FOUR FLIES AND A CRIME

The Tobias Crime Quartet came to life in Olbia, Sardinia, in 2014. The name of the band refers to the protagonist of 4 mosche di velluto grigio (Four Flies on Grey Velvet), a 1971 giallo film written and directed by Dario Argento. Nomen omen, as you can guess the music of the band is mainly inspired by the soundtracks of Italian seventies films in the vein of other bands such as Calibro 35, La Batteria, Strato’s, Apollo Beat or Anonima Sonora. After a good live activity on the local scene, in 2016 the band self released a 7 inches vinyl single with original music in vintage style entitled Meet The Tobias Crime Quartet with a line up featuring Maurizio Ragnedda (keyboards), Giuseppe Cossu (guitar), Giuseppe Aversano (drums) and Fabio Alìas (bass). It’s a limited edition printed in just 300 copies to sell as a gadget at their concerts but available also in a digital edition...

 

The opener “Pittulongu Connection” is a nervous and frenetic track, with strong jazz and funky nuances. The title refers to the favourite beach of the inhabitants of Olbia, about eight kilometres from the town, on the road that leads to Golfo Aranci. Best known also as Puntale Lungo, Pittulongu beach is a ‘half-moon’ of very fine, white sand with a few stretches of small shells: a perfect set for a thriller but the plot is up to your imagination...

Next comes “R.T., giustiziere”, a piece with a fast, spasmodic pace that begins with an electric guitar riff and continues with a tight, pumping rhythm section and vibrant organ surges. The title refers to the character from whom the band took its name, Roberto Tobias. In Dario Argento’s film Roberto Tobias is a drummer in a rock band who has been followed for a few days by a stranger in a dark raincoat. One evening, after rehearsing with the band, he decides to directly confront his persecutor and he follows him into a theatre. The two argue and the persecutor pulls out a dagger, with which Roberto accidentally kills him. The original score of the film was composed by Ennio Morricone but this is not a cover and the rest of the plot can follow the flow of your own imagination... 

 

Tobias Crime Quartet 2016

“Praia Grande 5 Till 9” is calmer and better suited to evoking exciting adventures in an exotic paradise rather than urban crimes or car chases. The title seems to refer to a passionate night on a famous Portuguese beach in the Sintra region but somehow recalls also PFM... Then comes “Repraia”, just a reprise that ends this short but intense work...

On the whole, a very promising debut. I really hope this band can release a full length album sometime...

You can listen to the complete work HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/TOBIASCRIME/

TIMELESS TIME

Tempo senza tempo is the second and last album by the line up gathered in Sardinia by Adriano Monteduro under the name Reale Accademia di Musica. It was released in 2009 on the independent label Delta Italiana and the line up is the same of its predecessor, Il linguaggio delle cose: Adriano Monteduro (music, lyrics, arrangements, keyboards, vocals), Giuseppe Aramo (vocals, percussion), Antonello Monteduro (piano, keyboards), Manuel Muzzu (bass). The overall sound is more varied than on the previous work and, in my opinion, the quality of the compositions is better but it a has nothing to share with Reale Accademia di Musica 1972 eponymous debut...

 

The ethereal opener “Latenza sogno” evokes falling thoughts that at night get lost into a dreamy blue sea... Then it’s the turn of “Caccia alle balene” (Whaling), a piece against whale hunters, that starts by annoying drum machines and a macarena rhythm and then, luckily, turns into a passionate, melodic environmental declaration inviting you to listen to the beat of the heart of Moby Dick...

On “Paranoia (Déjà vu)” you can find electronic touches and drum machines that contrast with vintage keyboard waves while the lyrics tell of the inner duality hidden inside every person... The following “Vulcano” (Volcano) tries to describe in music and words the feelings and the reflections of a man who, during the night, admires the fiery force of a volcanic eruption...

The lively “Atomo” (Atom) is a short instrumental track with a good interaction between bass and keyboards that leads to the long, evocative “Sogno (Compagno di sempre)” (Dream, companion ever) where music and words paint blurred images, lights and shades, labyrinths of memories drifting away on a misty sea towards never-land...

 

“Thin Colours” is a calm, short instrumental track for bass and keyboards while “Get Back” (despite the English title the song is sung in Italian) mixes tango and electronica to depict a sensation of fulfilment and spiritual tiredness. Next comes the delicate “Tempo senza tempo” (Timeless time), a reflection about time and its abstract relativity...

