TIME OF CHANGE

The TRIP was usually thought of as an Italian band, but in reality, they were a British band, formed in London in 1967, but they went to Italy and started acquiring Italian musicians not too long after they formed, so for practical purposes, they are Italian.

1973's "Time of Change" was their final album, by which they were no longer recording for RCA, but for Trident, a small, independent Italian label best known for giving us the likes of SEMIRAMIS and BIGLIETTO PER L'INFERNO. The band at this point consisted of keyboardist Joe Vescovi, bassist Arvid "Wegg" Andersen, and drummer Furio Chirico, all credited to vocal duties. It's Andersen who was there from the beginning when they were residing in England (although I suspect Arvid "Wegg" Andersen was Danish-born, given his name). If the name Furio Chirico sounds familiar, well, the next band he was in was ARTI & MESTIERI. He was also on their previous album, "Atlantide", but not their previous two ("Caronte", and their self-entitled 1970 debut).

Don't expect fusion-oriented prog like you do ARTI & MESTIERI, expect keyboard- driven prog, with some ELP influences. The album starts off with the side- length "Rhapsodia". Here you get treated with lots of Hammond organ, piano, Eminent, and synthesizers. A lot of the music tends to be a bit on the cheery side, which threw me off. The vocals tend to be on the hard rock side. And while the song titles are in Italian, they are sung in English. I don't really detect an accent. What's known is the vocals are often in the hard rock vein. When Joe Vescovi played piano, it was often in the ragtime style, like what Emerson did on "Jeremy Bender", "The Sheriff", and "Benny the Bouncer". The organ in the music is often ELP-like. The lyrics are a bit on the cheesy side. And if you enjoyed Chirico's drumming on ARTI & MESTIERI, you'll enjoy it here, as he often plays just as fast, often hard telling the difference between a roll and a fill. "Formula Nova" is a totally amazing instrumental demonstrating the finest quality of this band, where the intensity doesn't let up. "De Sensibus" is a bizarre experimental piece, dominated by percussion. "Corale" is a classically-influenced number, while "Ad Libitum" is a instrumental, jazz-influenced piece, dominated by piano (played in the normal fashion).

Not exactly essential, but worth having if you're an avid Italian prog collector.

My rating: 3 1/2 stars