ATLANTIDE

Everyone of us have our personal stories about how we discovered a band or an album or a song in particular, i, personally like to share those stories when writing a review. So about 1 year ago i was lurking on a national website where we can sell/buy (kind of an ebay) things, i found a seller offering some of his prog albums, i remember there was some VdGG, Soft Machine etc, and the name of The Trip appeared, i had heard only one song of them in a compillation named Il Pop Progressivo, but didn`t catch my attention, when i got interested was when i read the description of the band made by that seller, among some things, he said that Ritchie Blackmore was the founder guitarist of the band, that only fact caught my attention and of course i searched for The Trip`s music.

So believe it or not, The Trip`s first guitarist was the same Ritchie Blackmore we all know, and that led me to discover that this was not actually an Italian band, but an English one which went to Italy searching for better luck. They had released The Trip and Caronte both very different to each other, and their third effort was Atlantide when a legendary Italian drummer named Furio Chirico joined the band, and Joe Vescovi took the leadership of the band, i believe this was their pinnacle and most succesful moment, by the way Blackmore is not here, i mentioned him just for the record.

The album is pretty short actually, just half an hour of music, but nice music of course and featuring 8 songs. It opens with the self-titled song Atlantide, a strong keyboard driven song which shows since the very first moment the leadership of Vescovi, the music will remind you immediately to ELP, the style is pretty similar. Evoluzione features vocals for the first time, english lyrics so its not the typical vocal of an italian band, i mean the characteristic RPI vocal style. This song shows a psychedelic touch in the non-vocal moments, reminding me a bit of Eloy. Leader starts again with those lush keyboards, then Chirico`s drumming and Andersen`s bass appear, and this now reminds me to The Nice, not ELP but The Nice. Energia has a great sound, when you have so good musicians the result will be great, actually what i least like on the album are the vocals, this is an instrumental song again with a psych feeling and may sound as a movie theme, keyboards takes all the attention. Ora X in this song the vocals return with a rockier feeling, ala Lonely Hearts Club Band, the last minute of the song is a powerful ending, though it fades out very softly. Analisi starts with a piano intro, then the vocals and a church organ along with some kind of funeral drumming, after a couple of changes, it returs to the same style and finishes stronger. Distruzione the longest track and without a doubt best one, the first minute is just some background noises, then it becomes stronger and it has a crescendo with the superb Chirico`s drumming, then after a silent moment, bass enters and keys after it, the sound is again very ELP like, this song may be divided in various movements since it has several rythm and time changes, there are some moments that may sound just like an improvisation. Il Vuoto, this is simply the outro, just one minute of keyboard music, the goodbye of the Atlantide.

It is a nice album, but not outstanding nor very complex, it didn`t provokes the same satisfaction as some other albums, give it a try, you may like it more than me, also i`d like to warn you, if you are looking for italian symphonic prog or rock progressivo italiano (whatever concept you have in your own mind) this is not what you would expect. Now i would give it 3 stars, just good but non-essential.

Enjoy it!

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