ALPHATAURUS

Magnificent but also mysterious Italian band from Milan,who released only one full-length album under their own name and split up before finishing the recordings of their second work.''Alphataurus'' was pressed by an indepedent label named Magma,led by members of New Trolls,in 1973.

Opening track is the 12 min. ''La chamadere'',very original and half split between psych/prog with fuzzy guitars and great vocals,while in the instrumental passages rises a mystic/spacey feeling due to the obscure sounds of the organ.''Dopo l'uragano'' is more jazzy oriented with nice piano parts and percussion work,supported by doomy psych guitars.The only 3-min ''Croma'' is maybe one of the best examples of instrumental mourning fully-symphonic prog rock with awesome work on harpsichord,piano and organ by Pietro Pellegrinni.The almost 10 min. ''La mente vola'' continues from where ''Croma'' finished,starting with a grandiose three-minute synth-like dark symph section,before turning to a light symph-suite with amazing vocal parts,characterized by acoustic guitars and the heavy use of depressing piano,moog synthesizer and xylophone!Simply stunning!The closer ''Ombra rota'' is very close to what MUSEO ROSENBACH produced the same year,that is excellent mellotron/organ-driven prog rock with aggresive vocals,strong guitars and super-complex instrumental parts with lots of breaks and time changes,featuring a jazzy rhythm section and alternating keyboards.Another very strong track in the line!It is yet personally a big dissapointment that this band existed for just a short period of time...but left us a prog piece to remember for decades.A monster album that defines what prog rock is all about!A must-have!