NUOVA IDEA

Among the many bands in a flourishing scene like that of the Italian progressive of the 70s, Nuova Idea were certainly among the most underrated artists of their time. They have released only three albums, of which, in my opinion the last album called "Clowns" from 1973 is definitely the best and shows all the strength of this band. Once they reached their artistic peak, the band unfortunately disbanded.

"Clowns" is a complex and articulated record, well played and original. Sound is dominated by synthesizers and electric guitar, but clavinet, e-piano, piano and a Moog are also used. Vocals are unique, delicate and rough at the same time.

The band delivers intense progressive ride with complex symphonic and organ-heavy hard rock basis. Title track is the climax of the album, but all of the pieces are at a consistently high level.

(It's odd that the band supposedly didn't even know it was released until they'd seen it in a store (!)

Ok, maybe I am turning in to an Italian proto prog guy. Because my thoughts published previously for example on Delirium posit the idea that the original band really got it right-and when drastic changes happened, the spirit of the band somehow dissipated-- however prog the band vectored. Jesahel? Part of Italian culture revolved around this tune for a while in '72 as the 1971 early prog wave (Le Orme-Collage and New Trolls-Concerto Grosso per i New Trolls being the best examples) plowed psych and beat bands into the furrows like last years harvest. The early stuff by these bands got it right, the mission that many of these early Italian bands had been on-to reinvent popular music in a sea change for the pop world was concentrated very intensely in many bands debut work. (for convenience sake, Concerto Grosso and Collage get lumped into 'debut album' group). Many groups grew more complex and intricate as they developed but somehow shed a layer of their specialness as a consequence. This album contains the essential essence of Nuova Idea, and in a way, is perhaps their definitive release.

Part of this is due to their guitarist, Marco Zoccheddu. I'd initially discovered this guy in his next project, Osage Tribe, and was seriously impressed with his wild abandon attack on his guitar. Kind of Hendrix (not as overt as the Garybaldi guy), kind of early Clapton, definitely original, Marco created a masterpiece in the Osage album. I suspected that he would be a bit more subdued in his original big label prog band, and it is true, less pure guitar meltdown is on display. But something more interesting is going on here, a full band approach.

(note I followed him further into his next band Duello Madre, a jazz rock affair, and they don't create, well...a masterpiece. Highly disappointing denouement for one of my favorite Italian guitarists.)

Come, Come, Come is an amazing song. Some friends said 'it has the spirit of Delirium's Jesahel, kind of spontaneous melodies and planned harmonics that create some magic' It is definitely catchy, memorable magic. Several sections cleave and heal rifts in reality/song arrangement to fuse wide ranging Deep Purple circa their best prog 1970-71 arrangements with some Uriah Heep's better moments with an Italian twist. (Some might notice that the drum and vocal improv near the end of the side long song are similar in arrangement to the epic drum solo on the 1976 Yes live album Yesshows during the song Ritual. Likely that Moraz in Switzerland had his finger on the pulse of some obscure Italian rock than his Brit bandmates glomming this, and 'put it in the library' til it was needed). In final retrospect, it is clear this is one of the more important early Italian prog songs-this is somewhat akin to their Space Truckin (even though it predates that opus), in a more commercial clothing.

ELP also dips into the mix near the end-remember, this is 1971: ELP had Tarkus out, Crimson had their first two statements, Yes had the Yes Album, Aqualung was just out....Nuova Idea were on top of their international game early. One reason might be their two side projects, Underground Set and Psycheground Group-three albums from 1970 and 1971 that were instrumental albums with no information on members that were released in the UK and most of Europe in the post psych wave. Both lps are extremely rare in original release, and many do not know that both of these bands are Nuova Idea acting under contractual obligation. (many Italian bands would dep into other fake 'created by the label' ghost group bands designed to generate album sales as a different band.) This is a phenomenon not unknown in the UK, but really was pushed to the hilt in Italia. This also probably explains why they were surprised when their album under their own name came out. (an Ariston promo lp with Nuova Idea, i Top Four and Stormy Six was the first release of Come Come Come, so they had some confusing irons in the fire) <.p>

Side two is a mix of their original singles with one new song, and although a bit poppier, they are infused with the spirit of early Italian prog: like a slug of aqua vitae, will bring you out of cerebral clouds that sometimes...do...not...rock... into a range of bands that can pull your skullcap off and rewire you. To be fair, this album will only rewire you lightly, but it will be important to the next steps.

