Composed from notes made on a mobile phone while in the grip of a species of long Covid and a brutal high European Summer, Malagrotta is the new album from songwriter Glenn Richards and band Augie March.

The songs of Malagrotta ~ a nickname given to Rome’s great burning rubbish dump, loosely translating as ‘bad cave’ ~ chart this infernal tour, walking in the sandals of long dead kings, mad alcoholic refugees, successful anarchist bankers, failed revolutionary jesters, chastened muses, hybridised mythic wild men, seasonally sad office-bound river dwellers, and pagan priests of alternate antiquities, among many other characters.

It is another work of strange imagination and unique perspective on the human condition from the much admired Australian band that sails on whatever the weather, or the budget.

Malagrotta is available to order on Compact Disc and Vinyl LP from our shop, and by download from Bandcamp (with bonus track 'Mules').

Tracklisting:
1. O Desejado
2. German Beer
3. Hill of Muses
4. Malagrotta
5. A Walk Along the Tiber
6. Horn of Plenty
7. Irrational Anthem
8. All Along the Isar
9. Napoleon is Colour Blind
10. Every Song a Miracle
11. This
12. This Ought to Do It

Released: October 4, 2024

Below is a sample of three tracks from Malagrotta.

All tracks can be played via our YouTube channel, with lyrics here.

Streaming

We’ve had the odd question about when the new album might end up on streaming services. The short answer is eventually. We understand the convenience of internet access to the album and as such the necessary evil of it can’t be put off forever. But in making the album available only to Bandcamp and our store in download and physical formats we were hoping to encourage a more traditional exchange between ourselves and you the audience. Our productions are large and take place over many months of writing, pre production, travel, studio and post. They can’t be produced rapidly on a laptop or an ipad. We know our audience appreciates that and the chance to support us in any way, but especially by giving the work itself a transaction value. We aren’t getting rich, at best we’ll have some starter funds for the next project. But we are feeling a hell of a lot better about the launch and the response than we have in years because it wasn’t just dropped into the void of streaming - and by the way we read all of the messages, thank you for heartfelt and confidence restoring words. Our advice in the meantime is to simply have the album in your device’s memory, or carry some music on a usb stick, old school. We appreciate your patience and indulgence with this experiment in release strategy, it has made us all the more appreciative of a unique and wonderful group of Augie people. - AM HQ