Mutazione is the second
full length album by Forza Elettro Motrice (F.E.M.), a band from
Meda, Lombardy. It was self-released in 2018 with a renewed line up
featuring Alessandro Graziano (vocals, violin), Alberto Citterio
(keyboards), Paolo Colombo (electric guitar), Marco Buzzi (bass),
Pietro Bertoni (trumpet, trombone, euphonium, glockenspiel) and
Emanuele Borsati (drums, marimba, percussion, acoustic guitar). The
new vocalist is up to the task and the band confirms to have
excellent song-writing skills and great musicianship. The result of
their work is an interesting concept album about the end of a love
and the necessity of change that could recall in some way La Torre
dell'Alchimista's Neo and I'm sure that Italianprog lovers
will appreciate it.
The
opening track, “Il palazzo del chaos” (The Palace of Chaos), is
just a short instrumental introduction that leads to the following
“Io mi trasformo” (I'm Changing), a wonderful piece about the
need to continuously adapt to the constant changes that life throws
at us. The music and lyrics evoke the image of the protagonist
walking along a path aimlessly, lost in his thoughts. At a certain
point, as everything around him changes, the protagonist questions
his true essence. He becomes aware he’s changing instinctively,
almost without realising it, just as the world around him constantly
transforms. The protagonist understands that he must always act and
change, transforming himself to become what he really wants. So, he
becomes music...
“La
cura delle cose” (The care of things) is a bittersweet reflection
about how time can change a relationship if you don’t pay attention
to your partner. What we don’t take care of it is destined to get
lost and this is true in every aspect of our lives. It is also true
in love, it is a constant of life. Here the protagonist becomes aware
of a relationship that is fading outand
that we are nothing but the time we give to ourselves...
The
title of the following “Musica di vento” (Music of wind) is a pun
that means in the meantime Music of wind and I become
music. This track is a slow, dreamy ballad about the need to
write music and lyrics, expressing oneself through sounds and words
to those who care to listen to. The piece opens with the notes of a
piano, then the narrator explains that his songs are born without any
self-awareness, simply from the desire and pleasure of writing and
singing, a magic of thoughts full of meaning for those who can
appreciate them. But once written, these songs have a life of their
own, independent of the author. Who will listen to?
“Mai
tardi” (Never late) is a great instrumental track with some
funky-jazz passages and various changes of atmosphere. Then it’s
the turn of “Il cielo di sè” (The sky of our ego), a beautiful
piece, complex and heartfelt, describing the emotional turmoil and
uncertainty surrounding the end of a relationship. The protagonist is
alone under a cobalt-blue sky and he almost seems like a veil ready
to be blown away by the wind. The piece begins with a strummed
acoustic guitar part, then the music and lyrics take unexpected
paths. It's the beginning of an inner journey, with thoughts tangled
in nests of wind. Disappointments are like stones, but in the
protagonist's head there's a thin rainbow calling him and inviting
him to continue his journey...
“Attesa”
(Waiting) is a short, melancholic and dreamy piece for solo piano,
violin, and vocals. The music and lyrics evoke the furrows that time
carves into the protagonist's soul, sowing a dark and tormented wait.
The wait for a return to normality. Then it’s the turn of the
brilliant instrumental piece, “Mutazione” (Mutation) which at
times reminds me of Le Orme and marks the change in the
protagonist...
The
long, complex “Se
c’è una buona ragione” (If there’s a good reason) closes
the album. It begins with three minutes of sustained rhythm tinged
with electronica and a disorienting, filtered and distorted voice.
The piece then
evolves in other directions, leading to a finale that speaks to the
wind and recalls King Crimson. The
lyrics poetically reiterate the concept of the need for change and
evolution, even in personal relationships. Change is the future that
looms and calls for itself, and it shouldn't be feared. If there's a
good reason, change is necessary, even if it means breaking up with
your partner and ending a relationship. For the protagonist, the time
has come to accept change and move on without worrying about the end
of a love that still struggles to fade. The return to reality is
marked by the "voice" of a ticket machine...
On
the whole, a wonderful work, even if it needs reiterate spins and the
comprehension of the lyrics to be fully appreciated.