This album is essential to any early RPI collection, especially if one seeks any 1970-1971 early Italian bands that ended up defining a genre.

Some Colosseum and Deep Purple pre 1971 are good reference points.

four stars for RPI fans, 2.75 for prog fans.

The entire first side of the album is comprised of a single twenty minute piece. It's a dynamic extended psychedelic composition with endless lengthy and dramatic instrumental runs mixed with winning vocal passages over a range of tempos. There's so much energetic bluster, yet more thoughtful and calmer acoustic moments as well. It's built around hard driving acid rock attacks driven by searing electric guitar runs, melodic murmuring bass and aggressive upfront Hammond organ in the style of the early proto- prog bands. There's even space for some jazzy diversions and fleeting moments of classical bombast. Especially pleasing to the ear is the dreamy mellow passage that starts at around the six minute mark, a lovely drifting hallucinogenic chill-out full of sighing harmonies to bring plenty of feel-good vibes. It's quickly followed by deranged drum soloing rising up behind droning panning electronics, then some nimble finger strolling jazzy breaks before a raucous high-energy thrashing finale. Very tasty stuff!

The B-side side consists of four shorter pieces, yet they're no less interesting. `Realta' proves that even what initially starts as a ballad is quite schizophrenic and likely to dart off in all sorts of directions! It alternates between soothing acoustic guitar and romantic drowsy harmonies with huffing dirty flute (the first signs of proper RPI beginning to emerge in the band) and relentless electric guitar snarl. A nice bluesy groove strolls through infectious pop/rocker. 'La Mia Scelta', and `None Dire Niente' is an uplifting slice of dream- pop with warm group vocals and strident acoustic guitar over a sprinkling of Hammond organ ripples, and a more up-tempo break in the middle with relentless skittering drumming hints at their emerging progressive tendencies. `Dolce Amore' is a gutsy rocker with roaring acid rock electric guitar eruptions, rough Hammond organ violations, rattling drumming and a wailing, almost distorted `la la la' chorus.

Comparable to what bands like Osanna and the New Trolls were doing at the same time, `In the Beginning' is wild, rough around the edges and a little directionless, but it's still a glorious mess of ideas and styles. Nuova Idea had yet to deliver grander and more polished progressive rock, but this is colourful psychedelic music from a band still finding their feet yet bursting with confidence and imagination. `Clowns' and `Mr E Jones' may be their defining moments, but there's still plenty of inventive psychedelic instrumentation, hazy rock atmospheres and cool tunes on `In The Beginning.'

Three stars.

With the addition of Belloni Nuova Idea's sound shifted towards heavier and more Classic Prog orientations, as proposed in the groovy opening ''Clessidra'', full of incredible synth and organ runs and characterized by some great interplays and breaks.The long ''Un'Isola'' has very strong PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI vibes in the keyboard parts, again organs and synthesizers are in the forefront, while the good rhythmic parts are still apparent in a Heavy Rock piece, played with passion.Belloni with his high-pitched vocals make his appearance for the first time.''Il Giardino dei sogni'' has notable BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO touches, although in their softer version, and sounds completely plagiarized with no originality at all.The self-titled track, clocking at over 10 minutes, is somewhat split between Heavy Rock and Italian Symphonic Rock with pounding drums, GENESIS-influenced light organs, edgy electric guitars and emphatic synthesizers in a very grandiose style and contains evident Classical and jazzy influences at moments, constantly changing between different tempos and themes.The closing ''Una vita nuova'' is again in the style of ''Il Giardino dei sogni'' with light piano and atmospheric sythesizers and very melodramatic vocals, but this track sounds pretty unconvincing and flat as well.

