We Speak Music
Clandestina Arrives With ‘Politically Erect’
Following years of travelling the world to perform, nomadic Swedish rapper Clandestina seems qualified to challenge it. This shows on her first EP ‘Politically Erect’ – a collection of incensed, politically charged songs that come from learning the issues we think are personal are truly universal.
Opener ‘Don’t Quit’ is a call for change, driven by a pop-leaning trap rhythm underscored by sparse piano beats. It is a rallying cry that evokes Logic’s commitment to social righteousness. While sincerely angry, it never lands as performative, but closer to Self Esteem’s unabashed honesty and subversion of pop standards. Despite intense subject matter, the closing line ‘The revolution can’t be without you/so don’t quit’ feels like a manifesto: a fitting way to start an EP unafraid to call out injustice in any form.
‘Man-Made’ continues her anger’s global scope, with trap beats meeting a twinkling piano line. There is a surprising degree of vulnerability in its lyrics exploring sexuality and hook-up culture that removes any preachiness and instead creates a personal connection. It feels clear this is personal catharsis for Clandestina, not empty catchphrasing.
While she has an evident ear for maximal bombast in hard-hitting tracks, Clandestina is determined to evade genres. Following cuts ‘Hymns to a child I love’ and ‘Soldiers’ dispense with any beats, allowing her lyricism and listener time to breathe. ‘Hymn to a child I love’ is fully a cappella, a moment of heartbreak that shows behind the beats she is genuinely affected by what is happening around her. ‘Soldiers’ follows the same format yet its production emphasises her rhythmic vocal as an announcement: it sounds like her voice is coming out of loudspeakers, hijacking militaristic speakers to plead for peace and understanding instead of violence.
‘Bigger Than Paris’ punches straight through the reprieve with pounding yet dreamy beats echoing Juice Wrld’s production choices. The sensitivity is gone and gives way for her anger to return in a despairing, furious song about the current climate crisis. In name-dropping natural disasters from every corner of the world, Clandestina seeks universality; showing us we’re in this together despite the division the world wants us to feel.
Mercilessly, closer ‘Landet Istid’ allows a slight moment of fun. It pairs salsa-infused dance with Kendrick Lamar-style chopped-and-flipped piano to give a wonky global groove. Despite the slight tonal jump from fury to something a lot lighter, Clandestina ends on something eminently human to emphasise joy; a reminder to dance even when things seem hopeless.
Across six tracks, Clandestina effortlessly melds fury, spoken-word, dance and hip-hop into a statement – one of hope and unity in the face of a system that profits from our division. We should all remain ‘Politically Erect.’
Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.
‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.
The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.
The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:
Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.”
About the track, Michele says, “I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.
We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.”
The album and full-length film will be released on the 5th of June on Monotreme Records.
Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.
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