LIMITI ALL'EGUAGLIANZA DELLA PARTE CON IL TUTTO

When it comes to Italian prog there is no doubt that the majority of bands that have come and gone since the genre's nascency in the early 1970s have been loyal traditionalists and followed in the footsteps of the pioneers such as Premiate Forneria Marconi, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Museo Rosenbach, Quelle Vecchia Locanda or Le Orme but every once in a while certain artists were more interested in casting their gaze towards lands far away for inspiration. Area was one of the first totally off the wall and unorthodox bands to emerge on the scene but as time went on some bands were more interested in the English sounds than anything close to the Mediterranean. Nothing screams bloody England more than the idiosyncratic jazz-rock style of the Canterbury Scene but yet this warm and inviting technical wizardry laced with absurdities and whimsy has appealed to many bands from well outside the pastoral English countryside.

While Italy has not exactly been a hotbed for the Canterbury sounds that made bands like National Health and Hatfield & The North some of prog's most beloved acts, the Genova based Picchio dal Pozzo was the first to put Italy on the map for with its strange blend of avant-prog and Canterbury charm rolled out into some of the most unique sounds in the musical universe. Picchio dal Pozzo was the oddball in the Italian prog scene since its debut all the way back in 1976 with virtually zero interest from other Italian bands but finally in 2013 in the city of Palermo on the island of Sicily another band caught the Canterbury bug. HOMUNCULUS RES is another oddball prog band. Musically sounding like a mix of Caravan, Soft Machine along with a bit of avant-prog from fellow countrymen Yugen and their knotty, sinewy technicalities, HOMUNCULUS RES stuck to the Italian tradition of keeping lyrics in the mother tongue as well as adopting a few touches of the passionate operatic vocal style of the Italian greats.

LIMITI ALL'EGUALGLIANZA DELLA PARTE CON IT TUTTO ( Limits To The Equality Of The Part Of The Whole) is the band's debut album which was released in 2013 and immediately set the band apart from virtually every other Italian prog band that came before. With the playful pop-infused hooks of Caravan, HOMUNCULUS RES also displayed a firm command of those complex playful jazzy chord workouts found all throughout the Canterbury universe whether it be from the English stock a la Hatfield, Egg or Matching Mole to the foreign exports such as Supersister and fellow countrymen PIcchio dal Pozzo especially in the electronic deliveries however one can also hear traces of the experimental art pop antics of Stereolab especially with clever electronic atmospheres and the light and airy vocal harmonies that are slightly off kilter. The band at this point were the four D's: Dario D'Alessandro (guitar, vocals, keyboards,) Davide Di Giovanni (piano, organ, synth, vocals), Daniele Di Giovanni (drums, percussion, vocals) and Domenico Salamone (bass) but six collaborators and guests contributed flutes, wind controller, minimoog, memotron, organ, more guitars, more electronics and even a trumpet.

The beauty of LIMITI is that it changes things up fairy often offering both progressive pop tracks easily digestible in the vein of Caravan's "In The Land Of Grey And Pink" to nasty prog angularities that offer some bombast as in "Rifondazione Unghie." Add to that the more traditional melodic symphonic prog cuts like "La ballata dell'amore Stocastico" and the experimental electronica of "Sintagma" and chances are that you'll never be bored for a second on this one. With a firm foot in the Canterbury sounds of England, HOMUNCULUS RES manages to add enough spice in the form of space rock, electronic experimentation and traditional Italian prog sounds to keep their sound somewhat unique although the band never strays from the Canterbury oddball jazziness for too long with only brief intermissions of true avant-garde splendor. Overall this is a beauty of a debut that allowed this Palermo band to become a prog fave of many and has continued to release excellent albums up to the present day.