an international audience having debuted with us. More recently we were very satisfied by the good response received by blues artist Elli De Mon, Florence’s glam-rock band Barmudas, and northern soul act The Piaggio Soul Combination. We’re always looking for exciting new bands”.