SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW

 Ages is an Ep that was released by Anabasi Road in 2016, two years after their eponymous full length album. The line up is the same of their previous work and features Andrea Giberti (vocals, harmonica), Massimiliano Braglia (electric and acoustic guitar), Alessio Gambarelli (guitar, flute, backing vocals), Riccardo Vecchi (bass, backing vocals), Luca Orlandini (keyboards, organ, piano, synth) and Nicholas Corradini (drums, guitar, backing vocals) but a string quartet contributed to enrich the sound during the recording sessions with good results. The overall sound is a mix of vintage prog, hard rock, classical influences and blues expressed with enthusiasm and passion. The beautiful drawings by Giulia Tubertini for the art cover and booklet try to give you an idea of the colourful musical content...

 

In fact, all the tracks of this EP are linked together and form a long suite divided into four parts where the music and lyrics tell of a personal crises with its traumas, doubts and hopes depicted with vivid colours and surreal images. The first part, “What Does It Mean?”, describes the point of no return with the deterioration of the family routine and the desire to escape and experience a new way of life. For this section of the suite the band shot a video that you can find on YT or as a bonus on the CD. 

 

 

“Bridge To Another Rainbow, Part I: Sunset Prelude” is an instrumental section with the string quartet in the forefront and melancholic, evocative passages melting into the tormented “Bridge To Another Rainbow, Part II: Morning Comes” that describes a time of difficult choices and challenges where fears and forgotten hopes emerge and you have to look deeply into your soul to break free and find again your self-esteem... The powerful, reassuring section entitled “The Dream Machine” is about the daily fight to affirm your ideals and personality and ends the suite with its positive energy. 

 

On the whole, a nice work that deserves a try. 

 

You can listen to the complete EP HERE

 

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/AnabasiRoad/ 

GOING UPHILL

Anabasi Road are a young band from Reggio Emilia that came to life in 2009 with the aim of blending prog, hard rock and blues with a touch of freshness and a great passion for vintage sounds. The name of the band refers to the Ancient Greek and evokes a hard march uphill. After a good live activity on the local scene, in 2014 they self-released an interesting eponymous album with a line up featuring Andrea Giberti (vocals, harmonica, keyboards), Massimiliano Braglia (guitar, drums), Alessio Gambarelli (guitar), Riccardo Vecchi (bass), Luca Orlandini (keyboards, organ, piano) and Nicholas Corradini (drums, guitar). Although they can't be considered the most original band on the rich current Italian prog scene, Anabasi Road are a talented bunch of musicians and on their debut album they showcase a good potential. If you like bands such as Wicked Minds or Psycho Praxis I'm sure you will appreciate this work as well.

Anabasi Road 2014

The opener “Pleasure In Me” starts by nervous electric guitar riffs and dark organ waves. The music and lyrics describe a haunting presence and an insane, dangerous passion that rises like dust on the road while a strange, silent feeling sets hope and time on fire. The following “Clashing Stars” is a kind of wild prayer to the sky for a new life and tells about a desperate, merciless need for vendetta in an endless war where there's no room for respect and pity.

Next comes the disquieting “Dreaming For You” where the music and lyrics describe a strange experience: a restless dream, a fall into a windy grave, a lapse of reason with blind lies whirling inside your mind... It leads to the long psychedelic blues “Say Man”, haunted by the ghost of Jim Morrison.

“Guerra Mondiale” (World War) is the only track sung in Italian on the album and I think that it's a real pity that the band didn't exploit more their native language. It begins by a delicate piano pattern, then the music and lyrics describe the feelings of a soldier in a dark, wet night before the battle... There's blood on the ground and on the hearts, you can hear cries and shouts, marching men and bombs falling all around... A great track!

album cover

The following “Maybe Tomorrow” is full of rebellious energy and invites you to fight against the people who try to manipulate your conscience and your mind. It leads to the long, dark “I Walk Alone” that depicts in deep red colours a man possessed by a haunting vision who looks at him through a shining glass. Filled with pain and rage, with no hope nor God, now he walks toward his new dark Lord... The bluesy “Requiem” concludes the album with no prayers, no cries and no shouts but a great electric guitar solo.

