METROPOLITAN MADNESS

Appartenenza is the second album by Milanese prog band Macchina Pneumatica and was released in 2022 on the independent Black Widow Records label with a confirmed line up featuring Raffaele Gigliotti (lead vocals, backing vocals, guitars), Carlo Fiore (synth, Hammond, electric and acoustic piano, backing vocals), Carlo Giustiniani (bass, backing vocals) and Vincenzo Vitagliano (drums) plus the guest and co-producer Alberto Ravasini (former member of historic Italian prog band Maxophone - backing vocals). The new album reflects all the good qualities of its predecessor with its excellent mix of vintage sounds and original ideas. The colourful art work by Beatrice Traversin probably describes the musical and lyrical content better than my all words...

 

The raging opener “Appartenenza” (Belonging) conjures up a dark atmosphere with heavy electric guitar riffs and powerful organ passages. The music and lyrics evoke a dystopic society where different groups of humans act like packs of wolves avoiding to mix with each other. Whites with whites, blacks with blacks, reds with reds, that’s the way to preserve their spawn...

 

The nightmarish, bluesy “Pazzo” (Mad) gives voice to an outcast, a stranger in his own home city who is going through a personal crises and is sinking in a sea of doubts. He can’t find a way out and is rejected by the conformist people who look at him like at an old king who has lost his crown and now is useless and helpless. He can feel the contempt of the straight against the different and that’s driving him insane. Then a kind of nursery rhyme sung in German leads to the disquieting finale...

 

“Fuoco d’agosto” (August fire) tells in music and words of a desperate story of alienation. In August, in an empty city, a lonely boy sets himself on fire as a consequence of his inner desert. He’s alone in his room with his television and his mobile phone when calls a live television broadcast announcing his self-immolation. In a few moments his naked skin burns under the summer sun and on all the TV screens...

 

The long, hypnotic instrumental “Il cerchio” (The circle) is an excellent track that leads to the following “Rendimento garantito” (Guaranteed performance), a disquieting piece about human commodification and blind conformism. The lyrics evoke images of misleading elections, losers supported and comforted by analysts, old people crossing the streets without paying attention to the traffic, men queuing up to donate their blood to the pawnshop...

 

The last track, “Venerdì sera” (Friday evening), starts by a delicate piano introduction, then the rhythm rises while the music and lyrics depict the effort of the protagonist to escape from his daily grind evoking a dream of absolute freedom and excess, a dangerous plunge into the nightlife under a false name in search for fun and lust. The protagonist seems to get lost while devils and witches play with his thoughts and the border between virtual reality and real life melts...

 

On the whole, a very good work!

 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

 

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/macchinapneumatica/ 

PSYCHEDELIC RITES

The Lost Vision Of The Chandoo Priest is a side project of two talented multi-instrumentalists: Francesca Zanetta (electric guitar, bass guitar, Eminent Solina, Logan String Melody 2, Elka Rhapsody 490, Moog Voyager - from Unreal City, Quel Che Disse Il Tuono) and Niccolò Gallani (drums, bass guitar, electric guitar, Fender Rhodes, Hammond organ, mellotron, Elka Soloist 505, flute - from Cellar Noise, Quel Che Disse Il Tuono). In 2021 they recorded in Milan an interesting eponymous album that was released the following year on the independent AMS Records label. According to the artists, it’s a collection of music and soundscapes written, arranged and performed during a period of isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic and, as you can guess from the artwork, the psychedelic influences are very strong...

 

The opener “Floating Down The Valley” starts softly with organ and guitar in the forefront. Every now and again it could recall the soundtrack of a Spaghetti Western and, with its melancholic mood and a disquieting sense of impending tragedy, in my opinion it could be the perfect background for the reading of the Dark Tower series or The Stand by Stephen King, like the following “Chasing Time In Opposite Direction (Part I)” and “Entering The Void Of Madness”...

 

Then it’s the turn of “The White Toad Majesty” that starts by a strange marching beat while the dreamy middle section takes you to fairy tale atmospheres before the final jumps... Next comes the mysterious, nocturnal “Droplets” with its slow pace and reflective mood. It leads to the effervescent “Chasing Time In Opposite Direction (Part II)” that brings back action movie atmospheres like the following “Getting Nowhere”...

