LA FIABA DELLA BUONANOTTE

There's no need to worry if you can't tell Baroque from Rococo because, to paraphrase Albert Einstein, ''La Fiaba Della Buonanotte'' has about as much to do with ''baroque'' as gravitation has to do with people falling in love. By the same token there's no need to hold a gun to my head for me to make comparisons here, although I wouldn't try to measure these guys against the likes of PFM. This is a raunchy and modern mix of prog, glam and alternative rock... with an Italian twist, admittedly.

There's even some punk thrown in along the way, if you want to describe the Stranglers as punk. The bass and organ on ''Batracomiomachia'' has strong shades of the men in black, along with passionate vocals that recall Ange's Christian Décamps. If any listeners wonder about the intermittent frog croak effects on this track (which obviously seemed like a good idea at the time), the song is a parody of the differences between men and women using Homer's ''The Battle of Frogs and Mice'' as its inspiration. By the way, the album's vocals are a mix of Italian and English, sometimes within the same song.

''Operetta No 1 La Demoniaca'' has a Muse-like grandiosity to it, but Baroque's over the top theatrics and tongue in cheek operatic pretensions make them sound like an up-to-date version of the daddy of all highfalutin rockers. From the vaudevillian ''Scherzo No 1 in Re- Minore'' to the raucous rock of ''La Regina Nera'' and ''La Carie'', replete with Brian May-styled guitar solos, the Queen influence debouches out of this album's very pores. ''La Fiaba Della Buonanotte'' is available as a download for under $9, less than seven quid in real money, which makes this particular misshapen pearl as cheap as chips and a sure fire winner for RPI fans.