TWENTY FOUR HOURS

This album took a while to grow on me. At first listen, while I understood it's prog credentials, it just didn't make any lasting impression. On further spins, it began to creep up on me.

Most of the album, the first six songs actually, are something of a throwback to late sixties, early seventies psychedelic prog. The songs are adequately played, and the basslines stand out to me as particularly good. The Road of Madness sounded a bit familiar to me. Listening closer, I found that the main verse chord progression is strikingly similar to I Talk To The Wind.

The album really picks up steam for the final two tracks. Twenty Four Pink Hot Tentacles is an almost fusiony instrumental jam, with some hot guitar playing. And The Bastards is the most progressive track, with an aggressive verse, and some forays into amorphous tone poems.

This is a nice album, and certainly has some value to the prog enthusiast.

This is the debut record of Italian band TWENTY FOUR HOURS released in 1991. It's one of those rare albums that I put in the "special" category because I know that most wouldn't entertain the idea of giving this a 4 star rating but it has this hold on me and I can't shake it. I've owned this since around 2004 and so maybe re-visiting has brought back good memories of that time when I was on the constant search for new Prog and I was finding some incredible bands and albums.This record is bass, guitar, drums and synths with English vocals that aren't that great. My edition opens with a cover of KING CRIMSON's "Moonchild" but the track listing for the rest of this cd is the same as what's listed on this site.

"Moonchild" does sound rather good and we get female Italian spoken words mixed in here throughout. "Switch For Madness" has these high pitched picked guitar sounds as almost spoken vocals come in. Drums and bass join in as well. A psychedelic calm before 2 minutes with synths then these spacey vocals arrive after 3 minutes. Excellent track.

"Places Of Our Childhood" opens with piano and experimental sounds. Gentle guitar and krautrock-like spoken vocals arrive with synths. Words like "Get high my friends get high, get drunk my friends get drunk" are almost spoken.

"The Dream Of The Maiden's Tear" opens with guitar and spoken vocals then it kicks into an uptempo mode with vocals. "Here I Am" is my favourite.The drums, guitar and bass all sound so good to start. Love this. Vocals before a minute. I really like the guitar tone after 3 minutes when the vocals stop.

"Trip Of Rains" is a short strummed guitar and vocal piece. "Trip Of Rains (Part Two)" kicks in before a minute as we get strummed guitar, bass, drums and vocals.

'89 " has this intricate guitar that is picked and synths.I like it ! "What's On My Back ?" is a funny title.This is more powerful with organ as the drums pound.Vocals follow.

"La Pluie" is a moving song with picked guitar and synths. Rain ends it. "The Reo Melting House" opens with piano as a fuller sound with vocals takes over.This is also a touching track.

"Wrongtimes" has guitar and a beat as the vocals come in. It picks up after a minute as contrasts continue. Great tune. "The Sun" is a beautiful number.

"Tetrafase" is eighties sounding and uptempo. I like it. "Jazzing" sounds excellent instrumentally as vocals arrive around 1 1/2 minutes.

"Must (The Space between The Houses)" is dark and atmospheric with synths. A nice change of pace. "Foreign Lands" is a live version and well done with energy.

This is one cd I plan to keep spinning once in a while for years to come.

I first became aware of this Italian band around 2004 when I saw them listed in the Synphonic catalogue and the description beside their name was "Like PORCUPINE TREE". So naturally I picked up their debut "The Smell Of Rainy Air" and proceeded to write up a review after many listens only to find the band wasn't on here (haha). I don't know how many times i've done this, I guess i'm a slow learner. Anyway I was surprised to see them added here recently and thought i'd start with their second album "Intolerance" this time. By the way I don't hear the PORCUPINE TREE connection but maybe it's on one of their other albums. This particular record has a beautiful album cover but when you look close you can see the pollution washed up on shore, hence the album's title "Intolerance". The music really reminds me of the eighties as in the more upbeat aspect of THE CURE and also THE CHURCH mostly. All of these tracks are short and the vocals are in English.

"Aiye" is a short intro track with spoken words and experimental sounds. "The Trap" is an uptempo, feel good tune reminding me of the 80's. I like it. "Human Relations Tragedy" has this pulsating beat with vocals.The guitar replaces the beat briefly as these contrasts continue. It's kind of weird with the singing going on while spoken words join in later. "What Was The Use Of All This ?" has almost spoken vocals before a minute with piano and a beat. "Intolerance" has these 80's sounding guitars (THE CURE) as the vocals come in around 2 minutes. "Stored Inside" opens with spoken words then we get singing followed by more spoken words as these contrasts continue. Synths and gentle guitar help out.

"Blue And Grey" has a pulsating beat with vocals. "The Drumming Dream" is uptempo with vocals and it has that 80's vibe. "Refugee" opens with piano and accordion standing out as reserved vocals join in after a minute. "A Stab For A Waxwork" sounds good as piano, a beat and accordion lead the way in this instrumental. "Dreamup" brings THE CURE to mind once again. I like the energy late. "Friendly" has this TANGERINE DREAM-like intro and the guitar comes in around 1 1/2 minutes and it's Gilmour-like as the drums pound. Excellent track. "Aiye (Part Two)" ends it with relaxed piano and some atmosphere.

A pretty good album but there's not much here for Progressive fans to chew on.