ROCK PROGRESSIVO ITALIANO

The style of this album is like some kind of strange mixture between romantic Italian pop with some elements of progressive, symphonic and electronic rock. The production of the album is very good, and every instrument sound just fine. That what's my problem with this record? Let's talk about the songs.

Visione introduces the mood of the album, where the voice of Randone is the protagonist. The song contains good arrangements of keyboards, giving some symphonic feeling to the composition. I personally do not like the voice of Nicola, I find it just too strident and even annoying sometimes. He sings with passion his good lyrics, but I just can't bear his singing in this album! Sorry. The ending of the song has a fine atmospheric work with synthesizers, in the vein of Tangerine Dream but with tons of sound effects (wind, wolfs, cats?)

Il Pentimento Di Dio Dolo La Fine del Mondo is a reggae/ska song with not much to comment about beyond the weird vocals and ecclesiastical choirs. Tuttle le Mie Stelle is a romantic acoustic song with beautiful neo-prog keyboards after the chorus. Not really special, but one of the best tracks of the album nevertheless. L'Infinito is a bit darker, but pretty forgettable as well despite the fine guitar solo.

Un Cieco starts with the dolphin's cry, and it contains a good acoustic melody and strong and uplifting chorus. It's one of the most progressive songs of an album that's not really progressive, and also one of the stronger in songwriting. La Giostra is another dramatic song, which talks about the horrors of Auschwitz and contains one of the best instrumental works of the album, especially in the beautiful accordion section.

Strananoia is pure folk-rock with some influences of celtic music. It remembers me to the great Spanish band Celtas Cortos, but very far from their quality. Nevertheless, it contains an interesting final electronic-influenced section. Amore Bianco is another Italian pop-rock song with some fine guitars with slide, but which is not really interesting, leave alone progressive.

Morte di Un Amore is stronger since the beginning, containing some symphonic arrangements and good vocal melodies (despite the singing is so annoying as always) This time even the reggae is good, because it leads to a great electric guitar work and more instrumental and symphonic passages. This album is obviously better when Randone is not singing! And that's maybe the reason Morte di Un Amore is my favorite song of the album. Is the longest one and with the fewer proportion of sections with vocals. The long final atmospheric section bring back the melodies and the Tangerine Dream influences of Visione.

Conclusion: if you like romantic Italian pop, and acts like Franco Battiato, maybe you'll find Morte di Un Amore interesting. But don't expect something like Premiata Forneria Marconi or similar groups, because this album is not so progressive and it's also very far from the quality of this classics.

It's interesting and times, and I consider that Randone had tons of potential despite it's improvable singing. For this reason, I'm eager to hear more albums of this man. But I can't really recommend Morte di un Amore apart from Italian prog completionists!

Best Tracks: Un Cieco, La Giostra, Morte di un Amore.

My Rating: **1/2, rounded down to two stars.

This album is meaningful to me because it was the first I bought without having prior listened to it (and I paid mere 13 dollars!). Until then, I had little contact with PFM other than their long and eccentric name - as the band members say, ''the more difficult to remember a band's name, the more difficult to forget it" - and the high rating of their first two albums. Assuming this is a debut, the acclaim is at the very least suspicious, "how can a new band start right off the bat so strongly?". Well, thing is that by the time PFM released their first album in Jan, 1972, the band members had experience on jamming various genres in their earlier band I Quelli ("Them [Weirdos]"), including prog rock. It is no surprise that their first release would be as strong as a veteran band's at their prime, mostly because they were so.

The first thing that called my attention on STORIA DI UN MINUTO is its eclectism, far broader than other contemporaneous Italian bands such as BANCO or MUSEO. They, as usual, syncretizes symphonic classical and traditional Italian music to the rock context of the 70s, except that they take a step further and also pour in healthy doses of blues and folk, the latter taking the limelight on most occasions. Also, their vocalist isn't the strongest point, differently from the aforementioned bands. That brings in a vacancy of prominence, solidly taken by the instruments, which range from heavy synthesizers (an innovation for Italian music) to pastoral flutes and further beyond. Long, varied instrumental parts are the norm.

While most songs aren't inherently complex, at least on a technical level, the intricate melody and its metamorphic nature confer a continuous flow of varied influences and sections, all unique to their own, almost in an incoherent fashion. Such as on È Festa, bringing the hardest rock La Premiata offers that, after dissolving into a jazzy interlude, changes yet again to a folksy recap of the intro. Things of this nature are common in STORIA and that makes me think the musicians forgot about the quality of bonding (musical) concepts together, opting instead to just jam whatever they felt like. Another point that diverges PFM from their contemporaneous counterparts. They're far more dynamic.

Perhaps the first distinguished RPI record, both home and abroad, something that probably has to do with their mildly solid fan base prior to its release. Nonetheless, PFM's success was a moral victory to all aspiring prog Italians, as they observed a fellow of theirs triumphantly roaring. I can only imagine what wonders must it have been to finally see prog penetrating in their peninsular homeland as they played PFM's record once and twice and thrice and so on to capture every nuance and absorb every song at its fullest. To this day, PFM remains as a legend, rightfully so, because this stuff is, plain and simple, legendary.

The atmosphere on the album definitely succeeds in providing the pastoral, intimate feeling that was intended by Farina. The title track is a sequential combination of several themes and melodies, pleasant and not too challenging, featuring the acoustic guitar but marvelously enriched by swirling violin and flute, along with harpsichord fluorishes. Bass and drums, and even electric guitar appear on this track, giving it a bite and drive not found on the other songs. The recurrent theme is a beautiful pastoral melody that is embellished differently each time it appears. Through it all, Farina's very pleasant baritone sings the story.

The other standout track for me is the last track, "La Ballata degli Amici Perduti" (The Ballad of Lost Friends). This features acoustic guitar and lush strings, playing a nostalgic tune that befits the song title. It is a track that is easy to get lost in.

The packaging is wonderfully done (as always by BTF), with a nice thick papersleeve gatefold mini lp style, with lyrics, photos, and artwork in the booklet. I'm not a huge fan of the cover itself, but I suppose it does match the overall purpose of the work. All in all, this is a really nice album, much in line with the better of the folk-style RPI titles from the 1970s. Three and a half stars, rounded to four. (Gnosis 11/15)

`Dawn on Hiroshima Skies' opens with an eerie Eastern intrigue powered by keyboardist Davide Freguglia's Hammond organ, whirring synths and sparkling electric piano contemplations, as Noemi Bolis' sweetly murmuring bass slithers between them and Alex Carsetti's clacking percussion rattles with purpose, the piece ultimately picking up gently in tempo to offer just a hint of danger and culminating in a grander symphonic finale. The heavily improvised `Placebo Effect' bristles with a darker jazzier flavour due to its extended scratchy Fender Rhodes soloing, Noemi's relentless buoyant bass and Alex's pattered cymbals, and the Mellotron and Hammond-flecked `Canis Majoris' starts to head into the Le Orme-styled symphonic direction of parts of the debut EP, growing lightly nightmarish and tense before picking up a strident harder step in the final moments.

Deserving of special attention, both `Notturno' and `Morgendämmerung' are unlike anything the band have done to date! The former is a hypnotic drift of droning ambient electronics and subdued spectral synths, while the latter is an exotic rumination of hand percussion and pensive flute, almost reminding of Popul Vuh's `In Den Gärten Pharaos' or something off a Third Ear Band LP. These fascinating and rich diversions offer only glimpses of styles and directions that the band may develop more fully and even more successfully on further albums, and it showcases their emerging diversity and growing confidence to great effect.

Admittedly the album has kept pretty low-key and careful up to this point, but it's finally with the final trio of pieces that start with `Cordyceps' where the band really comes to life! This relentless track holds swirling synths aplenty in the manner of modern RPI groups like F.E.M Prog Group and La Coscienza di Zeno with little trickles of a prog-electronic sound sneaking in, and the thick pumping bass backed by rambunctious drumming gives the album a big surge of power and bombast at just the right moment. `Seeking Harmony' returns to the cascading crystalline piano and pumping spurts of feisty keyboard pomp that gently reminds again, as the debut EP did, of everything from that more frantic classical approach of vintage RPI band Triade's minor classic from 1973 `1998: La Storia Di Sabazio', as well as early Le Orme, and especially fellow modern young Italian band Unreal City.

Album closer `Genistae' is the longest and most complex offering here, delivering plenty of drama and careful build across a range of moods, with the same shadowy jazz atmosphere that permeates many great vintage Italian prog discs creeping in, and Davide's reflective piano melancholy and pulsing electronics come to resemble eerie ambient drones with a cinematic soundtrack-like elegance. But throughout the second half, Noemi's snaking bass grows in wild snarling breathlessness, Alex's crashing cymbals and rumbling drumming really weigh down on the listener and Davide's whiplash keyboards spiral out of control with delirious zest, before finally culminating in a reflective Mellotron, tip-toeing electric piano and sobering bass outro - what an amazing close to a fine album all up!

If there's one issue to be had with the album, it's perhaps that it somewhat coasts along over the first five tracks in a mostly subdued, unhurried manner, when a few bursts of greater (noisier!) energy and urgency would have really kicked up the attention levels. It takes until the sixth track for the album to start raising the pulse and going on the attack, and indeed it's the last three tracks that really explode with the full promise inside this talented group, and it might have been better if these three tracks had been placed between the five earlier ones to break things up a little. There's also just a few moments where the playing is more exciting than the actual instrumental tunes or melodies being presented, but these are really quite minute issues and shouldn't be unexpected with younger bands, and they definitely don't deserve to be lambasted about these elements.

