NEW TROLLS

The first three movements, or Tempos, of Concerto Grosso are essential listening for all prog rock fanatics. Unfortunately, this eleven minutes of RPI glory doesn't necessitate its purchase. "1 Tempo: Allegro" establishes the formula, alternating literally between the speakers from Baroque instrumentation to the band. As these ingredients homogenize, New Trolls are able to achieve something really groundbreaking. This becomes more evident during the second minute, with unison playing between the low strings and rhythm section. De Scalzi and Di Paulo double their guitars in octaves and hop on for the ride. This is great, great stuff and a perfect opening statement to an important yet indulgent album.

"2 Tempo: Adagio" introduces vocals for the first time, sung in English. New Trolls has as many detractors as fans for this decision, and I fall into the former category. That is not to say their Italian language albums are any better...I think this waffling hurt more RPI bands than it helped; not Osanna, RDM, Banco or even PFM were ever able to overcome the language barrier and break through internationally. Lyrics aside, the mushy "Adagio" works on a musical level, again merging orchestral inspiration and rock bombast well. What is probably the best example of this combination, "3 Tempo: Cadenza," demonstrates composer Luis Enriquez Bacalov's involvement. His direction and production in this domain would not be perfected however until 1973's Contaminazione by Rovescio Della Medaglia.

"4 Tempo: Shadows" abandons the orchestra and sets a slippery slope for the duration of the album. An obvious Hendrix homage, "Shadows" will impress psych/art-rock listeners but few others. The dreadful improvisation "Nella Sala Vuota" monopolizes the second side and feels like filler to me. Replete with drum solo, the improv just goes on far too long and serves no real purpose. Luckily the CD issue is a two-fer, backed with the slightly better Concerto Grosso N. 2 from 1976. I recommend making a custom disc or playlist with the offending songs excised, and the remaining selections will work much better as a whole. As it was originally sequenced however, Concerto Grosso N. 1 earns 2.5 stars in my book, but I will round up since the first eleven minutes are so important.

With the end of the 60's and beginning of the 70's and beginning of the experiment and the fusion of musical genres and so the event of progressive music the New Trolls realized in 1971 their third album, which became one of the cornerstone of the genre (Concerto Grosso Per I New Trolls).

The album is divided into two parts, the first with the (Concerto Grosso) which is a fusion of romantic Venetian Baroque Orchestra directed by Luis Bacalov with an orientation to Antonio Vivaldi, with the powerful rhythm parts between bass and drums and sounding guitar hard, strong use of the flute and Well-Tempered Clavier, the technical virtuosity of execution and elaborate polyphonic voices of the singers, make it all in a unique and special and different from their Anglo- Saxon colleagues pioneered the genre over the English Channel, even though the New Trolls sing in English ( to die / to sleep / perchance to dream ' William Shakespeare Hamlet a.III sc. I ) written on the front cover on a photo on negative of a painting Venetian to make the image blurred and distorted.

Also the main melody and some parts of the ''Concerto Grosso'' that are used for the Soundtrack of the Thriller movie The ''La Vittima Designata ' 1971'' (The Designated Victim - English version of the film) shot in Venice and directed by Maurizio Lucidi; some photos of the main actors/actresses in the film are on the back cover of the album.

The second part of the album it is a long suite of the quintet of the band that opens with a strong mystical and substantial introduction by the heavy Hammond organ tones, from the maestro Maurizio Salvi future official member of the band.

It all starts with screaming voices, heavy fuzz guitar, massy sound of the flute, powerful organ, bodied bass lines and trembling drum parts with a strong great solo towards the end of the suite, and a small part of the suite is sung in Italian; IL Sole Nascera' (The Sun Will Be Born); the sound of the band is pompous and heavy and everything is out of the distorted amplifiers Davoli; all recorded live.

With this new album the Trolls show a large change between the two predecessors album, a powerful clear passage between the Psychedelic in the mid-sixties to the early seventies Progressive events, creating a classic album that will remain in the history of the genre Symphonic Baroque Progressive rock made in Italy.

New Trolls prove to be good musicians and great arrangers and singers; between all four stands Nico Di Palo with his incredible voice to high tones and as a quite good Hard Rock guitarist.

Highly recommended to all lovers of the immortal classisc seventies Progressive, must-have.

My first surprise was to find that despite what most people say, this is not a Symphonic album exclusively, because this guys give us Classical Music, Hard Rock, Symphonic Prog, Folk and Psychedelia, all blended with such care that the fusion sounds as the only natural way to perform the eclectic "Rock Progressivo Italiano".

