FRANCESCO TI RICORDI

Very interesting: an italian band, formed by four brothers, based in Germany during the 70´s. Although the style here is heavy prog in the vein of Deep Purple and Atomic Rooster, they sing in italian, which, contrary to their symphonic counterparts in their homeland, does not really fit well for the style. So much so that the only one that it does seem to annoy a little less is the slow paced parts of Quando La Luna. Besides, the lead vocals were recorded way too loud for my taste. Like those aforementioned bands, there´s a lot of Hammond runs, a strong rhythm section and lots of guitar solos.

Unfortunatly the songwriting is not that great and the guitar solos are definitly boring (the guitarrist is always using the same fuzz box for all the tracks, with very few variations). The keyboards could be explored a little more too. I heard they had a good reputation as a live band in Germany (opening for acts such as Scorpions), but Francesco Ti Ricordi is not a great debut. The production is ok, although not espetacular. Maybe they needed a real good, professional producer to help them out with more creative arrangements, more instrumental variety and help recording the vocals in a different way. Anyway, this was only their first efford, and I believe that with some little more experience and time Atlantide could come out with something really outstanding. Unfortunalty they never recorded a follow up and we´ll probably never know their real potential.

Conclusion: this is more a curio than anything else. No track really stands and the music is way too commonplace to recommend it to anyone but collectors and hardcore fans of the style. Even then, anyone interested should listen before buying this CD.

Rating: something between 1.5 and 2 stars.