 

Francesca Zanetta and Niccolò Gallani 2022

The vintage sounds of “London Underground” drive you through an imaginary trip under the streets of London where you have to mind the gap to avoid a dangerous fall... “Farewell, Dog” is a charming piece that blends nervous riffs and short folksy passages. Then “Dunans Castle” (the title refers to a historic structure located in Glendaruel, on the Cowal peninsula, Argyll and Bute, Scotland) ends the album evoking pastoral landscapes and a relaxing sense of peace and love...

On the whole, an interesting instrumental album that deserves a try...

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:
https://www.facebook.com/chandoopriest

 

 

GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL

Wyatt Earp took shape in Verona in 2013 on the initiative of Matteo Finato and the name of the band refers to Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp, an American lawman and gambler in the American West who was involved in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. After a change of vocalist and a good live experience, in 2018 they released a first eponymous album on the independent Andromeda Relix label with a line up featuring Leonardo Baltieri (vocals), Matteo Finato (guitar), Flavio Martini (keyboards), Fabio Pasquali (bass) and Silvio Bissa (drums). Their music is clearly inspired by seventies hard rock and bands such as Deep Purple, Rainbow, Kansas, Rush or Uriah Heep but although this work might sound unashamedly derivative it’s not without interest and every track oozes passion...

 

The opener “Dead End Road” is a straightforward track full of energy that could recall Led Zeppelin and tells of someone who takes the wrong road getting lost... The following “Ashes” starts softly, with psychedelic echoes that could recall The Doors, and describes a windy and dusty landscape. It’s a bloody land where you can lost your faith surrounded by creeping nightmarish creatures and the frenzied second part, that every now and again could recall Deep Purple, seems to mark the desperate effort to escape...

 

“Live On” is another straightforward hard rock piece exhorting you to choose your own road and way of life while “With Hindsight” is longer and more complex. It alternates reflective, dreamy passages with hard riffs and sudden surges of rhythm and rage evoking memories, awareness and bitter regrets playing together in a dangerous mind game...

Then the frenzied “Back From Afterworld” leads to the final epic “Gran Torino”, that depicts an injection of adrenaline to get on the verge of something dangerous and strange. In the middle section the search for joy ends up in pain and apathy, the protagonist goes through various psychedelic visions until a voice announces that his soul is damned. The final part is a wild instrumental ride to hell...

On the whole, an album that deserves a try.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/wyattearpbandvr/

A PULSING HEMISPHERE

Emisfero Boreale come from Milan and their roots date back to 1977 when a musical and cultural project named Collettivo di Iniziativa Musicale was created. The band took form from it in 1978 and had been active until 1993 playing live on a local level. Their sound, inspired by the Italian prog masters of the seventies and by the Canterbury scene with bands such as Gong, Hatfield And The North, Caravan or National Health, was then considered out of date and it’s no wonder that they never had the chance to properly release an album during their early years of activity although they recorded some demos. In 2019, after a long hiatus, the band reunited recording old and new compositions and in 2022 finally self-released an official debut album entitled Pulsazioni with a line up featuring Pasquale Petrossi aka Banana Joker (guitar, keyboards), Alberto “Pepè” Petrossi (bass), Enrico Ferraresi (drums), Nicola Calegari (sax) and Chus Fernandez (bass) plus the guests Chiche Sosa (guitar), William Marino (guitar), Teodoro Romero Escudero (percussion) and Amerio Pace (acoustic guitar). It’s a completely instrumental album that in my opinion is really worth listening to...

 

The excellent opener “La rottura della sfera di cristallo” (The breaking of the crystal ball) alternates dreamy atmospheres and raging solos with sax and electric guitar in the forefront backed by pulsing bass lines...

“Nuova civiltà anno zero” (New civilization year zero) starts softly with a strong Oriental flavour, then the rhythm takes off leading to new horizons, from Mediterranean shores to America and return...

The lively title track, “Pulsazioni” (Pulsations), is full of bright melodic lines and positive energy while the following “Emisfero boreale” (Boreal Hemisphere) is more delicate and relaxed with its slow pace and nocturnal mood. It could be a perfect score for some scenes of a romantic movie...

