STELLE DI BATTAGLIA

Given the innumerable Italian one-shot bands that fell by the wayside during progressive music's halcyon days it was daring of Horus to produce this kind of music during the late seventies. 'Stelle di Battaglia' is actually a compilation of recordings from 1978-79 that consists of a couple of singles and four rather primitive-sounding and previously unreleased recordings. The music is mainly keyboards-led and might be described as bridging the gap between the jazzier and folksier sides of RPI. The naturalistic imagery of most of the songs certainly highlights a pastoral mood although there is in general more of a jazz feel to the music itself.

Like most of the music here 'Respiro' pulsates with electric piano and synthesizer, although for once the guitarwork is to the fore and on this opening track it reminds me a bit of Steve Howe. The light fusion of 'Il Bosco' suffers from some particularly murky production but I reckon these guys would have scrubbed up nicely to sound like Il Volo. Sandwiched between these two jazz-infused tracks is the folksy ballad 'Figlio D'Autunno'.

There's some fine musicianship here that's spoiled, if not quite ruined, by the distorted sound; the title-track features what sound to me like cardboard box drums. The band's history is a bit shadowy but one thing that is clear is that they could turn their collective hand to a fine melody when required, as illuminated by the intimate ballad 'Sottoterra'. It's interesting to speculate on how this collection of songs would have sounded if recorded properly; in spite of the rawness of the recording, closing song 'Danzatore Cosmico' in particular points to a fairly mature music.

Overall this is by no means a bad album but listeners should be aware of the embryonic nature and the inferior sound quality of most of the tracks. Perhaps one for hardcore RPI fans only.