FIRST SEPS

Nuova Idea formed in Genoa in 1970 from the ashes of another band called Plep and later J.Plep. After a beat-oriented beginning and a few singles, they changed musical direction and converted to progressive rock, even taking part in the first Viareggio pop festival where they played a lengthy suite. Their debut album, In The Beginning, was released in 1971 on the Ariston label and features a line-up including Marco Zoccheddu (guitar, vocals), Claudio Ghiglino (guitar, vocals), Giorgio Usai (keyboards, vocals), Enrico Casagni (bass, flute, vocals), and Paolo Siani (drums, vocals). According to an interview with Paolo Siani (in Prog Italia magazine 42), the label released the album, without informing the band, using the demo of the suite (recorded with inadequate resources) and the previous singles just to ride the success the band exhibition obtained in Viareggio: Our first album wasn't supposed to exist, at least not as people know it. The Ariston released it without our knowledge... Obviously, the homogeneity between the compositions was ruined: it really seemed like the product of two different bands...

Despite the less than perfect recording quality, the lengthy suite that occupies side A of the album, “Come, Come, Come... (Vieni, vieni, vieni)”, is well-composed and not without interest for fans of the genre. It's a piece inspired by Shakespeare's Macbeth and, despite the English title, is sung in Italian. The lyrics don't attempt to literally translate the bard's writing but try to interpret its emotion in an original and personal way. The piece opens with a slow pace and a dark atmosphere, with the organ taking centre stage. Then the pace increases and becomes frenetic, leading to the first sung part, which features Macbeth recalling how he killed Duncan to become king in his place, as foretold by three old witches. He felt the strongest, the greatest of all, and no one could stop him. He killed the traitors and no one could judge him. A calmer section follows, where Macbeth recalls how he loved wandering in the forest at night, where he saw the branches of the trees reaching toward the dark sky, resembling the arms of those he had killed, and heard the desperate cries of those seeking justice all around him. The lyrics then interpret those voices: Macbeth's final hour will come, too; his kingdom will fall in shame and sorrow when the branches of Birnam Wood will move to besiege his castle. Macbeth will fall on the battlefield, and peace will return; only a legend will remain of him, to be told to posterity. The piece ends with a long instrumental section, complete with a drum solo that evokes the thunderous sounds of the battle...

The album's second side - in a beat style - opens with "Realtà" (Reality), a track that alternates dreamy sections and hard rock riffs. The lyrics and music evoke the image of children playing war in front of an adult. The adult reflects on how different the reality of war is from that of children's games and recalls that when he was little boy, he too played war and his mother tried to hide reality from him, because you can't discover the world in a day...

“La mia scelta” (My choice) is a song halfway between hard rock and psychedelia, reflecting hippie ideology and giving voice to a boy who leaves the city he loved so much to seek freedom in the isolation of the mountains. There he will soothe his anger and stress, breathe pure air, gaze at the stars without the filter of smog, and feel like heaven...

“Non dire niente... (Ho già capito)” (Do not say anything... I’ve already understood) is a melodic song in which the protagonist, while sipping good wine, learns from his girlfriend that he'll soon be a father. His reaction is an explosion of joy. The central section recalls C.S.&N. Well, the lyrics don't mention the girl's eyes colour. but I suspect they're blue...

The last track, “Dolce amore” (Sweet love), might recall early New Trolls. It describes the feelings of a man remembering an ex girlfriend and hoping that one day she too will remember him...

On the whole, an interesting but still immature work that documents the band's musical evolution from the beat of the late sixties to the prog of the early seventies.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

Nuova Idea: In The Beginning (1971). Other opinions:

Michael “Aussie-Byrd-Brother”: Comparable to what bands like Osanna and the New Trolls were doing at the same time, ‘In the Beginning’ is wild, rough around the edges and a little directionless, but it's still a glorious mess of ideas and styles. Nuova Idea had yet to deliver grander and more polished progressive rock, but this is colourful psychedelic music from a band still finding their feet yet bursting with confidence and imagination. ‘Clowns’ and ‘Mr E Jones’ may be their defining moments, but there's still plenty of inventive psychedelic instrumentation, hazy rock atmospheres and cool tunes on ‘In The Beginning’... (read the complete review HERE)