The title of the spacey epic “Arkonis” seems to refer to an imaginary solar system described in the Perry Rhodan series, a German space opera franchise, named after its hero which started in 1961 and has been ongoing for decades, written by an ever-changing team of authors. It’s a long piece that goes through many changes in rhythm taking you on a ride across the universe towards far stars, mysterious worlds and new musical adventures…

Next comes “Lockdown” that brings you back to Earth with a slight sense of nostalgia and darker colours... Then “Hasta la vista amigos” (See you later friends) ends the album with some sparkling variations on the main theme of the title track...

On the whole, a very pleasant work.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:
https://www.emisferoboreale.com/

 

MUSIC, PLEASE...

L’anno del contatto is the debut album of I Modium, a band based in Marano Lagunare, in the province of Udine. The album was self-released in 2019 with a line up featuring Silvio Frausin (vocals), Elvio Tavian (electric and acoustic guitar - previously member of Quasar Lux Symphoniae), Alessandro Filippo (keyboards), Michele Seravalle (drums, percussion) and Gianni Regeni (bass, acoustic guitar) and is the result of a long evolution since before the recording sessions the band had been active on the local scene for more than ten years, playing covers of the masters of Italian prog from the seventies such as PFM, Area, Le Orme or BMS and composing new material in the same style. The art cover by Federico Cautero tries to give a clue of the musical and poetic content of this work...

The title track, “L’anno del contatto” (The year we make contact), opens the album. It’s a piece that recalls Le Orme and was inspired by 2010: The Year We Make Contact, a 1984 American science fiction film written, produced, shot and directed by Peter Hyams as a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The music and lyrics evoke a message of peace and hope from a mysterious alien power. There are far signals coming from another time and hidden words carried by the wind falling like confetti, when the humankind will heed the message everybody will look up and all the differences and distances between people will dissolve...

“Sorona dove sei” (Sorona, where are you?) is a beautiful, heartfelt tribute to le Orme’s masterpiece Felona e Sorona. The music and lyrics depict a man in the night who looks up to the sky. He’s a prog fan, no doubt! Suddenly an explosion of light makes reality vanish and he can see for a moment Felona and Sorona, the two imaginary planets lost in the universe spinning in balance and harmony like twin roses...

“Un attimo di infinito” (A moment of infinity) is a short, dreamy acoustic piece evoking a sudden warm light that can drive you across a boundless space where rivers of stars will cradle your dreams. Eventually, wrapped in peace, you’ll wake up in the hidden infinite that lies within you...

“La fabbrica del silenzio” (The silence factory) depicts in music and words a gloomy dystopic future where there’s no music and fragments of sound blot out the sun and fall down like ashes. The men no longer sing and a continuous background noise covers those who still try to see, think or speak up. But inside the sound screen a clandestine factory works in the dark and cleanses minds by producing and spreading silence...
 

I Modium, 2019

“Per favore musica (P.F.M.)” (Music, please) is a funny, sarcastic criticism against trashy music broadcast on radio and TV. The protagonist can’t find a single channel he can listen to with pleasure, he’s fed up and begins to think that all the music is over. So he asks to listen to his favourite music again, certain that it will be a real celebration for those who will be there to listen to it…

“L’altra” (The other) is a short, dreamy acoustic track where vocals are used just as an instrument... It leads to the following “Piccoli galli” (Little roosters) where a strange thought begins to fly like in a psychedelic vision and the beat of the heart never stops...

“L’anello del bufalo” (The buffalo’s ring) is an excellent, evocative piece that conjures up in music and words the image of an old sea dog, an experienced mariner with a strong will and a stubbornness that allows him to overcome the adversities of wind, sea and life. He has the looks and strength of a pirate and in his nose there’s a ring, the ring of a Namibian buffalo. I’m sure you will be fascinated by the stories he tells...

The last track, “Rifletto” (I reflect), is a caustic piece that portrays an unscrupulous social climber, a man who talks about things he doesn’t know, a false moralist disguised as a nonconformist, politically ambiguous and always on the winning side. If you look at him in a mirror, you’ll see that he is never the man reflected...

On the whole, a good and passionate album quoting with respect and personality the RPI’s masters!

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/I.Modiumlive