QUINTO STATO

Very nice and fluid fusion music from this very known italian band. This album is not as strong as "Tilt" or "Giro di Valzer", but offers us some very nice songs, with very good playing from all the band members. Furio Chirico is less remarkable, but he is still a reference in this album. Very good keyboard and flute work, but the guitar is not so impressive due to the major presence of the keyboards. The vocals in some themes, in the beginning, are a little rough, but they become quite interesting as soon as we get used to. As being an Arti + Mestieri fan for a long time, I could not ignore this great album. I advise it to all fusion and Arti + Mestieri lovers.

I wasn't very shure about the stars... there is a matter of taste here... personally I don't like the rough vocals and the lyrics of this album. I prefer a soft and a melodic voice. musically the album is good, perhaps not so good as the previous. it is more jazzy, more funk-like... very good... it is like greenslade, the music is ok. but when they sing...you just want them to shut up!

Actually I don't mind that much the rough vocals, although I've to admit they don't fit very well to the music which I can't get crazy about in some way. Well it's a nice jazz/funk-album more or less, but in no way comparable with the stuff they made on their first two releases which were much more progressive. This one here can't give me much I've to say. It's not the type of jazz-fusion I'm fascinated about.I would say this album is just interesting for die- hard fans or lovers of funky more commercial type of jazz-fusion.

The third work released after it forms again "Quinto Stato". First of all, I was surprised for vocal. The sound followed the fusion route of the former work, and became atmosphere relaxed in addition. ARTI was transfigured to the fusion group that was the technique and balanced. The energy of Italian rock in the first half of 1970's is felt in vocal by me. Unique fusion album. It is an interesting content.

"Quinto Stato" is the third studio album by Arti e Mestieri and was released in 1979 on the independent label Cramps Records with a renewed line up featuring Furio Chirico (drums), Marco Gallesi (bass), Marco Cimino (piano, synth, clavinet, Moog - former member of bands such as Errata Corrige and Esagono), Claudio Monafia (guitar, flute, vocals) plus the contribute of the guests Gigi Venegoni (guitar), Rudy Passuello (lead vocals, bassoon), Arturo Vitale (sax), Gigi Fregapane (vocals), Gino Torni (vocals) and Flavio Boltro (trumpet). The overall sound is more straightforward than in the past blending jazz-rock and committed lyrics and every now and again this work could recall the seventies albums released on the Cramps label by artists such as Eugenio Finardi or Alberto Camerini...

The caustic opener 'Quinto Stato (emarginato)' (Fifth State ' Outcast) tells the misadventures of a musician falling into marginalisation in a time of ideological crisis, called in Italy "riflusso", characterized by the betrayal of the ideals of the seventies, swept up by problems such as drug addiction, unemployment, corruption or criminality... The title refers to a famous tableau by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, made in 1901 and representing the Fourth State assuming class awareness and marching together, a well-known symbol for progressive and socialist causes. In this sense, the Fifth State of the title is located on a lower level and the protagonist feels like an outcast without hope...

Next comes 'Vicolo' (Alley), a nice instrumental track featuring slapping bass lines and soaring synth melodies that leads to the following 'Arterio (sclerosi)', a venomous ranting against the Italian political class of the time, here described as an incompetent gerontocracy clinging on power and crowded with hunchbacks and dwarves...

Next comes 'Torino nella mente' (Turin in the mind) that closes the first side of the LP. It's a calm piece that could recall Perigeo with a good flute work that contrasts with the pulsing rhythm section. It paints with its notes the hazy urban landscape of an industrial, busy city that is not without charm and beauty...

Side B opens with 'Mercato' (Market), a beautiful track with a vein of suffused melancholy and a pinch of exoticism. Here vocals are used just as an instrument and the relaxed atmosphere could be the perfect background for some scenes from a seventies film shot in the streets of an Italian city...

Then it's the turn of 'D'essay', an ironic track that tells of a police raid in an art-house cinema... A genial film about alienation and social crises, ten spectators in all for the premiere. When the police arrive all of them are searched, one hides a joint and complains... Well, it's just another ordinary evening of urban commitment!

Then the short, dynamic 'Arti' (Arts) leads to the last track, 'Sui tetti' (On the roofs). Here vocals are used as an instrument again to give colour to a relaxed jazzy piece where melancholic sax notes seem flying over a sleeping city that wants to dream on...

On the whole, a good album performed by a skilled group of musicians but not an outstanding one.

A marked step down from previous efforts, although not exactly a sellout: even though the band followed the tradition of their American fusion contemporaries by moving towards a more commerciably viable funk-influenced sound, it's not exactly radio-friendly material and even the three relatively accessible vocal numbers ("Arterio", "D'Essay" and the title track) all have a solid foundation in traditional mid-70s jazz fusion. This doesn't change the fact however that these three particular songs are the weakest points on the album by a distance: not only do they all kinda sound the same anyway, but they also all share the misfortune of being "graced" by guest singer Rudi Passuello's raspy voice that sounds very out of place and quickly gets on one's nerves.

The instrumentals are better, but betray a band gradually running out of steam and out of ideas, starting with the captivating, energetic "Vicolo" (proving that funkiness does not nullify a menacing quality to fusion, in case you really needed proof of that) but ending with a lifeless and uninspired jam ("Arti") and finally with a brass-driven conclusion which I think tries to go for a celestial atmosphere but just falls flat and peters out. Four years having passed since one's last album and only being able to stretch out a disappointing middle-of-the-road effort like this to just over 30 minutes is not the sign of a healthy career.