INSPIRED BY... M.S.M. PLAYS THE SNOW GOOSE

I recently got this CD, having never heard of the Italian group before. But the music is naturally very familiar: they have adapted CAMEL's most succesful album and added an Italian language narrative (translated from Paul Gallico's novella from 1941) into it. Fabio Fantin who seems to be relatively young man acts as both the narrator and Rhayader, and occasionally there are dialogues. Fantin is quite a sugary and empathetic narrator, giving it a bit childish feel.

One should have some basic understanding of Italian, so that one could take it as a language course simultaneously, otherwise it gets quite frustrating to have these long narrative sequences on almost each track, boosting the total length to over 61 minutes. But frankly I don't think I'd enjoy English- language narration much better. Maybe even less, since Italian is such a beautiful language actually. But it can't be helped: that goddamn narration always spoils the musical enjoyment to some degree; I have never really enjoyed e.g. Rick Wakeman's or Jeff Wayne's works with narration either.

Musically speaking, this version is very fresh, airy and clean, giving a big role to the guesting player Anna Angelone's flute. I can't tell if I would enjoy it (imagining of course that the narration wasn't there!) more than the original Camel album - by the way, I haven't yet heard their remake version -, instead it makes me think how excellent the work itself is, how fine melodies and atmospheres. Also it makes me think that if I was a musician the Snow Goose album would be a pleasure to perform.

Music is absolutely great, and whatever differences there are to the original (others than the inevitable extensions to back up the narration) they mostly just increase the freshness. But I can't rate this more than three stars... A pity. But if the very idea of having The Snow Goose with Italian narration sounds good to you, this is surely worth having.

It's absolutely clear that this was a labour of passion for this young Italian band. To record their own version of a classic album. But that's exactly the problem/mistake!

Magnetic Sound Machine decided to re-do Camel's work on their 1975 album Snow Goose. Now, I was never a fan of this record to start with. The original album is indeed beautiful and full of great melodies and catchy tunes but a full instrumental album that is supposed to tell a story???!?? What's the point?

So, when I got to know that Magnetic Sound Machine's version had a narrator on it, it raised my expectations as it would be way more interesting than the original. And it is, indeed! Problem here is, you shouldn't do that!

I'll try to explain why I think so. Camel's Snow Goose album is considered such a classic that no one in good mind would want to hear a version of it, you would just go for the original, and that's what happens here. Magnetic Sound Machine's version is indeed a bit different because of the Italian narration, but in the end, musically speaking, it's just a note-by-note songbook of the original album. In the end you go back to the original!

Though the band did an amazing work with Magnetic Sound Machine Plays The Snow Goose (2013) and the album is a strong and quite enjoyable to listen to, nothing changes the fact that this is just a labour of love and passion by the band recorded for the band itself. The audience.... well, I think old fans would just stick with the original.

But it's worth to check it anyway if you love the original.