MADRUGADA

Another soft prog Italian act,MADRUGADA were found in 1970 in Bergamo by keyboardist Gianfranco Pinto,drummer Pietro Rapelli and bassist Billy Zanelli,the later being a member of the beat group I Condor.Additionally Zanelli and Pinto were part of Mauro Paoluzzi's project PANGEA,which released an album in 1976.Actually some of the tracks of ''Madrugada'' were written by Paoluzzi.the rest of them written by famous songwriter Roberto Vecchioni.The debut of the band was originally pressed by Phillips,re-issued on CD in 2006 by BTF with four bonus tracks.

STYLE: Regarding the original LP,side A contains four tracks very fram from the classic Italian prog sound,mainly executed on keyboards.More specifically,after the 3 min. dreamy instrumental intro arranged for classic piano,the other three tracks are driven by Fender Rhodes piano/synth grooves,relaxed bass lines and drums and accesible polyphonic sections,while the compositions present a light rural edge.Side B opens with ''DMT'',where gears lift a bit up with some nice interplays,great moog and organ work and a touch of fusion overall.''Mandrax'' hails as the epic of the album (10 min. long''),where the band delivers smooth symph/fusion prog,characterized by the dreamy piano parts,the haunting organ and its hypnotic atmosphere.Borrowing the dreamy soundscape of the opening track,''Madrugada II'' closes the album in a nice and very lyrical way.

INFLUENCES/SOUNDS LIKE: The two sides differ so much,the first one obviously being in a West-coast style,while on the second one the band seems to draw influences from THE TRIP or soft PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI.

PLUS: The second side belongs among the most dreamy of Italian prog's soft sounds of the 70's.Beautiful keys throughout with some excellent organ and piano passages and a good collaboration between the members.The lyrical moments hold also some of the album's ethereal atmosphere.

MINUS: The first side is decent as well,but it's far out of the site's scope.Mainly accesible piano-driven tracks with multi-vocal parts often tending to the beat/psych past of the band's members.

WILL APPEAL TO:...mainly to lovers of the dreamy side of Italian prog and even keyboard-freaks (but with no bombastic moments).

CONCLUSION/RATING: ''Madrugada'' is nothing less or more than a decent release of 70's Italian prog.If only the whole album would sound like its B side...One of the most solid 3 stars efforts.Nice,but not even close to great.