Monday 4 November 2024

WILD STRAWBERRIES

Una vita migliore is the fourth studio album by La Coscienza di Zeno and was released in 2018 on the AMS Records label with a renewed line up featuring Alessio Calandriello (vocals), Gabriele Guidi Colombi (bass), Andrea Orlando (drums, percussion), Stefano Agnini (synthesizers, Moog, organ), Gianluca Origone (guitars) and Luca Scherani (piano, synth, Mellotron, Hammond organ, bouzuki) plus the guests Sylvia Trabucco (violin), Alice Nappi (violin), Edoardo Romano (sax), Joanne Roan (flute), Daniela Piras (flute), Davide Corso (sax, clarinet), Marco Callegari (trumpet), Gaetano Galli (oboe), Melissa Del Lucchese (cello), Fausto Sidri (vocals, percussion), Martina Saladino (vocals), Nicola Sannino (vocals) and Alice Scherani (Glockenspiel). It’s an amazing symphonic rock work that draws on the tradition of the Italian historic bands from the seventies to express deep feelings shaping new pieces with an up to date sound and fresh ideas. The beautiful cover artwork, by Genoese artist Jessica Rassi, is linked to the content of the album...

 


The wonderful opener “Lobe iste calabu” sets the atmosphere. It’s an instrumental track that starts by a delicate acoustic guitar arpeggio and goes through many changes in rhythm driving you to unknown, dreamy realms made of sounds and emotions...

The title of the following “Il posto delle fragole” (Wild Strawberries) refers to a famous 1957 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and depicts in a surreal way stagnant memories and dreamlike flashes, poignant regrets and the new awareness of an old man, a scientist, who reflects about his past mistakes while trying to seek for a peaceful place to rest. In the end the fog dissolves from his nightmares and he can find the place he was looking for, a place to become a child again...

The lively, folksy “Danza ferma” (Still dance) begins with a strong baroque flavour. The music and lyrics try to describe the unstoppable rhythm of Time that keeps men and women in perennial movement. You can’t help it, you have to keep on dancing as memories flow back and forward and the rhythm rises while the music goes on...

 


“Mordo la lingua” (I bite my tongue) is a tense, melancholic piece about incommunicability. The music and lyrics evoke the image of a little, hot heart that tries to find a shelter form the storms of the outside world with no result. The protagonist drowns in a sea of adverbs and useless words, he can’t properly express himself and keeps on biting nervously his tongue. Without expression skills you risk to become invisible because a man who can’t talk and find the right way to communicate with other people is like a vanishing shadow...

“L’aspettativa del bimbo scuro” (The expectation of the dark child) is an introspective track with strong classical flavours were music and lyrics revolve around the psychological gap between what a man appears to be and his hidden desires and illusions. In every man there’s a dark side, a rebellious child that struggles to emerge on the surface from the deepest shadows of the ego. A dark, blind child that seeks for immorality and slowly retreats in face of the terror of social judgement...

The long, complex title track, “Una vita migliore” (A better life), tells in a very poetic way of a horrible family crime. The new partner of a woman, a seaman, sexually harasses and rapes her young daughter. The woman tries to protect and justify her man. The psychological impact on the girl, as you can imagine, is devastating and the music and lyrics try to depict the victim’s feelings conveying a strong sense of disenchantment and inner discomfort. The girl longs for a better life but now all her dreams are broken, her innocence lost forever...

Then, the beautiful instrumental “Vico del Giglio” closes the album. It’s a track that could recall Banco del Mutuo Soccorso without being derivative and invites you to have another spin...

On the whole, an excellent album and a must have for every Italianprog lover.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

La Coscienza di Zeno: Una vita migliore (2018). Other opinions:
Michael “Aussie-Byrd-Brother”: If you're an Italian prog fan, then La Coscienza di Zeno have once again delivered an album that holds everything you could ask for. They draw from such a rich history of vintage Italian progressive music but effortlessly graft it to a modern setting, and they deliver it all with an exceptional technical proficiency and vibrant imagination. Their previous album `La Notte Anche di Giorno' may still be their defining moment to date, but `Una Vita Migliore' is another classy, luxurious and unpredictable symphonic Italian work from an endlessly skilled band, full of colour and endless personality... (Read the complete review HERE)

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Sunday 29 September 2024

A DESPERATE DREAM OF FREEDOM

Preda is the third studio album by Mad Crayon and was released in 2009 on the independent AMS Records label. Ten years after their previous work, Diamanti, the band came back with new ideas and a renewed line up featuring Daniele Vitalone (vocals, bass), Alessandro Di Benedetti (vocals, piano, keyboards, percussion), Federico Tetti (vocals, guitars) and Daniele Agostinelli (vocals, keyboards) plus the guest Stefano Crudele (drums). In fact, this album marks an important evolution for the band. The musical fabric is richer, more refined, the vintage influences are still present but updated with a touch of modernity and freshness. It’s a complex concept album about a personal crises set in a dystopic world and the art cover and the pictures in the booklet can give an idea of the musical and lyrical content. Unfortunately there are no liner notes to explain the plot and you have to fill the gaps in the story with your imagination and the feelings that the music conveys...


 
The opener “Re Schiavo” (Slave king) introduces the subject matter. It begins by background voices and a disquieting atmosphere. The rhythm is slow and the lyrics evoke sweet, hard-to-die memories and an old photograph. Then the wind begins to blow, blotting out the dream. The protagonist realizes of being part of a timeless subhuman system, a mountain without a top that will sooner or later crumble. As the rhythm rises you can almost perceive a burst of indignation. Man devastates and ravages his environment night and day without mercy, turning it into a gloomy place. When the rhythm calms down there’s room for a melancholic mood and for an epitaph to humanity before a final surge of anger...
 
