KING'S JOURNEY

A charming fable about a King with a problem

King's Journey was another nice find, an ambitious and charming combination of 90s neo-prog with 70s symphonic conceptual fantasy rock. It is the story of a worried King, who frets about the famine of prosperity and spirit that his subjects are going through. He went for long walks trying to figure out the solution to the problem and finally had a revelation that a great adventure must be undertaken to solve things. This is the story of his magical journey.

"The Kingdom" is a short keyboard instrumental to wet the appetite. "The Start" begins perfectly with a melancholic tin whistle and acoustic guitar. The vocals on the album are nicely done and in English with a pleasant Italian accent. The story of our King begins as the tempo picks up into a neo-proggish gallop with near constant lead guitar, bass and drums. About half way through comes the first of many wonderful electric guitar solos, displaying good chops and a Fender sound. "Sitting on the Edge" is a soft brooding piece where the keyboards and bass create the imagery of the river flowing by, where our King is resting on one of his walks. There is a lovely flute solo and an up-tempo section at the end that is very early Marillion. "The King doesn't Sleep" features violin and acoustic before the vocal turns into first person narrative for periods. The song picks up briskly and the violin rocks out with band. "Lady of the Lake" is a mostly mellow acoustic driven track whose purpose is the storytelling. Nice though. "The Fool's House" is a hard and heavy neo-prog rocker with raucous, eclectic jamming. Nice tempo shifts and differing passages make this one of the liveliest tracks. The song closes with a saxophone solo. "The Maze" is next on the CD although this song and "Fool's House" are reversed in order in the CD booklet which is an unfortunate printing mistake. The song is a mid-tempo rocker with plenty of lead guitar squealing away. "Alchemic" begins eerily with some sinister trippy vocals and features some trumpet which is a nice change-up from the prominent guitars and keys so heavily featured. "The White Winged Deer" is a lovely instrumental combining piano and saxophone and is tragically too short at less than 2 minutes. "Winter you've Finally Come" begins with the lovely piano melody and quiet hopeful vocals. Tenderly picked acoustics perfectly compliment the lyrics of renewal and redemption. "The End" is our 4-part epic closer clocking in at over 13 minutes long. It begins perfectly with stately solo piano for the first minute before the vocals begin. The next part features a beautiful acoustic guitar and flute interlude that brings to mind the most esoteric 70s fantasy prog classics. They're throwing in everything but the kitchen sink here and it sounds like an ode to the Genesis style epic. There are some rocking parts alternating with mellower ones just drifting from one passage to the next. The later part of the track features a "Solsbury Hill" sound and even the appearance of a bagpipe dueling with our synths. Unfortunately the ending is a fade-out which is something of a letdown.

Musea has done another fine job with our booklet, featuring the complete story of the King printed first. Then we have our lyrics printed with delightful little drawings for each song, and good credits telling you which instruments are played by whom on each song.

Recommended for 80/90s neo-prog fans but also fans of 70s fantasy concept albums. The production isn't the best as it was likely a low budget affair but it's certainly passable and if the music sounds interesting to you I wouldn't let this stop you. 3.5 stars.

Second effort by this discrete band named King's journey released in 1992 by same Musea records having a real strong cover art showing exactly what is going one on the album. I like how this band progresse to this second release, a little if not spectacular more choesive and solid album, Fancyfluid did have from the beggining a complex and sophisticated music with delicate touches of acoustic guitar, holding true the 70's Italian symphonic prog tradition. The all 3 albums don't have a masterpiece status or something excellent, but is very fair , sincere and honest music, very well done, professional and with a lot of talent. This time the influences of Marillion are left aside, but this time they are more towards Genesis in structure, but aswell from italian scene from the golden era. Nice guitar and specialy the keybords attract my attention, are very snooth well incorporated in the structure of the piece. Many are bothered by the voice of Fabrizio Goria, who has a specific italian accent, maybe, I'm not bothered by his voice, he fits very well in this context. I alsoo like this band and album because they incorporated in their music some violin, flute and saxophone passages, that gives a great atmosphere to the album and creats a quite great and unique aproach. Sitting on the edge or the river or the last track The End shows how great potential had this band but for some resons they never made it. 3 stars again, a good album for sure.

For the recordings of a second album the official core of Fancyfluid was reduced to the Goria/Bruni/Annone trio with Max Gotta and Roberto Pasquino leaving the group, the later went on to join Pictures.The whole process was carried out with Pietro Ratto of Aton's on electric guitars and Gianfabio Cappello on drums.Several guests appear in the album, entitled ''King's journey'', with the most significant ones being Banco del Mutuo Soccorso's Rodolfo Maltese on guitar and Calliope's Rinaldo Doro on a few folk-oriented instruments.The recordings took place at the Transeuropa Studio in Torino between February and May 1992 (except Maltese's parts, which were recorded in Rome) and the album was released the same year on Musea, this time though only in CD format.

This work shows a good development over the indifferent debut of the group, at least considering the composing level, because some of the weak points of Fancyfluid's music are still present, like the thin keyboards or the plastic sound of the flutes.Stylistically they are very close to compatriots LEVIATHAN and EDITH, playing a smooth Neo Prog with some 70's echoes and offering evident Folk colors quite frequently, recalling ERIS PLUVIA.The combination is well-worked by the group, creating dreamy and ethereal arrangements, often delivered in the same track, either through acoustic lines with flutes supporting or over a more symphonic-driven sound with the keyboards in evidence.The man behind the flute work, Marco Giaccaria, is also responsible for the violin textures appearing throughout, making the status of the group even more Folk-oriented.However the bedrock of Fancyfluid's music is still a GENESIS-inspired light Symphonic Rock with electroacoustic changes and dramatic, emotional vocals in English (which tend to be quite irritating because of the heavy Italian accent), showered with deep atmospheres, but generally lacking the composing depth or instrumental diversity of the masters.MARILLION are still an omnipresent influence, especially in the more keyboard-oriented tracks, and the group fails to escape from the generic rules set by the monster bands of the past.Overall the music is not bad at all, but it lacks the power and richness of more talented acts.The peak of Fancyfluid comes at the more atmospheric or melodic passages, but the questionable quality of the flat keyboards, the accented voices and the mediocre production are preventing factors from fully enjoying the album.Honorable mention to ''Alchemic'', which eventually shows the band's full potential: Dramatic keyboards, vocals and electric guitars, supported by a nice ending trumpet solo by Maltese.

A step forward compared to ''Weak waving'', but still something is missing from this release to be considered strongly recommended.Too mellow music, suffering from an 80's-styled instrumental armour.Nevertheless I can see some Neo Prog fans enjoying some of the contained material, thus ''King's Journey'' comes recommended to this circle of Prog followers...2.5 stars.