On the whole, a good album for classic rock lovers.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://it-it.facebook.com/AnabasiRoad 

http://www.anabasiroad.it/ 

EMILIA - ROMAGNA (part 2)

South-East of Bologna, in the past the area called ROMAGNA, including the cities of FORLI', CESENA, RAVENNA, RIMINI and the Republic of San Marino, gave us bands such as Guercia and Foglie di Vetro. This area is best known for its discotheques and for its entertainment industry and in the seventies one of these discotheques, L’altro mondo, became famous for the jam sessions of many prog artists. Forlì is the birthplace of guitarist Riccardo Zappa (Official Website), an interesting artist that started his career in the seventies and who is still active today.

The current prog scene of Romagna features bands such as the excellent Una Volta Eravamo in Sette (MySpace) who in 2010 released a self produced debut concept album, La ballata del vecchio marinaio, inspired by the poetry of Samuel T. Coleridge, then there are Le Ore Devianti (MySpace), Il Vaso di Pandora (Facebook), Silver Linings (Facebook), the hard Buttered Bacon Biscuits (MySpace), Witchwood (Facebook.com) the psychedelic Kisses From Mars (MySpace), Pater Nembrot (Facebook), Desert Wizards (Facebook) and Tangerine Stoned (Facebook), the post rock projects Neil On Impression (MySpace) and Venezia (MySpace), the dark, heavy Witchfield (MySpace) and the prog folk Araba Fenice (MySpace).

And now let’s take the Via Aemilia heading north west and visit the other cities in the region. First we go to MODENA, the city of the famous tenor Luciano Pavarotti and of the painter Walter Mac Mazzieri, whose works appear on some famous prog album covers. Here we can find the hard, psychedelic Donkey Breeder (MySpace) and an intrumental prog-jazz project called Pocket Size Universe (Facebook). From Modena there also comes a popular folk rock band called Modena City Ramblers (MySpace). Although they can hardly be classified as a prog band, their committed “combat folk” has been very influential on the recent Italian prog-folk scene.

Then we go to REGGIO EMILIA, the birthplace of poet Ludovico Ariosto. This place is home to bands such as Mangala Vallis (Official Website), Trama Sonora (Official Website), Master Experience (MySpace), Arcanoise (MySpace), Anabasi Road (Facebook) and a folk rock project called Matelda (MySpace). Not far from Reggio Emilia there is the castle of Canossa. On the initiative of drummer and founder member of Mangala Vallis Gigi Cavalli Cocchi a prog rock opera, Canossa, was released in 2006 which was inspired by the character of Matilda of Canossa, featuring Mangala Vallis, Arcanoise, Master Experience, Trama Sonora and others. By the way, Gigi Cavalli Cocchi has recently teamed up with vocalist Bernardo Lanzetti and keyboardist Cristiano Roversi and now they are working on a new project called Cavalli Cocchi, Lanzetti & Roversi (Facebook).

The nearby town of Novellara gave us one of the most popular Italian pop-rock bands, I Nomadi (Official Website) who in the early seventies released (as almost everyone else in Italy in that period) some albums with soft prog influences that might be of interest to prog lovers. From Reggio Emilia to PARMA, the city of orchestra conductor Arturo Toscanini and of famous opera composer Giuseppe Verdi. In the seventies Parma gave us Rocky’s Filj and Acqua Fragile. Franz Dondi, bassist and founder member of Acqua Fragile is still active and is trying to keep the band alive with a renewed line-up under the name Acqua Fragile Project (MySpace). Other contemporary prog bands from this city are the very interesting Altare Thotemico (MySpace), Strato's (Facebook) and the emerging SlideA (MySpace) and Unreal City (MySpace).

We conclude our visit to Emilia-Romagna in PIACENZA. The current prog scene of this city features an interesting band, Wicked Minds (MySpace), who started in 1987 as a thrash metal act and only in 2000, after keyboardist Paolo “Apollo” Negri had joined with his Hammond, found a “new dimension” which is more hard-progressive oriented and the band has released some very interesting works. Other local bands that deserve mentioning are Ambigram (Facebook), Mindflower (MySpace), Art And Illusion (MySpace), David’s Lodgers (MySpace), Active Heed (Facebook), Nightcross (Facebook) and the experimental Pertegò (MySpace). I also recommend listening to an excellent band called Lagartija (Bandcamp) and the emerging Big Muff Project (MySpace).