LEVERAGE

Once again a good addition to my prog collection.Gallant Farm are really pleasant to listen to,amazing guitar playing by Gabriele Maiolo and Alessandro Pisani! The keys becomes more present in the middle part of the cd and it is more than often a la Mark Kelly! There is some weak moments and you have to adjust your stereo on higher mode to listen to it.Always glad to discover not well known neo-prog bands ,thanks to prog-archives!

90's Italian Neo Prog band from Roma, discovered by Ezra Winston's leader Mauro Di Donato and their last guitarist Stefano Pontani.Gallant Farm consisted of Giorgio Andreozzi and Alessandro Pisani on keyboards, Davide Guidoni on drums, Gabriele Maiolo on lead voice/guitars and Simone Maiolo on bass.They recorded their sole release ''Leverage'' in 1994, produced by Massimo Guarini, Pontani was responsible for the sound production and the album was released privately.From the number of guest musicians appearing we notice the presence of Leviathan's vocalist Alex Brunori, who sings in the longest track ''Been too wrong''.

Many are the Italian groups to which Gallant Farm resemble: Veterans LEVIATHAN, MOONGARDEN plus you can add a touch of EZRA WINSTON and ERIS PLUVIA in the softer moments.Gallant Farm was a talented group, suffering from the rather thin sound of keyboards, typical of a 90's production, but having some good ability on creating elaborate compositions with a variety of moods, including dramatic instrumental passages, lyrical romanticism and melodic soundscapes.Plenty of symphonic lines are apparent in the overall accesible style of the group, which combines a keyboard-based Neo Prog with a more pompous style of Progressive Rock, led by sharp guitars and masses of orchestral synthesizers.One or two tracks have a rather AOR-ish vibe with more catchy choruses and straighter song structures, while some cheesy keyboard textures do have also an AOR-ish vibe.However the album is far from dissapointing due to the pleasant, lush arrangements, some of which include delicate acoustic moments, and a nice number of mindblowing melodies, popping up in several moments of this effort.Vocals are in English with a decent and sensitive color, typical of Italian singers with a slight accent problem.

The career of Gallant Farm was short-lived.Almost all of the band's members dissappeared from the prog circles apart from Davide Guidoni, who's career was more than fruitful, playing with Taproban, The Far Side and Daal among others.

''Leverage'' is a good example of 90's Neo Prog, which may leave cold the lovers of more retro-inclined albums, but will please all fans of melodic Progressive Rock, soft, modern Symphonic Rock and Neo Prog.Recommended.

3,5 stars !!! In their first and only album from 1994 the Italian Neo-Prog band, make a mix of old and new school of prog rock music. This mix of tendencies are revealed by the clear influence of GENESIS in some tracks: as for instance the track 4 ". Something Behind Today " due the combination use of classical and 12-string guitars in association with a more "danceable" moments in the same track. Besides their music shows another intersting jazz-rock "landscapes" as in the introduction of track 5 "Free Climber ". The album still reserves some other great moments like the track 3 "Sunlight" which are full of different musical themes, very well linked in a perfect harmony, without the impression of various tracks in only one ( which denotes a very skilled way of composition !!! ). Although the album don't shows great surprises is a good album, with excellent musicians ! My rate is 3 stars.