LIVE

Without a question, LOCANDA DELLE FATE were one of Italy's richest sounding progressive rock bands of all time. Apparently this recording which has been released by Mellow Records was taken originally from a radio broadcast during their "Phonogram... Mania" tour. Sound reproduction is not pure digital and does show its age a bit, but regardless this is just simply a magical recording. Featured here are many of the tracks from their stellar debut album "Forse Le Lucciole Non Si Amani Piu" and one unreleased track. If you are a big fan than this recording is essential.

For the fans of their great album "Forse Le Lucciole Non Si Amano Più", there is absolutely no risk with this live album. They should be transported to the same wonderful moments. At least when reading the track list.

The studio album was perfect : sound, arrangements were top notch. Even if this live recording is thirty years old, the sound is rather average (to poor, almost boot quality) which is a pain for the type of music "Locanda" is displaying.

The other concern is to know whether or not it is relevant to release a live album when a band has only one studio album behind him. I was incredibly in love with their debuts but this is a carbon copy (except "La Giostra" which was unreleased) . The audience is polite, the band as well (grazie, grazie...). At this time of their career, they could of course hardly know that they would only release one studio album (forget about their 1999 joke).

The sound quality is weak during one of their greatest number : "Forse Le Luciole ...". Emotions are still the same of course, but the studio version is far much more superior. It is probably the song which has lost the most of its beauty. The same is valid during the unreleased song :"La Giostra". Difficult to judge the quality of this track. What a shame !

Three stars.

8.5/10 Great

Here is a fantastic, basically flawless performance of the wonderful album "Forse le lucciole...". The songs here are all mind blowing and the musicianship is spot on. I would give this a perfect 10, but that big 1.5 comes off because of the sound quality. The quality of this recording is really sub par, and the performances are just so good it is really a shame. For fans, though, this is still a must have album and is really a gift considering "Forse..." is their only real studio recording! Leonardo is singing the songs with even more passion than on the studio, this is the best part!

If ever you wish to understand why there is a sonic "crusade" against the use of digital noise reduction by many, this release is a fine example.

Even one of the finest reissue labels (Mellow) got burned by some engineer with the misuse of said technique, and the results are disastrous. Nice soundboard audio is simply ruined with no-noise here, and what I suspect were some bright, treble heavy choices on EQ are made to liven this up. But the sound of no-noise gating in and out is everywhere. It pulls at the vocals, and soft piano sections are so overcooked with it that you can sometimes hear the stuff ringing. The music often sounds like it is trapped under water, trying to grasp some air.

Perhaps not perfect recordings in the first place, but given the scarcity of live LDF, it would be wonderful to hear these get a proper release today.

The performances are excellent and it's essential for any devoted fan. However, I think the poor mastering will cause you to reach for this one only very rarely.