TACITA INTESA

The award for the most unpredictable and schizophrenic Italian prog album of 2014 so far goes to newcomers Tacita Intesa with their self titled debut! Formed in 2008 and hailing from Tuscany, this energetic band embraces both the vintage inspired masters and fresh modern sounds with a youthful vigour, attacking a wide range of styles, meaning their album sounds vital and exciting. There's a strong melodic and accessible sound with varied vocals and compact instrumental runs woven around them on display here, and this short 32 minute work (hey, it's still as long as many of the Italian prog classics!) shows a band trying everything to find their sound, revealing so much potential as they go along.

After a Post Rock-flavoured chiming guitar intro, opener `Ciutikutown' takes the album on the first of its many unexpected direction changes, turning slightly malevolent and brooding with an intense vocal. The band quickly move away from this gloomy path into a more upbeat and almost whimsical joyful stroll, plenty of laidback nimble electric guitar runs (and a nice scorching solo in the finale) and thick punchy bass. `Daigo' is a beautiful classical inspired piano interlude instrumental, but it should have been much longer! `Valzer...' is a dramatic yet still pleasing tune delivered with a stirring vocal and humming Hammond. `Portmanteau' runs barely over a minute and has a rollicking devil-may-care attitude and lusty wicked vocal that would impress Civico 23 and Il Bacio Della Medusa!

The wild variety of the disc is most evident on `Corona', full of power and grandiosity, with Pink Floyd-styled dream-like floating guitar atmospheres, heavy blasts of wild Hammond fuelled attacks and twisting aggressive grooving riffs. `Terzo Rigo...' is one of the finest accessible pieces on an RPI album in 2014, with vibrant sun-kissed catchy verses given flight by warm dreamy vocals that recall P.F.M at their tasteful best, floating whirring synths and a bit of guitar grunt to catch you off guard. Closing instrumental `Periodo Refrattario' - whirring Hammond and symphonic synths with a hint of dark classical drama, repetitive maddening guitar melodies back and forth, a battery of imposing drums and bombastic sonic violation!

On the evidence of this CD, the band still need a bit more time to fully develop and hone their compositions. Some pieces on the album are little more than snippets, even underdeveloped, or occasionally placed alongside unrelated sections which means the album sometimes has a disjointed sense of flow. But this will only improve as they continue to mature and work on their music, as plenty of ideas and styles are pouring out of the band, and I have no doubt their next release will be even stronger. But for now, this gets Tacita Intesa off to a very fine start, and I can't wait to see what they come up with next!

Three and a half stars, rounded up to four for encouragement!