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RUMBLIN' ORCHESTRA

Symphonic Prog • Hungary


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Rumblin' Orchestra biography
I have mixed feelings about this excellent Hungarian band, I really like their music but are the a Symphonic Prog band or a Prog Related orchestra that plays classical oriented music in Rock mood?

Honestly I can't decide, but in this case and being no absolute certain answer I believe they won't harm the genre because the quality of their compositions is outstanding.

There's no official website of RUMBLIN' ORCHESTRA, so what we can find about their history is very little, they were formed in Hungary in the late 90's by the keyboardist Bela Ella, but the curios thing is that almost all the official members are part of his family, including Beatrix Ella in the flute, Kitty Ella (Cello), Attila Ella (Trombone), Daniel Ella (Oboe), Miklos Ella (Violin) and being that obviously the family Ella members had formation only in Orchestral instruments, they had to include Justin Szabo in bass, drums and vocals plus a few guests.

Their first album "Spartacus" released in 1998 has an obvious influence (Even in the name) from TRIUMVIRAT and of course from ELP, despite has a lot Orchestral non Prog moments the climax of the album is reached in "Victory Or Death" where the vocals (With strong accent) in English, the strong Percussion and bombastic keyboard justify their inclusion, most of the final part of the album could be described as Neo Classical more than Prog.

Their second album "The King's New Garment" is much more balanced than the previous, they include some references to ALAN PARSONS PROJECT debut album to the already well known, but the main problem is that the opening track (The King's New Garment) is the only epic and has absolutely no relation with Progressive Rock, again ore in the vein of Neo Classical.

RUMBLIN' ORCHESTRA is recommended to Symphonic fans with open mind who are not expecting a 100% Prog album, but something is sure, the music is outstanding and the performances of the Ella family and guests are all outstanding so it's worth to get a copy of any of the two albums and if you like it (As I did), go for the other one.

Iván Melgar Morey - Perú

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RUMBLIN' ORCHESTRA discography


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RUMBLIN' ORCHESTRA top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.17 | 18 ratings
Spartacus
1998
3.32 | 22 ratings
The King's New Garment
2000

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RUMBLIN' ORCHESTRA Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Spartacus  by RUMBLIN' ORCHESTRA album cover Studio Album, 1998
3.17 | 18 ratings

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Spartacus
Rumblin' Orchestra Symphonic Prog

Review by apps79
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

3 stars RUMBLIN ORCHESTRA seem to be a family-band occasion,led by keyboardist/vocalist Bela Ella with five more family members participating on this project.Multi-instrumentalist Jusztin Szabo completes the basic line-up,while East's guitarist Janos Varga is responsible for the scarce electric guitar solos and melodies.Their debut ''Spartacus'', which seems to be a concept album,came out in 1998.

STYLE: Centered around piano/keyboards and orchestra instruments,the album can sound nothing different than a mix of Classical-influenced rock,keyboard-driven prog with maybe a slight tone of a Rock Opera added.Many times the band sounds like an orchestra jamming with a progressive rock band,while the string-driven parts along with the flute passages are trully ethereal and dreamy.Surprisingly the album contains a lot of synth parts along with numerous organ jams,which blend nicely with the orchestra feeling.Depending on the track the style ranges from bombasic synth-driven prog to melodic Classical music with the rhythm section suppirting.Vocals are scarce,limited to decent choirs and aggresive/theatrical male vocals with an operatic dose.

INFLUENCES/SOUNDS LIKE: The whole family had to be huge followers of THE ENID along with keyboard-driven monster acts like EMERSON,LAKE & PALMER or TRIUMVIRAT.Best modern act to compare are definitely Italians QUASAR LUX SYMPHONIAE with a less guitar-driven sound with a touch of compatriots SOLARIS,mainly on the flute section.

PLUS: All I can say about the Classical-influenced musicianship of the album is that this is majestic.Bella Ella seems to lose the battle against the rest of the family,the handlers of the orchestral instrumentation,who deliver absolutely essential,romantic and melodic Classical-inspired music,often flirting with grandiose soundtrack music .Bella himself has some great moments and a big plus for him is the fact he doesn't perform too selfish.Beautiful interplays throughout the album between keys and flutes/violins.Worth mentioning the nice performance of Janos Varga on guitars.

MINUS: Definitely the bad sound of the synths,which sound sometimes cheesy,other ones too plastic,spoiling some of the finest themes of ''Spartacus''.Some long keyboard solos of Bella are a bit stretched,while a concept album could have been based a bit more on (the very decent) vocal sections,which are almost absent.