Panda Fight Club come from Meda, a town located in an area called Brianza, not far from Milan. The band came to life in 2009 and immediately started to work on a concept album telling the story of the last panda, an animal of rare beauty condemned to extinction by the ruthless laws of natural selection, a bit like progressive rock. The musical palette of Panda Fight Club mainly draw on seventies influences and bands such as Premiata Forneria Marconi, Biglietto per l’Inferno or De De Lind, but they're not stuck in the past and you can hear in their sound also elements of metal and hard rock mixed with a good deal of irony and freshness. The current line up features Christian Colombo (drums), Dario Errigo (keyboards, Moog), Federico Nespoli (guitar), Lorenzo Nespoli (bass) and Simone Pagani (vocals). Their debut album, entitled Ultimo (The last one), was digitally self-released in 2015 while the physical copy on CD followed in 2016. In my opinion it's an amazing work and it's really worth listening to.
The beautiful instrumental opener “Heihe 2058 (Overture)” sets the atmosphere and takes us in the dreamy world portrayed by the beautiful art cover painted by keyboardist Dario Errigo. There’s an excellent interaction between guitar and keyboards perfectly backed by a brilliant rhythm section… Let’s go! China, year 2058. In a forest on the mountains still lives a Panda, the last one…
With a sudden change of scenery “Fame senza fine” (Endless hunger) takes us in the middle of a banquet. The theatrical, almost operatic vocals play the role of the master of the house: a powerful, unscrupulous, voracious tycoon whose richness and haughtiness seem to have no limit. His greediness and gluttony are enormous, Pantagruel or Gargantua if compared with him were just picky people without appetite, he can have everything but he wants more, something particularly rare and precious... For his next banquet, the main course has to be the last panda on Earth!
Back to our hero! “Ultimo” (The last one) begins by an electric guitar arpeggio, then soaring vocals come in to play the role of the solitary panda wandering in a forest with no borders. The atmosphere is tense and melancholic, the mood of the protagonist is blue while the forest is compared to a cage without bars nor locks. Desperate, downhearted, sole survivor of a species on the brink of extinction... Ultimo is the name they gave to him, a name that sounds as a sentence to death.
The sarcastic “Animalisti” (Animal activists) marks another change of scenery and introduce us to another kind of danger that threatens the poor animal. The music here every now and again recalls Area and Magma while the frenzied vocals play the role of some intransigent, crazy animal activists speaking up for animals rights. They want to capture Ultimo to compel him in some way to breed and extract from him some blood and DNA samples to clone him and preserve in this way his species...
The aggressive “Caccia nuova” (New Hunt) describes another threat for the panda, a merciless hunter. Here the vocals play the role of the human predator and try to express the feelings of the hunting man and the reasons that push him set off on and adventurous journey just for the pleasure of killing his prey. The predator comes to life where the prey dies, a new hunting trip begins...
Panda Fight Club 2016
Back to our panda! “Braccato” (Chased) is a frenzied piece that describes the last moments of freedom of Ultimo and his breathtaking efforts to run away and escape from all the people who want to capture him. Eventually, who is the winner? We don’t know. The track ends by the sound of a shot...
The psychedelic, almost mystical “Sogno alla chetamina” (Ketamine dream) tell us that the gun used to shoot at the panda was loaded with a powerful narcotic. In fact, ketamine is a medication mainly used for starting and maintaining anaesthesia that provokes a trance-like state while providing pain relief, sedation, and memory loss. Now the poor animal is dreaming, and in his dream he changes into a blue mammoth with the wheels, a bus, a dodo, he’s falling down in a deep abyss... You can hear also some voices speaking around him, speaking to him. There are some doctors who try to wake him up...
The surreal “Il risveglio” (Awakening) ends the album with a coup de théâtre. Slowly the silence is broken by the rain, the fog clears, the protagonist emerges from his state of unconsciousness and… Surprise! The panda is not a panda but a man who can see the light of a new, brighter day. He’s not alone any more but just a man among other men. Anyway the relief last a while since he still feels as a sole survivor in his heart...
On the whole, a very good album with a curious storyline!
La
Forza Elettro Motrice (in short F.E.M.) came to life in Meda in 2007
from the ashes of a band called QK, on the initiative of Alberto
Citterio and Paolo Colombo. After some live experiences on the local
scene and a first EP in 2012, in 2014 they finally released their
first full length album on the independent label Altrock/Fading
Records with a renewed line up featuring Alberto Citterio
(keyboards), Paolo Colombo (guitars), Marco Buzzi (bass), Emanuele
Borsati (drums) and Massimo Sabbatini (vocals). It's titled "Sulla
bolla di sapone" (On the soap bubble) and it's a conceptual work
loosely based on a short story by German writer Kurd Lasswitz, Auf
der Seifenblase. Although this work is divided into individual
tracks, it does function as a whole and the music flows away without
interruptions as in a long suite. As you can guess, the album stems
from many years of hard work and is the result of the distillation of
a myriad of influences but the band managed to throw enough of their
own originality into the mix to keep their compositions and
arrangements forward looking and interesting from start to end.
