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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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)