PROTEO

The Italian four piece formation Proteo started to play R&R in 1996 but very soon they changed their musical direction more towards progressive rock, gradually the band shaped their sound little by little through the years. Proteo released three demos: the first called A Glare From Depth in 1998, the second named Of Stars And Mind in 2001 (both recorded in their practice room) and the third is their first studio release named PROTEO from 2003. Meanwhile the band signed with progressive talian label Ma.ra.cash records and in September 2009 the debut CD entitled Under A Red Polar Light came out on sale worldwide. And in 2013 Proteo released a second effort entitled Republikflucht! ...Facing East from 2013. But this review is about their interesting debut CD.

The eight, often swinging compositions on Proteo their debut (running time around 50 minutes) sound like a very pleasant and melodic blend of pop and progressive rock. It contains lots of powerful guitar solos and subtle arrangements:

a break with catchy interplay between percussion, handclapping and guitar in Eternity,

delicate use of electric piano and saxophone in Australia,

a slow rhythm with propulsive guitar work and soaring keyboards in Tales From The Ocean

and strong interplay between the rhythm ? and lead guitar, culminating in a pretty raw solo in Robota.

You can hear these musicians play together for a long time, Proteo sounds like a tight unit with many interesting musical ideas. If you are up to the more commercial sound of Rush, Roxy Music and Supertramp or if you like prog pop with hints of The Police and 10CC, this is a band to discover.

My rating: 3,5 star.

Two things influenced my decision to order this album and subsequently enjoy it. Firstly, as a child refugee from Communist Hungary, I have always had a morbid fascination for the German Democratic Republic (aka East Germany, aka DDR), devouring books and movies on the subject of an insane society with the highest ratio of citizen to snitch in recorded history (one in six worked for the Stasi secret police). From 1948 to 1989, dissent, travel and western influences such as music and fashion were strictly 'verboten' (illegal). The country was totally subservient to Moscow's authority. Secondly, Camel's Andy Latimer devoted an entire album to the life in the socialist paradise with his 1984 work 'Stationary Traveler', a remarkable effort that attempted to depict the GDR and its gloomy hypocrisy. French band Pulsar also did the GDR justice with the brooding Gorlitz album, another thrilling Trabant ride into grayness. There is a great joke about the hilarious PVC automobile, a donkey and a Trabi are next to one another in a parking lot and the ass asks 'What are you?', the Trabant answers 'a Car!' , to which the long-eared animal replies smirking 'yeah and I am a horse!' . One can throw in the Oscar winning movie 'The Life of Others' (2006) as another eye opening glimpse into crass human stupidity, among many others cinematographic insights ('The Prize', 'Torn Curtain', 'Der Tunnel' and 'Barbara' among many more).

So when Italian (from Trieste) band Proteo launched this 2013 album to critical acclaim (two respected reviewers gave this a great thumbs up), I took the merry plunge into this 'Escape from the Republic' which was the word used by many to leave the GDR unlawfully, as emigration was considered a crime against the state. Also intriguing were the various mentions of musical influences ranging from the Fixx (a huge non-prog favorite) as well as my beloved Roxy Music. Also hints of Gino Vannelli (the vocals), Santana (lead guitars), the Police (rhythm guitars) and Rush are evident. There are two axemen, one (Matteo Copetti) with a clear Carlos Santana lead guitar style and the other (Marco Paulica) with an Andy Summers/Jamie West-Oram (the Fixx) rhythm riffer technique, and the two are simply tremendous together. The sneaky bass is held firmly by Alessandro Surian and Fabio Gorza handles the technical drums. Throw in some delightful saxophone and some unaccredited keyboards and you get the full deal.

The opening salvo 'Echoes Mankind' is a complex, cinematographic and harrowing piece that has somber tones, loaded with innumerable sound and voice effects, blaring alarm sirens, vibrating beats, all meshing together until the bass, drums and slashing guitars announce the vocal line. The suave juxtaposition of the two guitar styles are brought to the forefront and instill a pace that will continue on until the very end of the album. Drummer Gorza in particular uses that choppy Stewart Copeland style to great effect.

The other tracks are pure bliss, like the marvelous epic 'Berlin', a 13 minute excursion through a divided city, sliced by a harrowing wall of barbed-wire, snarling dogs, mine fields, guard towers, searchlights and snipers. The contrast between the grey and dark East with the brightly illuminated West was incredibly obvious to anyone on either side of the divide. The Police/Santana mood is thrilling and exalting, driven by furious rhythms and choppy vocals. The attitude is 'wunderbar' and upbeat, just like the Kurfuerstendam on a bright summer day. The scintillating and extended guitar Copetti solo is simply masterful. This breathtaking formula is repeated on the funkier 'Eastern Fields' with Paulica doing a passionate imitation of Cy Curnin (the Fixx' rather sensational lead vocalist), fully loaded with soaring electric guitar soloing, changing moods and thrilling technique.