WILL APPEAL TO: Not only keyboard freaks who can't live without their prog filled with keyboard sounds,but also fans of pure classical music...but ''Spartacus'' is a great exampe of an album heading to open-minded listeners of artistic music..

CONCLUSION/RATING: Musically speaking we are talking about top notch Classical Prog here and it's a pity that this band disappeared soon after their second release.If it weren't those plastic synths,we would propably be talking about a far more better release now.However,I recommend this album strongly to the whole prog audience due to its beatiful classical themes and my final taste leads me to a 3.5 rating.

 Spartacus  by RUMBLIN' ORCHESTRA album cover Studio Album, 1998
3.17 | 18 ratings

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Spartacus
Rumblin' Orchestra Symphonic Prog

Review by erik neuteboom
Prog Reviewer

3 stars The Rumblin Orchestra is a Hungarian musical project with Ella Bela (keyboards/vocals) as the musical brainchild. The subject for this album is the known story about the heroic slave who's life ended so tragically after he had organized a revolution against the Romans, Kirk Douglas played a perfect role in the Sixties movie version that featured lots of action and bombastic moments. Well, this has been translated in a very pleasant way into the music on Spartacus: many fluent up-tempo songs and bombastic climates delivering a choir and lots of flashy synthesizer soli, evoking Keith Emerson during Fanfare For The Common Man. Because of the use of classical instruments like the flute, cello, trombone and violin, the music also reminds me of early solo Rick Wakeman while the work on paino and synthesizers has echoes from Triumvirat. Although Rumblin Orchestra their sound is modern and a bit polished, I was pleased with lots of interesting interludes and breaks. Guitarist Janos Varga (from legendary Hungarian progrock band East) appears as a guest musician in the track Vitory Of Death, he delivers two biting soli. The bonus-track is a live version (10 minutes) of America (The Nice) tha tcontains a modern keyboard sound and trumpet. A fine album with lots of variety and strong keyboard work, my rating is 3,5 stars.


 Spartacus  by RUMBLIN' ORCHESTRA album cover Studio Album, 1998
3.17 | 18 ratings

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Spartacus
Rumblin' Orchestra Symphonic Prog

Review by Prog-jester
Prog Reviewer

3 stars Wel, a bit too pompous for me - all these choirs and orchestra - and sometimes too much bombastic and hence boring, RO's Spartacus contains some awesome moments. I'm not satisfied with the quality of the record,but I can see the problems HUNGARIAN Proggers face with :-( - we have almost the same and even worse...OK, imagine ELP jamming with choir,orchestra and DREAM THEATER on the background...;-) Tastes are differ - it's not much MY kind of music, but it's good and rare stuff for any Symphonic Prog Collector (recommended). Again I see not much soul and emotions here, but the masterity and highl level of musicianship are unquestionable.
 The King's New Garment  by RUMBLIN' ORCHESTRA album cover Studio Album, 2000
3.32 | 22 ratings

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The King's New Garment
Rumblin' Orchestra Symphonic Prog

Review by michel.jobe

3 stars You have to like classical music to really appreciate Rumblin' orchestra's work. Its influences are even greater than for their compatriots of After Crying. Tracks are divided between classical instruments only and others where drums and synths are included. Although it may seem that these are minimum to consider a piece as progressive, these are the weakest tracks, After Crying among others doing a much better work of fusioning prog and classical music. But those played by classical instruments only are really good and enjoyable.
 The King's New Garment  by RUMBLIN' ORCHESTRA album cover Studio Album, 2000
3.32 | 22 ratings

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The King's New Garment
Rumblin' Orchestra Symphonic Prog

Review by Marcelo
Prog Reviewer

3 stars A family Hungarian band making a clasically orientated music. They have two weak points: the "plastic" keyboards sound and the poor drummer's work. Nevertheless, "The King's New Garment" is a nice album, specially the long homonymous suite, where the band shows its best. There are good moments in the other pieces, and the instrumental variety is another enjoyable point, but -to my taste- the whole opus doesn't reach a real bright. I think that, potentially, this production could be increased (specially about the mentioned weak points), but it's still a good option if you like the long instrumental pieces with classic flavour and don't matter about some artificial modern sounds.
Thanks to Ivan_Melgar_M for the artist addition. and to NotAProghead for the last updates

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