TAKA BOOM

If you ever want to hear how a band can screw some of their early tracks, this album is highly recommended and definitely deserves five stars (or even more). If you were looking to some great album by a legendary band, you might well skipped this work.

Two original band members revived the ''Osanna'' band out of the ashes of the forgotten darkness and they decided to release a ''new'' album. Actually, this work consists of early tracks revisited in a new format (and sound) for the majority of the tracks.

Most of their debut album is featured here (seven songs out of nine). To me, it is obvious that the band had nothing new to tell and opted to re-arrange their earlier repertoire. They will of course manage to integrate some new material to get some $ or £ or ? from the pocket of the devoted fans.

If some of them are not too badly re-worked there are some crimes committed here like the opener (''L'Uomo''). This version has nothing to do with the great original song from their good debut album. Even if I haven't been a real fan of this band, I have to say that they released quite decent albums in the early seventies. Their last one ''Suddance'' (released in '78) was already much less convincing. But to listen to such a massacre is VERY painful.

On the contrary, the VDGG oriented ''Ce Vulesse, Ce Vulesse''' is more than satisfactory I quite like the addition of this heavy sax all around here. It conveys a really powerful feeling. It is a mighty track and THE highlight here.

Oh yes, I had almost forgotten! About the unreleased song and title track.''Taka Boom''. If ever you expect a jewel of the Italian symphonic music, I am afraid to tell you that this number is absolutely awful. But with such a title, was there anything good to expect? This is a poor Italian-reggae track! I guess that you know what to do by now: press the wonderful next key which will skip this miserable song for you.

Another unreleased song is ''Colpi Di Tosse''. While the first part is very emotional and features lots of Italian ingredients (in terms of prog music), I can't say the same about the second leg which is just insignificant, noisy and dispensable.

I can only recommend to forget about this work. Two stars is really as high as I can get.

In 1999, after a hiatus of more than twenty years, founder members Lino Vairetti and Danilo Rustici decided to bring back to life the music of Osanna re-arranging the old repertoire of the band for some new live performances. In 2001 Osanna released a new studio album, entitled "Taka Boom", on their own independent label Afrakà with a new line up featuring Lino Vairetti (vocals, guitar), Danilo Rustici (electric and acoustic guitar) and Enzo Petrone (bass) with Gennaro Barba (drums), Gigi Borgogno (electric guitar), Vito Ranucci (sax) and Luca Urciuolo (keyboards) plus the special guest Enzo Avitabile (vocals). It contains some new arrangements of pieces from the seventies Osanna's albums and two brand new tracks...

"L'uomo" opens the album with a surge of energy. This new version of Osanna's debut album opener is brilliant, more aggressive than the original one and with an almost rapped section emphasizing the lyrics. The following "Ce vulesse ce vulesse", is a piece from "Suddance" ("Ce vulesse") that here is revitalized with the addition of a second part ("Canta chiù fforte"), harder and angrier than the original one...

The dreamy "Medley acustico" bounds a short excerpt from "Palepoli", "Oro caldo", with "My Mind Flies" from "Preludio, tema, variazioni e canzona" and "L'amore vincerà di nuovo" from "L'uomo". The effect is interesting, but you can't really resume and condensate such pieces in just five minutes and I feel that something is missing here...

The ironic, funny "Taka Boom" is a new track dealing with the risks of internet addiction leading to a virtual life disconnected with reality. On line you can find everything, you can burn every book and every film because you don't need them any more, even sex can be experienced on line and pleasure stored in a file... Until the body of your virtual partner, hacked by viruses, will blow up!

Next comes another medley, "In un vecchio cieco - Vado verso una meta", with two pieces from "L'uomo" that were bound also on the 1971 album (although in a different order) and here are in some way simplified and played in a more straightforward way. Then the canzona from the second album in its new dress, "There Will Be Time", leads to "Medley Train" where a piece from "L'uomo", "Mirror Train", is enhanced with a new middle section featuring rap style vocals in the dialect of Naples, "Treno senza stazione" (Train without station).

The new versions of "'A zingara" (from "Suddance"), "Oro caldo (Fuje 'a chistu paese)" (an excerpt from "Palepoli") and "Everybody's Gonna See You Die" (from "L'uomo") follow and lead to another new track "Colpi di tosse", a song "of rage and nostalgia" featuring the narrative and rap vocals of the guest Enzo Avitabile interacting with Lino Vairetti's melodic lines and including quotes of "Fog In My Mind", from "Landscape Of Life". A short acoustic version of "L'uomo" ends the album.

On the whole, a good work that takes Osanna into the new millennium but not an essential one.