FANCYFLUID

In "THE SHELTERING SEA" the Italian band FANCYFLUID bring to us a neo-prog which in the great parts reminds me MARILLION like in track 3 "Achab", track 4 " Over the borderline ( in vocal as in instrumental parts ) and in some other tracks , they give to the listener a clear impression of an approximation with the symphonic prog of the 70's, like in track 6 "Maelstrom" that seems to me a GENESIS explicit influence... In one or other form ( in spite not can be considerate a masterpiece) the music is very enjoyable with a few weak or boring moments ! My rate is 3 stars !!!

For the recordings of a second album the official core of Fancyfluid was reduced to the Goria/Bruni/Annone trio with Max Gotta and Roberto Pasquino leaving the group, the later went on to join Pictures.The whole process was carried out with Pietro Ratto of Aton's on electric guitars and Gianfabio Cappello on drums.Several guests appear in the album, entitled ''King's journey'', with the most significant ones being Banco del Mutuo Soccorso's Rodolfo Maltese on guitar and Calliope's Rinaldo Doro on a few folk-oriented instruments.The recordings took place at the Transeuropa Studio in Torino between February and May 1992 (except Maltese's parts, which were recorded in Rome) and the album was released the same year on Musea, this time though only in CD format.

This work shows a good development over the indifferent debut of the group, at least considering the composing level, because some of the weak points of Fancyfluid's music are still present, like the thin keyboards or the plastic sound of the flutes.Stylistically they are very close to compatriots LEVIATHAN and EDITH, playing a smooth Neo Prog with some 70's echoes and offering evident Folk colors quite frequently, recalling ERIS PLUVIA.The combination is well-worked by the group, creating dreamy and ethereal arrangements, often delivered in the same track, either through acoustic lines with flutes supporting or over a more symphonic-driven sound with the keyboards in evidence.The man behind the flute work, Marco Giaccaria, is also responsible for the violin textures appearing throughout, making the status of the group even more Folk-oriented.However the bedrock of Fancyfluid's music is still a GENESIS-inspired light Symphonic Rock with electroacoustic changes and dramatic, emotional vocals in English (which tend to be quite irritating because of the heavy Italian accent), showered with deep atmospheres, but generally lacking the composing depth or instrumental diversity of the masters.MARILLION are still an omnipresent influence, especially in the more keyboard-oriented tracks, and the group fails to escape from the generic rules set by the monster bands of the past.Overall the music is not bad at all, but it lacks the power and richness of more talented acts.The peak of Fancyfluid comes at the more atmospheric or melodic passages, but the questionable quality of the flat keyboards, the accented voices and the mediocre production are preventing factors from fully enjoying the album.Honorable mention to ''Alchemic'', which eventually shows the band's full potential: Dramatic keyboards, vocals and electric guitars, supported by a nice ending trumpet solo by Maltese.

A step forward compared to ''Weak waving'', but still something is missing from this release to be considered strongly recommended.Too mellow music, suffering from an 80's-styled instrumental armour.Nevertheless I can see some Neo Prog fans enjoying some of the contained material, thus ''King's Journey'' comes recommended to this circle of Prog followers...2.5 stars.

This is very interesting!! A neo prog band from italy? I haven´t seen many of them around (I guess this is the first). And following the footsteps of Fish-era Marillion. Weak Waving was their debut CD in 1990 (a time when Marillion itself was turning into a alternative/pop group). I must say I did not like this band initially. The first song I heard from them was March Of The Gods, which is simply a poor, carbon copy, of Marillion´s anthem Market Square Heroes. However, when I heard the rest of the tunes, I was quite impressed by their songwriting.

Unfortunatly this and other very good facts about this band (like the excellent musicanship and the tasteful arrangements) are marred by the very bad production and the wrong choice of who to sing their stuff. Fabrizio Goria is not one the worst singers in the world, but clearly he is no match for the band´s skillful playing and his heavy, thick accent is beyond the bearable. If they were to have english lyrics the guy should at least learn a little english and the right pronunciation of the words. I keep wondering if things would be much better if they tried to sing in their native language. I don´t know if italian works in Neo prog style, but certainly it could not be worse. Bands like Arrakeen proved that at least french worked very well for this kind of music.

