THE SPAGHETTI EPIC

This is the second epical treat from Colossus I bought some years ago. I bought it around the same time as Colossus of Rhodes so that gave me every opportunity to compare them. After many listenings I consider this one slightly better. I will describe each epic below.

Haikara starts off with a mellow vocal tune accompanied by a harmonica which reminds us of course of the famous Once upon a time in the West movie from 1973. Doesn't sound like Ennio Morricone by the way, this is prog we are used to. I already knew Haikara slightly from the Kalevala project but that was just one shorter song so I'm not really familiar with the band. Seems to be an interesting eclectic progband (according to progarchives). I can hear what that's coming from, also this epic sounds pretty eclectic (if that's some kind of sound at all !) and then I mean, music without simple straightforward melody usually containing dissonances, at least that's what it often is in real terms. Anyway, despite the fact I like straightforward melodies, I can't say I dislike this epic. The build up is very good and makes this epic more than listenable. It will never be my favourite epical track of all time, but then again: I have an enormous lot of good epics in my personal collection so that doesn't have to be a downside. The song closes with the same tune as the beginning to complete the circle of this track. Composition and build up are better here than the music itself but still I think it deserves 3,75 stars.

Randone is a typical Italian prog band and that is what shines through obviously in this epic. The composition is not very memorable here I'm afraid. It's the usual build up as with many epics, many alternations and moodswings. Randone uses several themes and there's even a bit of Bach's Toccata detectable if you listen carefully. Nice epic but nothing mindblowing. 3 stars.

Tilion is my least favourite track. It's supposed to be Italian symfo but especially in the beginning it sounds more like psychedelic/space to me. At 3:45 the more normal music takes its turn. But to me that is not yet something near nice let alone great music. In contrast to Haikara I have sincere doubts about the quality although I have no doubt there could be proggers that like this one. Just not me. The vocals are at least debatable and also the music is not in one passage anything of my liking (except maybe the piano at ± 10.00 but that's not even for one minute in length). Second half of the song is a bit better by the way. Matter of personal taste of course, don't let it bother them, but I can give no more than 2 stars.

La Voce del vento starts the second and better disc of the two for my preference. The vocals are by Guy Manning who also appears in Parallel or 90 degrees and The Tangent. The man has an unmistakable voice hasn't he ? The music has some resemblance with the Tangent (flute a.o.) and this is a very good epical track because the instrumental as well as the compositional aspect of this track is of a very high level. This makes me decide for 4,25 stars.

Taproban is an Italian symphonic progband and that's pretty logical to invite at least a few Italian symfo bands for the spaghetti epic. This band and track is much more of my liking than Tilion. The track starts with some interesting keyboards taken over by the organ after several minutes. Some more minutes later a very impressive "march-like" tune sets in to culminate after a minute and a half in a ballad like half vocal/half piano passage working very nicely as well. This epic is at least as good as the previous one. I give it 4,5 stars.

Last but certainly not least is Trion, surprisingly a dutch symphonic prog band. The track starts with keyboards followed by a sort of church organ, then the two combined before after 5,35 the guitar adds lustre to the already smooth play, then a quiet down after 8,30, a beautiful piano tune is next, then guitars and an organ making the thing somewhat rougher, then the keys return more fiercely taken over by melodic guitar (until 13.00). Transition to a melodic multi instrument passage with a quiet passage, at 17.00 guitar returns to play a sort of theme till the end of the track. The last few minutes also bring out the atmosphere that is required for a spaghetti epic, in the end resulting in a great melodic guitar for the grand finale, a worthy showstopper. 4,5 stars.

Thanks to the second disc I think it's fair to reward this project with 4 stars (3 vs 4,4 stars so rounded up from 3,7).

An interesting concept album based on the movie "Once Upon A Time In The West" where 6 bands were asked to offer up over 20 minutes of music based on a character of the movie. It's harder then it sounds. For the most part it works although i'm not a fan of double concept albums as a rule. And when the first two tracks are my least favourites, well it doesn't get off on the right foot at all for me. The liner notes couldn't be better with a cartoon and detailed information that goes beyond the call of duty.

The first track is really about "The West" in general whereas the other tracks do deal with a person from the movie. HAIKARA are from Finland and I am a big fan of this band. So for me the result was disappointing. Female vocals and accordion for the first 2 1/2 minutes. Not a fan. My favourite part comes in before 9 minutes and ends after 12 minutes. Nice rhythm here. The rest for me is difficult. The intro is reprised to end it. RANDONE from Italy does the second track "Jill". This is better with all the vintage instruments from the seventies taking the spotlight like moog, Hammond and mellotron.This is fairly laid back with male and female vocals in Italian. Some nice electric guitar before 14 minutes. Just not a fan of this one though. TILION was a band I didn't know about from Italy. Man they impressed me here though.The best track from disc one easily.This song's called "Cheyene" and it opens with experimental sounds before kicking in with vocals after 2 1/2 minutes. Piano and guitar come in a minute later as the tempo picks up. Drums and a great sound follow. Kind of jazzy 4 1/2 minutes in as it settles. It's intense 7 minutes in before kicking back in. Fantastic sound ! It settles as the song continues to change. It's intense again to end it.