The long, complex “Preda” (Prey) is divided into two parts. The first part starts by pulsing bass lines and a funky rhythm, but soon the atmosphere becomes darker, almost suffocating. The music and lyrics tell of an unresting night with the protagonist surrounded by the threatening, oppressive lights of a city that in his eyes looks like a prison. He has to act like everyone else, wearing a mask to hide his true feelings. But now the time has come, he plans to escape and he feels just like a prey... As the rhythm rises the hunt begins and is up to your imagination to follow his efforts. The second part opens with a heavy electric guitar riff and dark organ waves, the protagonist keeps on running and you’re left with the image of a mask hanging from the a willow tree as the wind is blowing. A man is really trying to cheat death or is this just a desperate dream of freedom?
 
“Gabriel” is a melancholic track that evokes faceless shadows and screams drowned out by the noise of civilization. Something is burning without flames and there’s room for regret and rage, sweet memories and gloomy omens... Then comes the beautiful instrumental “Xoanon” that seems to take you on an imaginary journey through space and time. The title refers to a wooden cult image of Archaic Greece associated with the legendary Daedalus...

 

The delicate “L’isola di Sara” (Sara’s Island) brings out aching memories and misunderstood words carved into stone, in places out of reach. The music and words evoke burning scars and painful regrets but there are also melodic hints of hope. The bandcamp special version of the album features a track for piano and narrative vocals that you can’t find on the original CD, “Isola di Sara Intro”. It’s an introduction to this song with the guest Benedetta Degli Innocenti playing the role of Sara, composed for the live version of the album in 2012 but never performed. It’s the letter of a rebellious daughter to her father who once was an idealist and now is part of the system, changed by his part in the ruling power...

“Sovrano dell’illusione” (King of illusion) is divided into two parts. The first part begins by a delicate piano passage, the atmosphere is dreamy and melancholic. The music and lyrics describe the sad reflections of a man of power who becomes aware that his kingdom is just a world gloomy misery where is weakness what keeps men together. He’s alone in his solitude, greediness has turned his rule in a kingdom of tears but now he dreams of a new dawn and turns his eyes to the mountains of the moon, where the illusion is perfect... In the second part the rhythm rises, the sounds are harder but the feeling of confusion and restlessness never goes away...

“Re Schiavo Reprise” concludes the album with a brushstroke of repentance and regret. The protagonist vows to make his best to repair all the errors he made...

On the whole, a wonderful album that is really worth listening to.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

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https://www.facebook.com/madcrayon/

Mad Crayon: Preda (2009). Other opinions:
Jim Russell: In 2009 Mad Crayon reinvented themselves with a much more technically complex and harder edged modern sound on Preda. Most of the Tony Banks inspirations have been replaced by something closer to Ozric Tentacles, D.F.A., Yugen, and even a few bits of Porcupine Tree (Deadwing era, with some metal influence but not quite metal). It is pretty obvious that the guys labored hard over these tracks, they are filled with ambition and complexity... The variety of styles and the wide swings in intensity provide a package that will surely satiate adrenalin seeking prog fans. I think "Preda" is a good album by a very tight band... (Read the complete review HERE)


 
 
 

Monday 13 May 2024

FOUR FLIES AND A CRIME

The Tobias Crime Quartet came to life in Olbia, Sardinia, in 2014. The name of the band refers to the protagonist of 4 mosche di velluto grigio (Four Flies on Grey Velvet), a 1971 giallo film written and directed by Dario Argento. Nomen omen, as you can guess the music of the band is mainly inspired by the soundtracks of Italian seventies films in the vein of other bands such as Calibro 35, La Batteria, Strato’s, Apollo Beat or Anonima Sonora. After a good live activity on the local scene, in 2016 the band self released a 7 inches vinyl single with original music in vintage style entitled Meet The Tobias Crime Quartet with a line up featuring Maurizio Ragnedda (keyboards), Giuseppe Cossu (guitar), Giuseppe Aversano (drums) and Fabio Alìas (bass). It’s a limited edition printed in just 300 copies to sell as a gadget at their concerts but available also in a digital edition...

 


The opener “Pittulongu Connection” is a nervous and frenetic track, with strong jazz and funky nuances. The title refers to the favourite beach of the inhabitants of Olbia, about eight kilometres from the town, on the road that leads to Golfo Aranci. Best known also as Puntale Lungo, Pittulongu beach is a ‘half-moon’ of very fine, white sand with a few stretches of small shells: a perfect set for a thriller but the plot is up to your imagination...

Next comes “R.T., giustiziere”, a piece with a fast, spasmodic pace that begins with an electric guitar riff and continues with a tight, pumping rhythm section and vibrant organ surges. The title refers to the character from whom the band took its name, Roberto Tobias. In Dario Argento’s film Roberto Tobias is a drummer in a rock band who has been followed for a few days by a stranger in a dark raincoat. One evening, after rehearsing with the band, he decides to directly confront his persecutor and he follows him into a theatre. The two argue and the persecutor pulls out a dagger, with which Roberto accidentally kills him. The original score of the film was composed by Ennio Morricone but this is not a cover and the rest of the plot can follow the flow of your own imagination... 

 

Tobias Crime Quartet 2016

Praia Grande 5 Till 9” is calmer and better suited to evoking exciting adventures in an exotic paradise rather than urban crimes or car chases. The title seems to refer to a passionate night on a famous Portuguese beach in the Sintra region but somehow recalls also PFM... Then comes “Repraia”, just a reprise that ends this short but intense work...

On the whole, a very promising debut. I really hope this band can release a full length album sometime...

You can listen to the complete work HERE

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