The instrumental parts are great, with some brilliant guitar parts, as expected. The bass player is also excellent. A pity that the poor recording put the vocals too loud and the instruments a little off balance. However, the band and the songs are so powerful that they do shine even with those bugging problems. The Coming has a terrific acoustic guitar solo and the second half of the CD shows how good they actually are. The use of some subtle extra instruments like soprano sax, flute and even a gregorian choir enhances their brilliant perfomances. Highlights are two long ones, the Coming and Carnac and the short and fast Big Rush.

In the end I found this CD to be very pleasant and promising, even if they are plagued with the aforementioned problems. I´m looking forward to hear their next releases. They surely could go very far. If you are a fan of neo prog in general - and of early Marillion in particular - you should check this out.

Rating: for the great songs, 4 stars. For the production and singing, 2 stars. Then I guess a 3 star overall rating is fair enough.

If you're a Pendragon fan don't miss this good album, the sound is very similar, with nice atmospheric keys in background, mellow melodies, and some toned down time changed. In some songs you can hear even some RPI influences, for the use of unusual solos instrument in Neo-prog, like violin, sax and pipe flute, although it isn't so brilliant. The production is excellent. The singer has a good voice and sometime remember me the singer of 'Deyss', when he tried to be theatrical. The compositions are simple, but sometime there are some elements of folk and symphonic progressive, like in the first instrumental track and the last track 'the end'. The lack of tension in some songs or excellent solos, is maybe the big problems of this release, and for this reason I'll give just 3 stars.

Fancyfluid needed 3 years to come with a third release and aswll their swansong. Released in summer of 1995 on same Musea records, The sheltering sea is considered by many their best album from all 3. At some point I'm agree, they manage to come with the almost perfect arrangements on this one, and when all seams to work pretty well they disbanded soon after. The most mature work in manner of compositions, more complex and well performed, everything is well done here, the pieces are well structured, and with all that the band is very very unknown to larger ublec. To me they are better and more sincer then many neo prog bands well known today. The arrangements ashow a great contribution to each meneber, the guitar is more proeminent but aswell th vocal passages are more delicate and filled with intense jaw droppin arrangements. Moonclimbing is one of the pieces that why I love progressive rock music, is so well performed and has some very intristing and original structure that for the listner is a real treat, excellent pieces, 5 stars for this one, the next one Maelstrom is another worthy track with complicated moves and superb song writting. As a whole this must be their breakthrough to larger public but seams even with this album they remeian widly unknown even to italian scen, not to mention to prog rock in general.Nice symphonic arrangements, some brilliant keybords passages makes from this third album a fairly good aquistion, all 3 are good but this one is their best. 3s tars , maybe 3.5 a decent and good album all the way. All 3 albums are available at Musea records, do't hesitate to take some spins, to me thay were a pleasent surprise.

Second effort by this discrete band named King's journey released in 1992 by same Musea records having a real strong cover art showing exactly what is going one on the album. I like how this band progresse to this second release, a little if not spectacular more choesive and solid album, Fancyfluid did have from the beggining a complex and sophisticated music with delicate touches of acoustic guitar, holding true the 70's Italian symphonic prog tradition. The all 3 albums don't have a masterpiece status or something excellent, but is very fair , sincere and honest music, very well done, professional and with a lot of talent. This time the influences of Marillion are left aside, but this time they are more towards Genesis in structure, but aswell from italian scene from the golden era. Nice guitar and specialy the keybords attract my attention, are very snooth well incorporated in the structure of the piece. Many are bothered by the voice of Fabrizio Goria, who has a specific italian accent, maybe, I'm not bothered by his voice, he fits very well in this context. I alsoo like this band and album because they incorporated in their music some violin, flute and saxophone passages, that gives a great atmosphere to the album and creats a quite great and unique aproach. Sitting on the edge or the river or the last track The End shows how great potential had this band but for some resons they never made it. 3 stars again, a good album for sure.