But to understand the album, we must say that a "Concerto Grosso" is a musical form from the Baroque period, which main characteristic is the interplay between several soloists and orchestra through four to six movements, and THE NEW TROLLS have developed it perfectly, because the orchestra (strings) create the general atmosphere of the music while the guitar, flute, organ and vocals, take the place of the soloist by turns, simply outstanding structure.

The album starts with Tempo Allegro, an excellent overture that begins with "contrappunto" between violins and flute, as the piece advances, a distorted guitar takes the role of the flute to apply extra power to the magnificent VIVALDI inspired music.

Tempo Adagio is much more dramatic, the strength relies more in the force of the sentiments evoked by the music itself rather that in fast or loud instruments. Now, the real beauty start with nostalgic vocals enhanced by beautiful strings and some short distorted guitar passages that show us that THE NEW TROLLS are a Rock band. Extremely delicate and delicious music.

Tempo: Cadenza - Andante Con Moto is opened by a virtuoso violin solo again reminiscent of VIVALDI, but when the whole band enters they retake the main theme explored in the previous movement, this time giving more importance to the strings and percussion instead of the guitar or flute, and the heartbreaking choirs are the cherry in the top of the pie....By this point I'm speechless.

Tempo Shadows took me by surprise, because the orchestral arrangements are left behind to create some sort of Bluesy / Psychedelic movement allowing the band to play some sort of soft Rock, really experimental song..

The album ends with the 21 minutes epic Nella Sala Vuota, Improvisazioni dei New Trolls Registrate in Diretta is the turn of THE NEW TROLLS to rock with all they have,. blending blues, Psychedelia, Heavy Rock (URIAH HEEP inspired) and a lot of jamming in one track full of energy and class.

Normally the Prog bands use one of two options when trying to perform Classical oriented Prog, some as the Moody Blues add orchestral intros and codas to Rock or Pop tunes, while icons as WAKEMAN and EMERSON add fragments (or complete works) of well known artists to a Symphonic Prog structure, but this guys go a step further, they have composed a real and original "Concerto Grosso" allowing the band to take the part of the soloists, creating a perfect fusion between Rock and Baroque.

If this is not an "Essential masterpiece of Progressive Rock", this qualification has no sense at all, so without hesitation I will give 5 solid stars to an amazing and ambitious project developed with uncommon skills.

The music on this album is a mix of Italian pop and the 1980s pop scene. The sound is plastic fantastic like and pretty bad. It is mainly done by synths and vocals. The drums sounds plastic like and so does the guitars too. This is the 1980s in all it's horrors.

The quality of the songs....... well, quality, what quality ? There is no quality here and none of the songs does anything than annoys me. Stay well clear of this album despite of this being a New Trolls album.

1 star

The first two-three tracks are a good example of what New Trolls are capable for: Hard Classical-adapted Rock alternating with soft rock filled with various grandiose strings,good work on electric piano and carefully arranged multi-vocal parts.From ''Quiet seas'' things turn into the wrong way:a poor piano-driven ballad with funny vocals to say the least but with a sensitive guitar-based ending solo.The acoustic ''Vent'anni'' isn't much better,poor and uninspired music with awful multi-vocals.''Bella Come Mai'' is an even worse Pop Rock ballad with the worst vocal lines I've heard in a long time.Another ballad in line is ''Let it be'' by Curtis, Delanoe and Becaud and I begin getting uncomfortable,high-pitched vocals in BEE-GEES style all the way under soft melodic Pop Music.Horrible!The closing ''Le Roi Soleil'' is a very uneven track with some interesting symphonic musicianship under the nice guitar and keyboard work,but again vocals are terrible,while some parts of it are totally out of place.

New Trolls only managed to fall into the trap themselves created.To re-produce an album inspired by a previous work of your own is sometimes considered as lack of inspiration and that's the case here.The album contains only 12-15 minutes of interesting music,the rest being melodic soft Pop Rock music of the worst quality.Better avoid it,unless Classical-influenced Rock (but with strong amount of Pop) is among your major preferences.

Excuse me... But this is my view of this album!

Because complete, with budget price and in 2 CDs this is a compilation that I suggest to put in your discography. But you do not expect a masterpiece.

In general I copy the review of "Le più belle..." and I refer to it.

So "Le più belle canzoni dei New Trolls" is not a easy compilation for a good judgement. Certainly with good music.