The brief 'Funny Girls Playing Double Dutch' sounds like a throwback to Dexy's Midnight Runners or Prefab Sprout, presumably to offer a bit of levity, as well as some humor. The intricate 'Four Leaf Clover' is another highlight track, a 10 minute+ epic that certainly has a jazzy sheen, hinting at Steely Dan, with a delectable guitar interplay that will blow guitar fan boys sideways. The adamant vocals will recall TFF leader Roland Orzabal but the sustained lead guitar licks from Copetti will really stun a few out there, rapid, technically dazzling and insistently soaring.

'Republikflucht' is the final piece and again offers a sexy intro with shifting guitars and determined beat, a true joy for the ears, head and feet. Lots of mood changes, softer sections colliding with raging passages, the arrangement palpitates endlessly. Copetti sizzles along with his extended electric frenzy, unyielding and obstinate.

While the Police or the Fixx might seem odd bedfellows, truth is there is not many who dare to plunge into that odd direction. Proteo is a delightful band and this album certainly has multiple merits. I urge you to escape the Vopos and flee to the other side.

4.5 Erich Honneckers

An Italian band of seasoned veterans have here put together quite an excellent oeuvre. I hear so many wonderful sounds familiar to me from so many other bands (The Fixx, Steely Dan, The Dream Academy, Prefab Sprout, Rush, Art in America, Gino Vanelli, Ozric Tentacles, Unitopia, Aisles) and eras (the 80s), all blended together subtly, unassumingly, into a very fresh and original (and welcome!) sound. And it is all packaged in great sound engineering. Favorite songs: "Eastern Fields" (11:52) (9/10); "Echoes Mankind (part II)" (9:22) (9/10); "Four- Leaf Clover" (10:37) (with its gorgeous SANTANA-like last three minutes!) (9/10); Berlin" (12:55) (love the sound big shift at 3:30!) (9/10), and; the FIXX-like "Republikflucht" (10:54) (8/10).

A very solid four star contribution to the annals of progressive rock of which this band should be quite proud.

Proteo's second album, "Republikflucht! ?Facing East" was released in 2013 on Ma.Ra.Cash Records and in my opinion is more refined and mature if compared with its predecessor. Here the song-writing is bolder and the music, yet still rooted in eighties pop rock forms, perfectly fits the concept and helps to take you back in time. In fact, according to an interview with the band, this is a concept album inspired by books such as Anna Funder's C'era una volta la Ddr or Ryszard Kapuscinsky's Imperium, it's a reflection about the cold war and a way to look over the ruins of the Berlin Wall, facing East. A fatherland with a hand of fire and another hand of snow that hurts your heart when you try to embrace it, as sings Wolf Biermann in one of his best lieder. Well, here the music is a far cry from Wolf Biermann's but it successfully contributes to set the right atmosphere while the lyrics do not try to tell a story but just draw evocative images focusing on the hopes and feelings of the common people rather than on politics.

The opener "Echoes Mankind (Part II)" is a sequel of the last track on Proteo's debut album and depicts military plants and barbed wire along the border, a barrack-like homeland where people are kept as prisoners without consciousness, where bureaucracy rules but where there's still room for hope and where in spite of everything flowers can still break the ice. Next comes the long, complex "Berlin", a surreal musical painting of a city that could resemble to a museum of modern art and where the free sky is blotted out by disquieting grey clouds. Then the dreamy "Eastern Fields" follows drawing images of a farmland on the edge of time where you risk to get lost in your thoughts, facing east, far away from home...

The lively "Funny Girls Playing Double Dutch" is the shortest track on the album and describes some innocent children merrily playing in a courtyard, unconscious of their destiny and scrutinized by men wearing uniforms. "Four-leaf Clover" is another long track dealing with feelings such as faith, hope and love under the iron curtain. "Republikflucht" concludes the album with a come back from this strange trip through time and space leading to mysterious and shadowy places, over fake theories and disused liturgies, underneath lost memories and black and white pictures.

All in all this is a very good album. Through the distillation of a myriad of influences Proteo have achieved a singular sound and if you like modern progressive rock with a melodic approach, you really have to check this album out.