Fancyfluid is one of the bands from neo prog zone for whom I have a soft spot for their music. The came from Italy and release befor disbanding in 1997 3 albums. The first one named Weak waving is released in 1990 through Musea records and delivers a very pleasent neo prog style with catchy arrangements, even is very influenced by Marillion (Fish era). I've always like this band, is one of the most sincere and honest bands I've ever heared from this field, their music is very elegant, the keyboards, the guitar, the voice as a whole remind me, among Marillion and of italian '70's scene. Nice musicianship, cool progressive arrangements makes from this album a pleasent journey in neo prog zone. Even this album doesn't get any attention here and is very low rated aswell, to me is a good debute. Ever pieces is a winner and desearve 3 stars for sure. Pieces are long enough to show that musicians really struggle to come with some good passages, nice progression on all tracks, what else a good and fairly underrated release from italian scene.

A charming fable about a King with a problem

King's Journey was another nice find, an ambitious and charming combination of 90s neo-prog with 70s symphonic conceptual fantasy rock. It is the story of a worried King, who frets about the famine of prosperity and spirit that his subjects are going through. He went for long walks trying to figure out the solution to the problem and finally had a revelation that a great adventure must be undertaken to solve things. This is the story of his magical journey.

"The Kingdom" is a short keyboard instrumental to wet the appetite. "The Start" begins perfectly with a melancholic tin whistle and acoustic guitar. The vocals on the album are nicely done and in English with a pleasant Italian accent. The story of our King begins as the tempo picks up into a neo-proggish gallop with near constant lead guitar, bass and drums. About half way through comes the first of many wonderful electric guitar solos, displaying good chops and a Fender sound. "Sitting on the Edge" is a soft brooding piece where the keyboards and bass create the imagery of the river flowing by, where our King is resting on one of his walks. There is a lovely flute solo and an up-tempo section at the end that is very early Marillion. "The King doesn't Sleep" features violin and acoustic before the vocal turns into first person narrative for periods. The song picks up briskly and the violin rocks out with band. "Lady of the Lake" is a mostly mellow acoustic driven track whose purpose is the storytelling. Nice though. "The Fool's House" is a hard and heavy neo-prog rocker with raucous, eclectic jamming. Nice tempo shifts and differing passages make this one of the liveliest tracks. The song closes with a saxophone solo. "The Maze" is next on the CD although this song and "Fool's House" are reversed in order in the CD booklet which is an unfortunate printing mistake. The song is a mid-tempo rocker with plenty of lead guitar squealing away. "Alchemic" begins eerily with some sinister trippy vocals and features some trumpet which is a nice change-up from the prominent guitars and keys so heavily featured. "The White Winged Deer" is a lovely instrumental combining piano and saxophone and is tragically too short at less than 2 minutes. "Winter you've Finally Come" begins with the lovely piano melody and quiet hopeful vocals. Tenderly picked acoustics perfectly compliment the lyrics of renewal and redemption. "The End" is our 4-part epic closer clocking in at over 13 minutes long. It begins perfectly with stately solo piano for the first minute before the vocals begin. The next part features a beautiful acoustic guitar and flute interlude that brings to mind the most esoteric 70s fantasy prog classics. They're throwing in everything but the kitchen sink here and it sounds like an ode to the Genesis style epic. There are some rocking parts alternating with mellower ones just drifting from one passage to the next. The later part of the track features a "Solsbury Hill" sound and even the appearance of a bagpipe dueling with our synths. Unfortunately the ending is a fade-out which is something of a letdown.

Musea has done another fine job with our booklet, featuring the complete story of the King printed first. Then we have our lyrics printed with delightful little drawings for each song, and good credits telling you which instruments are played by whom on each song.

Recommended for 80/90s neo-prog fans but also fans of 70s fantasy concept albums. The production isn't the best as it was likely a low budget affair but it's certainly passable and if the music sounds interesting to you I wouldn't let this stop you. 3.5 stars.

Stylish symphonic prog!

This is the third and probably the last album from this Italian 90's prog band. I have not heard the previous albums but after listenning to this one I think I would like to get those too. It might though not be so easy but if I stumble across to them I'll grab immediately! After some orientation and as the album got going I started to like the music a lot. This must be just one of those hated Neo prog albums but as it is well crafted and keeps your interest untill the very end and gets all the time better I am not ashamed to say that this is good music! You can hear influences from Marillion strongly and the singing of Fish has affected the vocalist greately. But this is not a copy of anything. There is a idea of it's own in the music. I would recommend this to any prog collection!