As part of a thriving Australian indie rock scene in the 2010s that favored hooky, noisy guitar pop, Primo’s impressive pedigrees as members of some of the country’s best bands like the Shifters and TERRY, and their enthusiastic approach, helped them stand out from the crowd on 2018’s debut album Amici and the 2020 follow-up Sogni.
The Melbourne band started in 2016 as an ongoing weekly collaboration between Xanthe Waite, who plays in TERRY and Mick Harvey’s band, Violetta DelConte-Race of the Shifters, and filmmaker Suzanne Walker. The trio put their primitive skills to use, working on simple post-punk songs influenced by early Flying Nun bands like the Clean and getting their scrappy two-guitars-drums-group-vocals sound together. They released a seven-song cassette titled Primo Cassetto in April of that year, and in early 2017 appeared on a split single with L.A. Mood. They also began playing shows and continued to record when not busy with their other bands. With Al Monfort (of TERRY and Dick Diver) helping out in the producer’s role, the band laid down tracks throughout 2017. The resulting album, Amici, was released by Upset the Rhythm in mid-2018, just as the band (with new addition Amy Hill from TERRY on bass) hit the road for a European tour. The quartet started writing new songs at rehearsals, then tested them at live shows before putting them on tape with Montfort at the helm once again. The songs were recorded as simply as those on the first record, and the resulting album, 2020’s Sogni, shared a very similar stripped-down and catchy sound. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi
