DEDALUS

Aren't afraid of a fly in your soup? jazz in your prog? Check out Dedalus! Funnily enough, I wouldn't categorize these guys in Fusion, more in Eclectic Prog. This isn't just Jazz, it's also RIO, electro, and hard-rockish! The first rack, Santiago', proves just that. It begins with a Miles Davis-esque jazz jam, then descends into an extended instrumental synth section that concludes the song darkly, but not before returning to a bit of jazz. 'Leda' is avant-jazz and electro-prog all at once. Truly wild, but fun all the same. The Rhodes sure is prominent here, and I LOVE it! 'Conn', the shortest song on the album, is something straight out of a horror movie (an artsy one, that is!). Avant-garde, groovy, and eerie all at once. This is followed by the longest song on the album: the suite 'CT 6'. Again, the Rhodes is very prominent here. There is some African influence here. The music proves very art-rockish. I wouldn't be surprised if the great Billy Cobham was hitting the kit here. This track feels like a collection of solos, if a collection of anything. Fun, high-octane all the way through, and very, very Dedalus. Calls back to Soft Machine's 'Third' at times. 'Brilla', the epic closer, is just pure beautiful sax. Not concerned about getting dirty and gritty, this track just flows, like a pebble-less river, or a cloudless sky. It gets fast, it gets slow; I don't care. To me, all it is is amazing. As a person born into jazz music, this album is a gift from God: prog and jazz shaking hands, a rare occasion. Prog on.

Opener Santiago is a mostly straightforward rip on later Soft Machine and second tier UK jazz rock bands of the 1973 era. However, it soon veers into echo laden acid violin (cello actually) meltdown world straight from the middle section of Whole Lotta Love filtered through some of the electronic musique-concrete improvs on Hawkwind's Space Ritual to let you know- "hey this isn't just a jazz rock band folks". Soon we return to familiar ground as a groove brings us home, but the song for some reason just ends abruptly. Second song Leda again starts with sax from Marco Di Castri with a strong underpinning from keyboardist Bonansone on echoed Fender Rhodes electric piano that sounds like Chick Corea's early work in RTF. Some of Miles Davis' groundbreaking electric work like In a Silent Way is also a reference point, in particular the 3rd song Conn, which brings side one to an end.

Side two opens with CT 6, a guitar led Hatfield styled approach before Di Castri switches from guitar to sax. (keyboardist Bonsansone likewise doubles on piano and electric cello) A second section of the song begins abruptly and a synth solo straight from Zawinul gives this section a more rock version of Weather Report with Di Castri showing off some prodigious Canterbury guitar skills in counterpoint. Bassist Furio Di Castri gets to stretch his wings a little bit in a duet with drummer Enrico Grosso in one of the more traditional jazz sections on the album. Transitions can be a little jarring in this song as disparate pieces weave together-the side closes out with an acoustic piano piece that has touches of John Cage plucking inside the piano while playing. This shifts into a standard jazz rock workout for under sixty seconds to finish off a song that goes to a lot of places. The album finishes with Brilla, a sax led piece that begins as a low key Weather Report jaunt before the tempo suddenly increases and heads into territory vaguely close to some of PFM's jazzy Jet Lag, perhaps their only flickering of Italian roots, albeit barely visible.

The album cover is a direct nod towards the Dada art movement of the 1917-1919 era that freaked out folks and had strong bases in the US, Russia and Italy. It gives the listener a coded hint as to what might be contained inside (though their second album is a better example of Dada influenced jazz rock)

This one might not grab you at first, but repeated listenings will bring you rewards with one of the more original albums in the fusion canon of prog. Though they created this album in the midst of the hurricane of RPI coming out, they don't really sound Italian. Great guitar, sax, bass and drums on display. The only flaw I'd point out is that their ability to weave disparate sections together can be fragmented, as things seem to just come out of nowhere and leave without any successful bridging. A tiny complaint really, as their composition and improvisation technique is on par with the best of their contemporaries in the UK. Highly recommended for jazz rock fans.

4 stars

Anyhow, this little obscure gem of a group comes from the wonderful country of Italy. They released their first album in 1973, and was the only one to feature their complete original quartet, as their bassist Furio Di Castri departed after this was released. The album, self-titled Dedalus, is a cool combination of the free-jazz style of Chick Corea and the slightly avant- garde nature of Mahavishnu Orchestra, if I were to put juxtapose it with it's bedfellows. Much of the album is surprisingly spacey, but in the kind of way that cool jazz can just be so....'out there' at times. The best of examples of this being the two epics 'C.T. 6' and 'Santiago' (the latter being the superior in my opinion).

A glaring problem that becomes rather annoying after a few listens through is the incessant noodling that goes on (generally) towards the latter half of the song. It's not the worst avant-garde elements they could have mixed in but it does tend to ruin the atmosphere they so easily crafted. If I were to compare it to something I would say pre-Kraftwerk Organisation's Tone Float from 1969, which I shiver when thinking of associating it with anything particularly tasteful. This is the main reason why 'Leda' is my favorite track; it's devoid of any of the aforementioned. Yet, it also has a tranquility provided mainly in part by that classic floaty synthesizer (the guitar and drums are some of the best as well). That is not enough for me to hate the album though in any case, because the music still remains extremely pleasant for the majority of it's duration.

Criminally unknown and underrated, I want to the best of my ability to spread the world of this little-known album. Hell, it's got me hooked for the remaining material of the band, so why don't you get in on it as well? 4.5/5 rounded to 5/5.

This album is really a brilliant concoction of steaming jazz-fusion laced with healthy doses of space rock. In fact at times they drop the jazz-rock all together and venture into Krautrock territory. This is an all instrumental album that finds Fiorenzo Michele Bonansone (keyboards, cello, vocals), Marco Di Castri (guitar, sax), Furio Di Castri (bass) and Enrico Grosso (drums) synergizing their energetic and eclectic talents to create a nice mix of styles that takes a little from the jazziest sounds of the Soft Machine and mixes in some highly eclectic avant-garde jazz, psychedelic freak outs and energetic solos. The sound despite the tempo is always warm and inviting and can range from frantic Mahavishnu Orchestra type workouts to subdued Weather Report passages.

This one has really been a grower. Although i liked it a lot upon first listen, it has managed to burrow deep into my psyche. It just incorporates enough diversity and technical prowess to keep me thoroughly entertained upon repeated listens. If dreamy syncopated rhythms with tasty solos and tight group interaction is what you're craving in your jazz-fusion experience then you should look no further than this debut album by DEDALUS. This delivers for both jazz lovers and progressive rock lovers alike. Unfortunately they would never release another album like this again and moved into even more experimental musique concrète for their second release. If you have one of the newer remastered versions of this you will find the second album tacked onto the end. In my case it's not even listed as being on the album. It's just a surprise! 4.5 rounded up!

Part of the situation was that the bassist Furio De Castri parted ways after the debut. Instead of the sensible decision of replacing him, the remaining four members decided to let their freak flag unfurl full staff and really go for it in the experimental department which pretty much destroyed all momentum they had built and pretty much ended their musical credibility. Instead of syncopated jazz rhythms mixed with solo tradeoffs and spaced out freak outs, we get a series of clanging cans, breaking bottles, piano sweeps and various other noises such as cats meowing, operatic meanderings and whacked out outbursts. There are still traces of jazz here and there with drum rolls, sax runs and even violins but they appear sporadically. There are also scant outbursts of melodies that are fleeting but nonetheless present themselves.

For anyone to enjoy this they must really have had some exposure to some of the avant- garde music of the 50s and 60s. There reminds me a lot of John Cage and his surrealist musical vision and the strange musique concrète of Edgar Varèse but most of all i get a Karlheinz Stockhausen vibe whose pointillistic musical impressionism is the main focus here. Like a good impressionalist painter, DEDALUS paints sonic textures with bloops and bleeps and scant traces of an underlying motif. I like to think of this in general as a ride in a canoe with the chaotic swirls and eddys of water that surround the canoe as the main focus that lead to an underlying object but only as indirect evidence that has to be mounted to come to the final conclusion.

Yes, this is ridiculously convoluted and complex and most listeners will not give this the time of day, but i personally find this kind of music stimulating on rare occasions. I think of this as the musical equivalent to those rare nutrients that the body needs like molybdenum that are only needed in the smallest of doses but yet are essential for the overall health of an organism. There is something about listening to this on the rare occasion that is kind of like defragging your computer. It just kind of makes melodic music sound better! Maybe i'm just a disturbed individual for finding any joy in this whatsoever, but being familiar with the avant-garde classical artists that preceded has aided in my understanding. Admittedly, WTF were these guys thinking?!!! This pretty much ended a promising career and they should have at least put out a couple more stellar jazz-fusion releases before doing anything this alienating to their fans.

As a litmus test you can ask yourself if you can tolerate Area's "Caos" from Maledetti and if the answer is yes, then you can take that track and make a whole album out of it and it will give you a hint of what's going on here. I certainly wouldn't call this essential but this certainly is more than random noise going on. Like the invisible canoe on the flowing stream that creates wakes and hydrologic distortions, this music is the impression of an underlying unheard musical structure that demands your full attention and multiple listens to discern. There are occasional classical motifs that just briefly bubble up from the underworld. This album is tacked on to the end of remastered versions of the debut album. It may not be essential but is well worth it if it's a freebie and can satisfy one's utmost strangest musical urges when the mood hits, at least it does for yours truly.

This record sounds like it exists in a universe a half octave out of tune with our own. It has aged like premium cheddar and sounds nothing like its contemporaries. The sound transcends jazzrock, fusion, and progressive fusion labels, establishing an undiscovered sonic template that remains largely unexplored.

The only other experience I've had like this is when I listened to Shuggie Otis' "Inspiration Information" the first 25 or so times. It's a record that is of it's time, but doesn't belong to it. It's groundbreaking without really breaking any new ground.

4.5 stars a real find for adventurous fusion fanatics - even house and fans of party music will find something to like. It's a fun album saddled with unfun labels.

For now I'll give it four stars--especially as I'm not sure how "proggy" this is--despite the avant use of space, electrified strings, and diverse keyboard sounds. Maybe further familiarity will cause it to climb to masterpiece status. I will add that it has incredible engineering/production for its time!