FOLLIA

An Italian group from San Giorgio a Cremano near Napoli, Fabio Celi e Gli Infermieri were led by keyboardist Fabio Celi, who's real name was Antonio Cavallaro, with a supporting crew of four more musicians, Ciro Ciscognetti on additional keyboards, Luigi Coppa on guitar/harmonica, Rino Fiorentino on bass and Roberto Ciscognetti on drums.In 1968 they released a single as Fabio Celi e I Pop for the unknown Gilbert label and in 1969 they recorded their only album ''Follia'' for the label linked to the Studio 7 in Napoli.For questionable reasons the album was only released four years later, propably because it was banned for containing offensive lyrics.

While having a very clean production and tricky sound considering the time of recording, ''Follia'' is much a period product with dominant Psych and Pop influences, containining lots of organ parts and some good guitar plays, showered by omnipresent Italian vocals and a playful rhythm section.The style rarely moves away from the standard values of late-60's music, the melodic organ themes, the poppy choruses, the light guitar plays and the rather indifferent drumming are the basic characteristics of this release, although some tracks contain some more piano and harsichord passages.Moreover the typical addition of a couple of ballads was not prevented, on the other hand Fabio Celi and his team did make a decent attempt on somewhat avoiding the sweet themes of 60's music and offer a more dramatic touch in their music, both from an instrumental and vocal point of view.The guitar work is really good with some great ideas and the organs combined with the piano lines are at least satisfying, especially when the vocals become a bit more serious.Still there are lot of dull choirs and childish, syrupy melodies to be found, you have a feeling this act could have been trully nice later, similar to HUNKA MUNKA, GLI ALLUMINOGENI and the likes, but the recording period left not much room for deep experimentation.

Reputedly the band was an impressive live monster with some great shows and in 1971 Celli release a solo single with guitarist Coppa being replaced by Silvio Feo.After ''Follia'' was released the band hit the road again and even received some national exposure through TV programs, but never recovered.In 1975 Ciro Ciscognetti joined Napoli Centrale, before becoming a piano bar player, same as with Celli, Roberto Ciscognetti has played since 1980 with Popularia, Luigi Coppa left the music industry to work as an employee, while Fiorentino unfortunately passed away, following a heart attack.

Vocal/organ-based Psych/Prog/Pop, standard stuff of the Italian scene, with decent melodies, some good twists, some nice guitar parts, but poor progressive extensions.Recommended for fans of Proto-Prog and melodic Psych Rock...2.5 stars.