Disc 2 starts off with a band called LA VOCE DEL VENTO who is actually those two guys from PARALLEL OR 90 DEGREES now called THE TANGENT, Andy Tillison and Guy Manning. They don't disappoint in the least. You should see all the instruments these two guys play. And they both sing. First Guy is up on vocals after 3 1/2 minutes, then Andy sings after 9 minutes. These guys are gun slingers man. Some great organ on this one. This is just a treat to listen to and my favourite off this double album. A pleasure. Oh the song is called "Harmonica". Next up is an Italian band called TAPROBAN who I hadn't heard of before but was left very impressed. The song is called "Morton". It opens with the sound of a train coming through. Very cool. It kicks in around a minute with a good heavy sound. This sounds incredible when the vocals join in. Organ after 5 1/2 minutes with some passionate vocals in tow. Chunky bass follows then they jam for a while. I like the synths. The sound of waves end it. "Frank" is the final song by TRION from the Netherlands. The guitar in this one surprised me the most. There's plenty of it along with mellotron. The church organ early is a powerful statement too. A good song.

I'd give disc two 4 stars, but disc one is no more then 3 stars.Three great tracks and one good to go along with the first two which were okay.

To be honest (I'm always honest, but this is how phrase sounds), I'm amazed. I've seen Once Upon a Time in the West (or C'era una volta il West is you please) when I was a little child and many times since that wonderful moment of greatly build atmosphere, deeds which had to be done, cold staring Frank's eyes, Jill trying to start a new life, Cheyene dirty, with crude ways, but one that can be counted on, Harmonica man, burned by his revenge and Morton, so self-confidental. OK, now we can end this review. What ? You want to hear more ? OK, but only because of you... It's one of the foundation stones in my sense of morality, things which should be done and those that you can't do with clean conscience. Well, I basically enjoy every moment of this Film. And if Spaghetti means offensive term in normal way, I don't take it. After all, Sergio Leone did better job than a lot of others.

He created masterpiece. And to this status, also this album is trying to get close. Six tracks, six times 20-24 minutes. That's fine amount of epic work. Occasionally we can hear sounds of western (horses, shooting bullets, flies). Every track is named after one of the main characters here, except first track, which serves as connection between them. But tracks not only revolves about their namesakes, but explores other topics too. Because every track is different in style. Yes, they all are Italian symphonic, mostly (but take for example Haikara). Jill's track is quite cheerful, Cheyene's is some kind of mysterious, not so nice, but fits to his wild character. And others suits perfectly too. I like they completely understood atmosphere of each topic and made style, pace, use of acoustic/plugged instruments exactly after this vision. Sad thing that it's so forgotten. And "Frank" quite haunting, especially this piano in middle part.

4(+) because I can't see, nor hear any mistakes, also because of great transformation of movie into music (goal that only few accomplished), because of lot of minutes to listen and proof that even bands unknown to me can be good. And importance of this movie also.

EDIT: There are mistakes, even first I tried to overlook them, due to epical structure and length. There are deaf points, when nothing is happening. I wanted so much to give better rating, but I can't.

Perhaps a bit foolishly titled "Spaghetti Epic - Six Modern Prog Bands for Six 70's Prog Suites" is a project by a Finnish prog organisation Colossus. First, I don't like the word 'spaghetti' referring to Sergio Leone's westerns (besides, why not simply "Once Upon a Time in the West", which is the film this set is solely based on?), and second, "70's prog suites" is a misleading way to put it: yes, the bands were asked to make epics in the 70's style (especially Italian Prog style), but that don't quite make them "70's prog suites", does it?

Both of the 2 discs contain three bands, each performing a 20+ minute epic. Three Italian bands, one English (La Voce Del Vento is a project name for Guy Manning and Andy Tillison), one Dutch and one Finnish. The latter (or actually the first one in the set), HAIKARA, is my favourite one here. Whereas the five other bands deal with the main characters of the mentioned film (Jill, Cheyenne, Harmonica, Morton, Frank), Haikara's object is the West itself. Their epic is emotionally powerful, beautiful and well balanced between instrumental and sung sections. Well, naturally all of the tracks aim at that, but I found some of them a bit tiring even if they start promisingly. TILION's 'Cheyenne' was my least liked track; for example vocals are bad. RANDONE's interpretation of the female character is among the best too, as well as the totally instrumental closer by TRION from Holland.

I must say I enjoyed much more the Kalevala Prog Epic, which featured in three discs a multitude of bands. This 6-track set with the more specified structural guidelines is not as good in introducing new bands to the listener. And moreover, the double disc containing nothing but 20+ minute epics is not my ideal vision of a prog work. The fact that the bands change in each track don't actually help the heavy, demanding structure of the wole set.

Anyway, for anyone wanting long epics in the classic Italian style this set is warmly recommended. Especially if the bands include ones you already appreciate. None of them (except Haikara from my Finnish point of view!) is very easy to come across. I guess I hadn't listened to four of these bands before. Worth mentioning is the lavish booklet that contains storylines of the film and also a cartoon. It all increases my possibilities to enjoy the Sergio Leone film much more when I happen to see it the next time (because frankly it has often felt way too long to pay close attention till the end).