Sometimes the vocalist seems to struggle to interpret all the
different characters of the story showcasing a good theatrical
approach but this does not spoil the pleasure of the listening. The
artwork by Dario D'Alessandro is beautiful and in some way describes
the content of the album portrying a dreamy world in a soap bubble...
The
brilliant opener "Il giardino delle consuetudini" (The
custom's garden) sets the atmosphere and conjures up the image of a
beautiful garden where we meet two men and a child. It's pleasant to
sit quietly in this garden for a while and let things slide, you can
relax and sit down. The child is playing with soap bubbles and
suddenly asks a question... “Uncle Wendel, uncle Wendel! Just
look at the soap bubbles, the wonderful colours! But where do the
colours come from?”. In a while certainties and untouchable
truths start to crumble for a man that is not used to think of the
sense of an endless reality. It's the starting point for an
incredible journey...
The
following "Microgen" is divided into two parts. The first
is an instrumental one that begins by a dazzling sound of
synthesizers and draws you in a mysterious atmosphere. Then, on the
second part, the music and lyrics invite you to try, try hard to
think of the world in a different way. One of the two men in the
garden, uncle Wendel, is a very peculiar genius, half alchemist and
half scientist, who has discovered a tool that can make everything
very small and that's called microgen... Each of the conscious
capabilities would be altered so that all qualitative perceptions
remained the same, but all quantitative relationships are reduced in
scale. He maintained that he could shrink any individual he chose -
along with their view of world - to one millionth, even one billionth
part of normal size... "Do you want to discover Microgen? /
Do you want to try Microgen? / Can you understand microgen? / Here
you are! It's microgen's time...".
The
dreamy "Il mondo bianco opaco" (The white, opaque world) is
a beautiful instrumental interlude based on a piano pattern that
takes us on a soap bubble. Then, on the following "Consapevolezza"
(Consciousness) the rhythm rises while we're approaching a strange
new world. Slowly we land on it, we're surrounded by a landscape of
glycerine, the earth looks like a frozen sea, the white sky is like
curtain. In the fog we can see some strange shapes coming forward...
"Incontro
con i saponiani" (Meeting with the Saponiens) is an aggressive
instrumental track that describes the meeting with the inhabitants of
the soap bubble, the Saponiens, and leads to the following "Nella
città" (In the town). Here the music and lyrics describe a
surreal world where different realities clash into each other. The
quiet garden is far behind: now we're not just living in a dream but
we're entering in a kind of theatre of dreams, we're entering in an
unknown, crowded place and every blink is a mosaic of the picture of
the mysterious town... Then the Saponiens noticed our presence and
gathered round us with many questions, displaying their obvious
desire for knowledge. Understanding between us was made the
more difficult because their limbs, which possessed a certain
similarity to the feelers of polyps, moved in such peculiar ways that
even gestures were hard to make out...
The
heavier, dark instrumental "Il signore dei pensanti" (The
Lord of the Thinkers) takes us on a trip to the capital city where
the head of state of the Saponiens, who bears the title Lord of the
Thinkers, resides. It's a good chance to learn more about this
strange civilization. In fact, the Saponiens call themselves The
Thinkers for the study of science is held in the highest regard and
the whole nation takes a keen interest in the scientific disputes of
their learned men. Later we have the chance to attend a trial against
a local scientist called Glagli: the music and lyrics of the
following "Processo alla verità" (The truth on trial)
describe the trial. In some way it recalls the trial of Giordano Bruno or GalileoGalilei where conservative, obscurantist thesis
prevail on rationality. Beware! During the trial one of the
protagonists speaks up and commits the error to get involved in the
argument backing Glagli's innovative theories and tells the assembly
the story of their journey to the soap bubble... “Outrage!
Blasphemy! Madness!” echoed all around, and inkwells flew at my
head. “He’s mad! The world a soap bubble? His son made it? He
pretends to be the father of the creator of the world! Boil him! Boil
him!”. Well, it's time to get back I fear... "Here we are!
/ It's time of the micrgen!".
"Riflessioni"
(Reflections) is a beautiful instrumental acoustic piece full of
classical influences and delicate nuances that leads to "Il peso
della conoscenza" (The weight of knowledge) where the music and
lyrics invite you to reflect about your experience and to look at the
world with an open mind and a new awareness. Now subtle sounds drive
your thoughts, you can hear the voice of conscience telling words
that seem void but bear the weight of knowledge. Knowledge can mean
responsibility and revolution, wisdom can be misunderstood and
confused with madness, we can find threatening what we can't
understand... It can’t be understood, I can’t explain it to
you; it would be no use. People remain people whether large or small.
