IO UOMO

And again I have to repeat those words. Another lost gem from that place and time of prog nirvana. 1973 Italy. Almost nothing is known about this band from Brianza. The few facts I could mine were that they were established 60s session men who played under various names before getting to open for Le Orme in 1972. They recorded this concept album about the evolution of man, released a single afterwards, and had a line-up change before disbanding in 1976. "Io Uomo" is one hell of an album. Short but memorable, it is an energetic mix of Deep Purple like hard-rock with lots of organ and ballsy guitar, softer pastoral moments of a sentimental nature and some of the typical Italian strangeness for good measure. Comparisons to other Italian groups might put them somewhere between Califfi and Jumbo, better than the former but less adventurous than the latter.

"Caos" begins with very quiet acoustic guitar and strange noises before the band comes roaring in with a heavy almost Zeppish riff. Great organ and excellent drumming. "Creazione" features the first real vocals and they are typically wonderful Italian, warm and lots of heart. This track has a great late 60s feel to the music and a bit of that sunshine hippie vibe. Oh yeah, and you can hear the damn bass..thank God. More nice keyboard work closes the song out. "L'Eden" is quite heavy and dramatic with a mini-drum solo at the end. "2000 Anni Prima" begins with a beautiful piano part and the piano stays throughout along with occasional bursts of the rock chug and good vocal parts. Some nice saturated electric lead in there and the return of the nice piano part from the beginning to close the song. "Preghiera" is classic Italian prog a bit on the heavier side with a really chunky riff repeating and some nice licks here and there. Good jamming between guitar, bass, and keys but unfortunately like many songs here it is too short and fades before fruition. Side 2 begins with "Morire o Non Morire." A heavy plodding beat leads the way to more burning guitar rock with chunky power chords and organ. This is simply classic early 70s rock sound that is not mind blowing but is well done. "2000 Anni Dopo" begins with acoustic and melodic vocal but soon turns into the most ambitious track with lots of riffs pushing good organ runs and tight powerful drumming. Cool song. The longest song "Uomo Mangia Uomo" is the closer and this one continues the somewhat quirky nature of the previous song. Initially pretty heavy, there is a softer and spacey section with acoustic and a background guitar distorted to the hilt. This goes back to a good rock section with lots of Hammond and repeating guitar riffs. The drums continue to blast away with an aggressive style. At 32 minutes it's all over far too soon but still it's an album that deserves to be heard by the Italian prog lunatics out there, like myself.

A short but sweet chunk of good prog rock that every serious Italian fan will want to own. Like many others of the period it received no promotion and sunk into obscurity until being unearthed by the Italian prog fan renaissance years later. There's nothing exactly groundbreaking here but I can recommend this easily to any fan of heavy guitar/organ based rock. The Japanese mini is a nice gatefold with a band photo and lyrics printed inside (in Italian of course.) Not a remarkable album by any stretch, but a good and pleasant one that I like quite a bit. About 3 ½ stars but for me I have to round up. Round down if you're not big on heavy Italian.