Proteo were formed in Trieste in 1996 by Marco Paulica (rhythm guitars, vocals), Matteo Copetti (lead guitar, sax), Alessandro Surian (bass) and Fabio Gorza (drums, percussion) and along the years the line up has always remained the same. The name of the band refers to a small animal called olm or proteus (proteus anguinus) that lives in the caves of the Karst plateau and that is best known for its adaptations to a life of complete darkness in its underground habitat. In some way it reflects the style of the band, a curious mix of pop rock and progressive rock influences.

After some demos and a good live activity on the local scene, in 2009 Proteo released a debut album on the independent label Ma.Ra.Cash Records, Under A Red Polar Light, featuring eight well crafted original tracks where dreamy melodies and bright touches of musical colours unfurl avoiding banality. Although the overall sound every now and again draws on eighties atmospheres and could recall bands such as The Police, U2 or Talk Talk, the band successfully managed to blend these influences with a prog attitude and personal touch.

The opener "Colors To Give" is a kaleidoscope of images and emotions that flashes out eighties atmospheres and walks on the moon while the following "Eternity" takes you up and down through time and space, between heart and mind, where the streets have no name and eternity fades away dancing on Latin rock rhythms. Then comes the dreamy "Australia", that reminds me slightly of Men At Work or Crowded House and conjures up images from the Lucky Country. The title of the following "Tales From The Ocean" could recall Yes but here the tales from the ocean are not topographic at all and the waves move gently in a controlled flow while the music and lyrics evoke nights on a beach blessed by the moonlight.

"Van Gogh" is another dreamy track that tries to take you a million miles away, under deep blue skies. As you can guess, it was inspired by the work of the famous post-impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh and leads to the spacey "Robota", featuring short lyrics inspired by the work of Isaac Asimov. Then it's the turn of "I Wish I Could Fly", a piece full of positive energy. The last track "Echoes Mankind (Part I)" is more complex and describes in music and words silent weapons in a time where war and peace seemed to play to hide and seek. Well, all in all this is a good album if you like AOR but the progressive influences here are mild and prog fans risk to be a bit disappointed...

Upbeat crossover with just a hint of space

Proteo are another fine offering from Maracash Records. The band from Trieste have been together in the same line-up (which I think is cool) since 1996. Starting as a straight-up rock band they began incorporating progressive elements to their sound slowly, releasing three demos prior to this official full length debut. The new album won them the "best prog debut" award at the MEI awards in 2009.

While their web page lists some of the '70s giants as influences, to my ear Proteo sounds rooted in an 80s art-rock sound. In different moments I can hear something that reminds me of Mike and the Mechanics, U2, Police, or perhaps 80s Yes and Rush. This light and catchy vibe is mixed with a more modern progressive take on arrangements and song lengths. Rather than pop singles the songs are in the 5-8 minute range and feature a more elaborate approach. There are few up-front keyboards and frills of the prog world however, they go for an economical approach. While upbeat, the songs have a nice relaxing, meditative edge to them as well, as I found out one morning this week driving across town and drifting in cloudy thoughts-the music was reassuring and friendly. The band's sound is primarily led by the bass and guitars. Each track develops a catchy, usually upbeat melody that is propelled by the most bubbly and "large" bass sound, which I completely love! Over this is a very jangly modern guitar sound, similar to U2's The Edge at times, but often injecting some spacey vibe to it as well like a Djam Karet or Ozric might do. The spacey vibe and flight carries through to the artwork and some of the lyrical themes as well. The guitar leads are similarly lovely and melodic, focusing on atmosphere over aggression. Vocals are completely in English so this Italian band won't put off any of you English-only prog purists-you know who you are! The cd comes in a gatefold mini-lp sleeve with lyrics booklet. Recommended to fans of prog-pop, art-rock, crossover. A good debut and highly enjoyable piece of music.

This album sounds like a breath of fresh air. Perhaps a great description would be if Michael Brook(world guitarist/David Sylvian collaborator) were to let loose in the studio and write songs with Neil Schon and a few members from the '80s version of Talk Talk. Toss in some of The Shadows(yes, that's right), Tears For Fears, Comsat Angels and Fixx along with Police and '80s Rush. In short, Proteo take the approach of the more progressive New Wave bands in the '80s and strip it down without the cheesy synth adding Ozric-like bubbles and colourings. Highlights include the varied _Eternity_ which sounds like Talk Talk meets Michael Brook and Carlos Santana/Sonny Sharrock in guitar tone. _Echoes Mankind_ is another highlight. The Fixx and Porcupine Tree meets Sonny Sharrock in guitar tone and Mel Collins saxophone? Something like that. You be the judge. Don't expect any crazy solos here, but you will get some excellent songwriting. Amazing melodic pop prog. from 2009. Recommended.