1978 - GLI DEI SE NE VANNO, GLI ARRABBIATI RESTANO!

(The exact title is "1978: Gli dei se ne vanno...", named after the 10th anniversary of 1968).This is maybe my favourite one by Area and the last with Stratos, who died in the Usa in 1979. It's impossible to recognise from his outstanding vocals that he was illed. This is their most accessible album and it shows that the group could enter the '80 developing their sound, yet with their uncompromising inventivness still intact. "Il bandito del deserto" ("The desert outlaw") is a fantastic opener, based on the poetry of an ancient arab nomad. "Return from Workuta" shows how magic Stratos could be with his experiments on voice (Workuta was a Soviet gulag, and Area, whose members were all communist militants, showed almost desperately how the dream became a nightmare). "Guardati dal mese vicino all'aprile" means "Beware from the month close to april": it's an italian proverb, and the month close to april is march, impredictable and dangerous for the peasants with its rain storms: beware fellow workers, sayed Area, from the memories of 1968 riots: that year is gone forever, and we have to begin again from the start... Little they knew that this would become their swan song, and that it also marked the end of a turbulent age, that in Italy was full of hope but also of political violence. The '80 will be the years of plastic sounds and the very memory of Area and of all the movement of prog rock will be erased..