They never look beyond themselves. Why should I let it cause trouble?
During
the ethereal, spacey instrumental "Un viaggio lungo un istante"
(A journey that lasts a moment) you're still lost in your thoughts,
then another beautiful instrumental track, "Reviviscenza"
(Revivescence), brings new life and strength. The music and lyrics of
the following "Ritorno al giardino" (Return to the garden)
take you back to reality. After your dangerous journey you know that
an absolute truth does not exist and that this is the true principle
of freedom. "E il mondo scoppierà" (And the world will
burst) concludes the album with a nice drumming and a new energy, now
you can feel a new consciousness and you can turn your eyes to your
land as a new man... "How many transparent bubbles around us? /
Can you see them?...". Uncle Wendel laughed, the bubble burst
- and my little son blew another...
You can listen in streaming to the complete album HERE
You
can read the short story that inspired the album translated into
English by Noel Middleton HERE
Forza Elettro Motrice: Sulla bolla di sapone (2014). Other opinions:
Michael "Aussie-Byrd-Brother: F.E.M are offering classic Italian prog influences successfully
mixed with modern sensibilities, all performed with a youthful vigour and spirited energy.
Respectful of the past without simply slavishly remaking it, fans of the older vintage acts
should give this band a listen to see how the proud tradition of the past masters is in good
hands and carrying on in a grand and promising fashion... (read the complete review HERE)
Forza Elettro Motrice (in short F.E.M.) began life in Meda in 2007 on the initiative of keyboardist Alberto Citterio and guitarist Paolo Colombo with the aim to rediscover the progressive rock sounds of the seventies. After some line up changes the band started to work on some original compositions and, after a first demo in 2011, in 2012 they released Epsilon, a debut EP featuring four pieces for about 22 minutes of music. The current line up features Giacomo Balzarotti (vocals, classical guitar), Emanuele Borsati (drums, percussion), Marco Buzzi (bass), Alberto Citterio (piano, keyboards) and Paolo Colombo (guitars) and the result of their efforts is quite interesting. The overall sound of the band draws on the style of Italian prog masters of the seventies such as Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Locanda delle Fate or Alphataurus but the enthusiasm of the musicians is great and their song-writing skills good enough to express something original and not too derivative.
The delicate, short opener “Nella stanza vuota” (Into the empty room) begins with a nice piano pattern, then soaring melodic vocals come in describing the search for a shelter, a hidden place where you can be alone with your thoughts, a quiet room where you can let you thoughts run free and have a rest when you are sad... “The empty room, I close my eyes / And I paint a picture with my thoughts / I am a cloud, I am a cloud / A cloud lost in a gust of wind...”. For a while you don't have to think of anything and you melt in the air, escaping from reality. Then piano and vocals give way to the following “Fuori dal mondo” (Out of the world), a good instrumental that describes the breakthrough from the daily grind. Now you're flying like a cloud looking for an imaginary harbour in the sky, baffled by fresh keyboard waves and warm guitar passages...
“Nel mezzo del cielo” (In the middle of the sky) is a complex, beautiful track with many changes in rhythm and mood. It begins with a joyful energy that takes you up towards the sky, then the rhythm suddenly calms down and gives way to a dreamy acoustic passage... “Only a few steps to take off in the sky / And suddenly the silence envelops me and the world stands still...”. The music invites you to fly high and get lost in the space, then a more melodramatic passage follows and the operatic vocals of Giacomo Balzarotti announce a comeback to reality. While you are floating in the air pursuing a thought and a new life begins to beat in your chest a sudden lightening takes you down on earth...
“Noi granelli di sabbia” (We are grains of sand) is another long, complex track. This excellent piece concludes the album describing the “landing”. Well, when you fall down after a dream the impact is not always so hard, you can survive and sometimes you can even enjoy the perfume of the earth and discover new colours around you... “And feeling the earth in the palms of my hand I rediscover its aroma... Feeling like a grain of sand and forgetting that in front of us there is the sea to gaze at...”. The music every now and again could recall Genesis while the warm, heartfelt singing of Giacomo Balzaretti depicts the need to accept what life brings to us without trying to obtain what is out of reach. You can't stop the time or the wind and you can't keep on longing to be somewhere else at all costs, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and face reality... “Grains of sand spread in the world, I will recognize my eyes / I will recognize myself / I will accept myself and my image will reappear in the mirror...”.