Nuova Idea's career did not mean to last, with Siani being replaced by Flaviano Cuffari in summer 73', but shortly after the band demised.Belloni and Siani participated in the Track band and afterwards the first joined New Trolls.He was followed some years later by Giorgio Usai.Bassist Enrico Casagni released the solo album ''Qualcuno stanotte'' on EMI around 1977.

''Clowns'' is propably the album to get from Nuova Idea, if you love Classic Italian Prog.Despite being a bit incosistent, the longer tracks are nice examples of the style, dominated by a dynamic and multi-influenced Rock style.Recommended.

Don't get me wrong, the songs are good, the perfomances are very well done and I found nothing here to complain about the album itself. However, nothing really excites me either and it's easy to see why Mr E. Jones was not a big hit at the time. There were several other italian bands putting out much stronger material at the time. However, the band would include the heavy rock edge back to their sound for the next release, their best and most original album, Clown. Unfortunalty it would also be their very last.

All in all Mr. E. Jones is a very nice straight RPI CD by this obscure group. Nothing to write home about it, but nice anyway. If you like the style and already have all the classic stuff, you certainly should check this out.

Rating: 3 stars. good, but non-essential in any way.

Side two on the other side showed some better short stuff: Realtà is a fine pop/prog song with some very nice vocal arrangements and a folky feel at the beginming before jumping into a hard rock in the middle, then it repeats the whole plot again. I guess it cold have been better if they had cooked it a little longer. La Mia Scelta is another typícal early DP hard rock tune: good, but nothing special. Non Dire Niente is an excellent prog folk tune that only the italians knew how to do, probably the album´s best song, much in the vein of PFM. Dolce Amore closes the album with a few experimental touches at the arrangements and a typical italian song structure of the time. Not exactly progressive, but very good anyway.

In the end I found this band still struggling to find their voice. They certainly had the chops and the songwriting hability to deliver some fine tunes. If only they had not tried to do a 20 minute suite so soon, I´m sure they´d have come up with something more substancial and convincing. Still, not bad. If you like the aforementined styles you should check this out.

Final rating: 2,5 stars.

This is their third LP and also their last, which I consider that a pity, since this band had very interesting ideas in terms of songwriting and performance and were a bit ahead of their time in terms of musical style. It would be great to see what they could do if they remained together a little longer. Anyway, this is a fine example of good musicians doing bold, intricated, yet not too zany, music.

Conclusion: a nice surprise coming from the prolific italian prog scene of the 70´s. Very worth checking out! 4 stars.

I don't really understand why I like this album so much. I just do.

It has a place with me along with the QVL albums, Locanda Della Fate's classic album, Felona E Sorona, Alusa Fallax, Delirium, etc.. Some of the spacy sureal passages here are reminscent of Eela Craig's "One Niter", etc...

To me the absolute 2 highlights are "Viaggio Nel Mondo Dei Sogni" and the closing track "Un Altro Giorno". Both of those songs are RPI classics. The rest of the album is fairly good too. Without these 2 songs though, the album gets a *** rating.

The other song that is a highlight for me is the soft folky accoustical ballad: "Fumo Di Una Sigaretta" which proves to me that simplicity can really translate into a great mellow melody that is highly memorable. Sort of reminds me of a cross between a melodic accoustical Beatles melody and something that Donovan may have done on his HMS Donovan album.

The remaining tracks have hints and twinges of things that groups like Jumbo and Delirium and Alluminogeni were doing around 72.

We have some spacy/melancholic emotional melodies and keyboard passages going on there. At times I am reminded of Reale Accademia Di Musica's first album.

This is probably a horrible review of the album as I'm not providing a great description of this album. For that, check out the other reviews as they do an excellent job of describing this album.

An excellent album. Unfortunately (IHMO) they were not able to top this album with their next (and last) endeavor "Clowns" (but that's still a decent album).

I bought this album as an import back in 1998 because I thought the album cover was "cool" and I was just getting into RPI (wow, what a world that opened up for me) and I was hearing albums like Felona E Sorona, Palepoli, Ys, Locanda Della Fate, QVL, etc.. for the first time and was being blown away.