But make no mistake, Kalisantrope's star is on the rise in modern Italian prog circles, with the group recently touring over the last year with the likes of the above mentioned Unreal City and the Neo-styled Silver Key, and their second release `Brinicle' is a more sumptuous, varied and ambitious effort that really pays off on frequent replays, one that moves them even closer to delivering that total knockout effort they've got building inside them.

Three and a half stars, rounded up to four again, well done Kalisantrope!

Starting out what sounds like period piece classical musical from a previous century, it sounds as if we've visited a ball in the 17th century with Mozart as the headliner but after an explosion signals a change over it quickly becomes a jittery guitar riff followed by a haunting organ run that builds up to heavier rock. Once again an explosion changes over to a VCS 3 Synthesizer run that wouldn't sound too far off on an 80s new wave album although this one is kept within a classical music context. By the time the album gets to "Beta," it slows down with a groovy Floydian bass line along with a crafty piano run and freaky background vocals that create a seven minute plus space rock track but ends with a reprise to the classical ball music as the album begins.

POLLUTION is anything but dirty! It is a really pleasant experience to let unfold around you as one addictive track cedes to the next. There are lovely arpeggiated guitar sections such as on "Plancton" that add atmospheric keyboards and once the purely Italian vocals enter the scene sounds much more like the Italian kings of the scene such as PFM or Banco reminding from whence they emerged in the world. Again replete with daring keyboard solos kept within the context of the melody but creating synthesized polyrhythms that complement each other beautifully. The title track has a rather Krautock type intro with UFO type flying sound pulsating from synthesizers while waves crash against some unseen shores while echoey guitar strums gently stroll in as the synthesizer sounds short circuit out. What a way cool intro! It becomes a nice folky guitar piece as the vocalists all begin to sing to the heavens!

This is one of those albums that has all its ducks lined up in the right rows. It has just enough melody to reel you in and keep you hooked but so many surprises and unexpected twists and turns that it's impossible to lose your attention. While firmly placed in the Italian scene during the vocal parts, the beauty of POLLUTION is how pan-continental it sounds during the instrumental parts as BATTIATO takes all the magic of bands like Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Yes and even Ash Ra Temple and Tangerine Dream and puts it all on the work table for a new sort of musical beast making. Just as good as the debut in a totally different way and somewhat points in the direction of the next album "Sulle Corde Di Aires" that really took the plunge and went completely in the progressive electronic arenas.

Too many bands seem to forget the "rock" section of "progressive rock", and they can concentrate too much on keyboards and delicacy, but here ITDC are using plenty of dynamics, with light and shade emphasising both areas. But, these guys are still first and foremost a progressive band, it's just that they are refusing to be bound by what many feel is the sort of music that should be coming out of the RPI scene. I really enjoy Francesco's singing style, as his vocals carry emotion and although he can sing higher when he wishes to, he generally stays in the lower registers and this allows emotion to really shine through.

My one regret is that I don't understand Italian, so have no idea at all what he is singing about, but feel that if this had been in English then it would have diminished it somewhat. Yet again this is an incredibly strong release from Black Widow, and well worth investigating.

There is no doubt in my mind, and nor in many other's I would imagine, that Goblin are the finest progressive rock bands ever to come out of Italy. Their 1977 soundtrack to the cult horror 'Suspiria' is an amazing album, and I was lucky enough to see a version of the band play live in front of a showing of the film in Auckland a few years ago. But there's the problem, their history has been a little problematic, and in 2015 there were two different versions of the bands doing the rounds. I am a little unsure if this is a Goblin album, or a 4Goblin album, as it doesn't appear on the discography of their official website, and a '4' appears inside the capital 'G' on all places, and not long before this album came out in 2015 there was a band called New Goblin. In addition, Claudio Simonetti also has a version of Goblin, but he is the only member of the 'Suspiria' quartet missing from this line-up, his place taken by Maurizio Guarini who joined the band in 2003.

Originally released by Backtothefudda in 2015, Black Widow have pulled out the stops with this release as there is a booklet, slip sleeve, and even four playing card aces featuring cartoons of the musicians. But, it is easy to see why, as here is a band that may have left the scene for quite a few years in this career, but they are back with an absolute vengeance. The production is spot on, which allows each of the musicians to really shine on this instrumental album. It shouts class from the first note to the very last, and it is incredible to realise that this band was formed more than forty years ago yet is still producing music that is important and relevant today. Massimo Morante has the same delicate touch on guitar as always, and this brings the music together in a fashion that allows the others to create space and depth throughout. This is yet another Goblin classic to add to their canon, and I hope that I manage to catch these guys in concert again. Superb.