VOLANDO

I could have believed what I read about Dik Dik. Over and over I read they were really an Italian pop/beat group who changed styles for convenience to deliver 1972's wonderful Donna. But then I saw one of my prog vendors offering a new mini-lp sleeve with this proggy album cover and figured I had to check it out. So, yeah. Well it could be worse. It's even grown on me after repeated plays. But lest you toy with succumbing to the prog maiden as I have, let me warn you as the others have: this is not Donna.

Recorded in late '75 - early '76 "Volando" is clearly a retreat to the melodic Italian pop/rock songs of the 3-5 minute range, although there has been some retention of sound if not composition. By this time there had been line-up changes and Dik Dik had actually picked up some members of the RPI heyday, including Hunka Munka's Roberto Carlotto and Osage Tribe's Nunzio "Cucciolo" Favia. They were however bringing only their musical talents and not their prior progressive era tricks. "Volando" offers the listener soft and romantic pop/rock ballads and simple, very "hummable" melodies with lots of vocal harmonies and gentle fade-outs. They sound mostly like love songs although I don't understand Italian lyrics. Gentle crooning of repetitive verses and choruses with the occasional drop of a tasteful guitar or keyboard solo. You can however expect the classy and warm Italian feel in the arrangements and instrumentation: lovely female background vocals in the title track, crisp acoustic guitars delicately played, lots of pretty keyboards and mellotron, and mostly soothing, romantic lead vocals. It is still very much in the '70s vein of pop sounds, not yet the slick and emotionally empty drivel that some bands would stoop to in the 1980s. What you should not expect is anything like the wild and crazy Italian prog albums of the 71-74 period, no compositional insanity or instrumental daredevilism. Every once in a while they drop a little teaser that sounds like they remember the prog days, like the dramatic and beautiful instrumental opening of Carlotto's "Cavalli Alati." The album closes with an sentimental cover of The Mamas And The Papas "California Dreamin" and the 2002 M2U Records cd version offers a live bonus track "L'isola di Wight." In fact that's probably the right single word to choose to sum up the overall feel of "Volando"---sentimental. And since I am a fairly sentimental guy, I guess it's fine that I ended up with this album in my collection, even if not a progger's delight.

While this is not a bad album it does require 2 stars from me as the description of "for fans" of the genre surely applies. If you love the melodic Italian pop tradition or Dik Dik in general, you may wish to add this pretty soft-rock album to your collection. Just don't expect the wild ride of 1972's RPI roller coaster. 2 1/2 stars.

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