Well, in my opinion this is a very promising debut. The band has a good potential and the musicians are still working on a more challenging task, a concept album inspired by a science-fiction story by German writer Kurd Lasswitz. Sulla bolla di sapone. I'm looking forward to listen to it!
And now let’s visit the other cities of Lombardia. Nearby Milan there’s MONZA, in the Brianza area, best known for hosting every year the Formula 1 Grand Prix. In the seventies E.A.Poe (Facebook) came from here while now it’s the time of Zita Ensemble(MySpace), an instrumental project that blends progressive, jazz and psychedelic influences, of the heavier Dea (Facebook) and of the “Celtic rage” of the folk metal Furor Gallico(Facebook). The nearby town of Meda is home to Forza Elettro Motrice (F.E.M.)(Facebook), a promising emerging band that in 2014 released an interesting full length debut album entitled Sulla bolla di sapone inspired by a science-fiction story by German writer Kurd Lasswitz (1848 – 1910).
About 55 km North-West from Milan lies VARESE, which in the seventies gave us Cincinnato and Hunka Munka. In Varese today we can listen to Court(Official Website), a band formed in 1990 by five skilled young musicians. In 2007 they won the Los Angeles Music Award as the best Alternative Artist with their third album Frost Of Watermelon, released ten years after Court’s previous work. Their “recipe” is tasty and well balanced, the band is not stuck in the past and you can find in this work not only echoes of Genesis and Pink Floyd but also some particular, “grungy” passages.
Other interesting bands from the province of Varese are Ske(MySpace), a side project of Yugen keyboardist Paolo “Ske” Botta” who in 2011 released an album titled 1000 autunni, then Atto IV(ReverbNation), Ego(MySpace), Delta (Official Website), Sirena (MySpace) and a hard-psychedelic band called Emmablu(MySpace). Almost half way between Milan and Varese there’s a little town called Cuggiono, birthplace of the Italian minstrel Angelo Branduardi(Official Website).
About 45 km north of Milan lies COMO, on the western arm of Lake Como. From here there comes the “prog chamber music” of Gatto Marte (Official Website), the symphonic prog of Mogador (Reverbnation) and Sarastro Blake (Facebook), interesting bands with many seventies influences, the folk-prog Trewa (Reverbnation) and the heavier Mysteria Noctis (Facebook). Como is not far from the border between Italy and Switzerland, so I think it’s worth taking the chance to cross the border and go up to LUGANO to find a “non Italian Italianprog band”, Aliperdute. It’s a pity that this band is not active at the moment, but luckily their music is still available in free legal download from the site cantine.org so take your time, relax for awhile, and listen (click here) .
On the other arm of LakeComo lies LECCO, the city where a famous novel by the Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni, I promessi sposi, is set. In the seventies Lecco gave us the “Christian prog” band Messaggio ‘73 and Biglietto per l’Inferno(Official Website). Biglietto per l’Inferno started their activity in 1972 and, until they split up at the end of 1975, they were a terrific band on stage. In 2007 on the initiative of original members Giuseppe “Pilly” Cossa (piano, accordion) and Mauro Gnecchi (drums, percussion) a new project called Biglietto per l’Inferno.folk was formed for some live performances featuring the old repertoire of the band and in 2009 a new album was released on the independent label BTF featuring new arrangements of the historic pieces, Tra l’assurdo e la ragione.
The original vocalist Claudio Canali retired from ordinary life and today he’s a monk of the Order of Saint Benedict, so the lead vocals are now provided by a female singer, Mariolina Sala. Anyway the old singer gave his blessing to the new project and “Fra’” Claudio appears as a special guest on two tracks of the album. Another original member of the band, Giuseppe “Baffo” Banfi, features as producer and helped the band in studio. I have to say that the new project is excellent, the new arrangements feature folk influences but respect the spirit of the old compositions and the result is a well crafted, balanced mix of fresh sounds and vintage suggestions. As in the past, the concerts are still the band’s pillar of strength and their performances attract many people, so old and young enthusiastic fans are pushing the band to go on. In fact, the new project is not a boring unplugged version of the old band but a lively act still able to stir emotions.
By the way, former bassist of Biglietto per l’Inferno, Fausto Branchini, takes no part in the new project but he has not given up music and is working on a rock opera under the name Fausto Branchini - Biglietto per l’Inferno. Other contemporary prog bands from Lecco, with a heavier sound influenced by metal, are Evil Wings (MySpace) whose vocalist and guitarist features also in the new line-up of Il Biglietto per l’Inferno.folk, Willow(Facebook), Leader Braun(MySpace), Drivhell (MySpace) and Dropshard(Official Website).
