CRAC !

Do not be afraid of the title under their name where they describe themselves as "International POPular group", they meant this in a leftist view. Area could not be further away from pop music. This second effort is in the line of the debut masterpiece and is just as influential! We are still talking in a strange mix of jazz-rock-fusion laced with Canterbury influences and slightly RIO although this will be much more evident in the following Caution Radiation Area album. Traces of Gentle Giant influences are also evident.

Elephante Bianco reminds me of a cross between Mahavishnu and Soft Machine, while the second and third tracks are more in the line of funky jazz-rock much because of the bass lines. IMHO the most interesting track is Nervi Scoperti that plays with the boundaries of dissonant music between harmony and dissonance like a tightrope walker (much the way John Coltrane did with Meditations and First Meditations albums).

A short but very joyfull and very vocal track before Implosion (my fave on this album) and an excursion into RIO-free jazz round-up an other well-worth-seeking-for album!