I expected more from the album because of my idiotic biased to the cool-looking-colorful-cover (and anything to do with clowns in progressive music tends to make me think of King Crimson, Marillion's Jestures, Moody Blues "Your painted smile", etc..) than I got as they say "You can't judge an album by it's cover". The first song instantly reminds me of Prologue from Gentle Giant's album a year earlier than this release. Ok, I thought... They're paying homage. Then another review back in 1998 said the last song "Una Vita Nuova" was pretty much a clone of Zeppelin's "Going to California" so after listening to that several times, I thought "I guess I can see the similarities... Neither the opening or closing tracks blowing me away at all. What we have left are the tracks in between. When I bought this album, one of my RPI friends (a half a world away) told me (this was 1998 mind you before RPI really got more widespread exposure in the USA due to great web-sites like this) that this album was great due to the amazing vocals of Ricky Belloni (whom I never heard since I was just getting into RPI). As I listened to tracks 2 thru 4 back then, I remember initially being annoyed by Belloni's vocals as they seemed way overkill. A little of that goes a long way. But then again I was reminded of Pavlog's Dog. Over several listens I got used to Belloni's vocals but there was something "musically" about this album (after many listens) that never really grabbed me. So it got added to my list of cds to trade (we were trading albums we bought but did not care for as much with various people over the years. It was completely legal since we bought them and since this was bakc in 1998 (when there was not much out there in the way of reviews and youtube and other sites you could sample the music first) ) and it was a way to somehow minimize our "going broke" due to our addiction to this wonderful music. We were dropping $100 down on 4-5 albums that we never even heard hoping that all would be great.

Anyhow, I was way more pleasantly surprised at Nuova Idea's "Mr. E Jones" and still consider that album to be their Magnum Opus. You don't have Belloni's shrieking vocals on that album and you have some very nice memorable melodies on that album (including the final song on that album which is one of the most beautiful RPI songs in existance (IHMO)).

So I've since reacquired this album due to the "I really like the Mr. E Jones"-thing. And I've sort of learned to "accept" this album for Belloni's vocals as well as the lack-of-originality and this album took a while for me to upgrade it from a ** effort to a *** effort but I think that's the most I can ever give it. "Mr. E Jones", on the other hand, is a **** effort as there's some really good stuff on that album that makes it far better to my ears than this album.

But when the time is right and i"m in the mood to hear this, "Clowns" makes for an entertaining listen at parts. But I will always have that "This could have been a much better album than it is"-feeling about this. Maybe because of my bias that this followed up the 'much better' Mr. E Jones.

I still feel if you have to pick just 1 album from this band, it needs to be "Mr. E Jones" (which is a top notch high end B-tier RPI album (maybe even borderline A-tier). "Mr E Jones" had some really nice ideas and jams and ballads and the mighty mellotron in the fantastic closer. Much more natural and flowing.

"Clowns", on the other hand, shows the band forcing themselves too hard to create something that seemed "unnatural" to them in order to cater to the vocals of Belloni. So unnatural, in essance, that they had to even use a Gentle Giant melody ("Prologue") and even (as the one site said) refer to Zeppelin's "Going to California" to somehow pad the album out to the the approx 35 minutes that this was.

Could it be that this album did the band in as it would be their final album?

Anyhow, there are many RPI albums better than this one is but this one is worth a listen as it may strike a better chord with you than it did with me. If you do like this, I'd be curious to hear what you think of their previous album "Mr. E Jones" (which I thought was far better). The other thing I like better about "Mr. E Jones" were the warm ballads and mellotron washes interludes amongst the hard rocking/prog jams. This particular album does not really have those warm ballads and mellotron washes and is more rock-heavy with the "controversial vocals".

Still though it gets a *** rating but is definitely not essential.

Ironically for me, Belloni sounds much better as a vocalist with his work with the New Trolls. On this album, he simply "Grates too much". Sounds more like a manic version of Pavlogs Dog (which can be a selling point for some people and which can kill the album for other people).