“Merlino (Mirddyn)” was inspired by the mythic character of the Arthurian legends. The musical landscape and the subject matter could recall the atmospheres of Alan Stivell’s album the Mist Of Avalon (in particular, Le chant de Taliesin) as they try to conjure up the imagine of the old enchanter and wizard running again through the forest of Kelyddon... The following “African Oldoway” is a nice instrumental track that takes us in another direction (the title refers to the Oldoway human skeleton of the type of homo sapiens found in Tanganyika Territory, in 1913). Then “Attimi” (Moments) ends the album with a reflection about time and space where single moments resound like bouncing pebbles on the waters of life...

On the whole, despite the large use of drum machines and electronic effects, I enjoyed the album. Nonetheless the name Reale Accademia di Musica that Adriano Montedurro decided to revive might be misleading for prog fan. Some members of Reale Accademia di Musica’s original line up did not appreciate this operation and Adriano Monteduro dropped the name after this work releasing other albums in the same style as a solo artist, albums that could be of some interest for prog lovers...

 

More info:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ8DQBrtImsL4Iiwh3jxFbg/featured

 

 

THE LANGUAGE OF THINGS

In 1974 Adriano Monteduro released an album with Reale Accademia di Musica, then, after a single in 1978, in the eighties he left the music business and relocated in Santa Teresa di Gallura, in the province of Sassari. In 2008 he exhumed the name of the historic Roman Italianprog band for an album entitled Il linguaggio delle cose that was released on the Delta Italiana label with a line up featuring, along with Adriano Monteduro (music, lyrics, arrangements, keyboards, vocals) also Giuseppe Aramo (vocals, percussion), Antonello Monteduro (piano, keyboards) and Manuel Muzzu (bass). There are no founder members of Reale Accademia di Musica involved in this project and the overall sound is very different from that of the 1972 eponymous album of the band. Here the music is closer to new age than prog while the hermetic lyrics deal with philosophical issues...

 

The calm, reflective opener “Genesi” conjures up the imagine of a bonfire breaking the darkness to let you see the unknown and give breath to the truth... Then “Uomo-Terra” (Man-Earth) every now and again could recall some pieces of Franco Battiato from the eighties and deals with the duality of life and the relativity of time and space. “Il linguaggio delle cose” (The language of things) evokes the mysteries of cosmos and life and in some melodic lines reminds me slightly of Bob Seger’s We’ve Got Tonight...

Despite the English title, the following “Dance With Me” and “Homeless” are sung in Italian. The first one tells in music and words of a moonless night and of the desire to dance cradled by the sound of the sea waves, in harmony with the world, the second one portrays a storybook of wrong choices, dreams of freedom, shadows and lights... 

 

Next comes the ethereal “Infinito” (Infinite) invites you to the show of creation in a timeless time pulsing in the veins of eternity... The closer “La pace nelle biglie di vetro: un mondo nuovo” (The peace in the marbles: a new world) is a very long track (more than 18 minutes!). It’s a piece about the need to push the limits of what human beings can achieve without surrender in front of the raging waters of sea of Life, in a game of atoms where the future runs free... Here the music flows away at a slow pace and the rhythm never takes off.

On the whole, a good album with a slow pace and refined electronic arrangements but beware! It could have a strong soporific effect.

 

ECCE LUX

 Overture come from Mores, a small town in the province of Sassari, Sardinia, and came to life in 2010 rising from the ashes of another band called Sons Of The Rascals. The first line up included Simone Desogus (drums), Samuele Desogus (guitar), Mattia Serra (keyboards, vocals), Salvatore Sassu (flute, guitar) and Stefano Sanna (bass). After a good activity on the local scene where they started to perform progressive rock covers alternated with their own compositions, in 2018 the band recorded and self-released an excellent eponymous debut album with a renewed line up featuring Luigi Ventroni (vocals), Simone Desogus (drums, percussion, vocals), Stefano Sanna (bass), Samuele Desogus (guitars), Fiorella Piras (flute, vocals) and Simone Meli (keyboards, backing vocals) plus the guest Sara Cuzzupuli (violin, vocals). The overall sound is well rooted in the best tradition of Italian symphonic rock and, as music goes through many changes in rhythm and mood, every now and again I’m reminded of another band called Unreal City. Anyway, I think that the art cover by Mauro Mondiello describes the musical content of the album better than many words...

The dreamy opener “Intro” is just a short instrumental track that sets the atmosphere and leads to the excellent “Lux et Ombra” (Light and Darkness), an amazing piece sung in Italian and Latin and dealing with the eternal contrast between Evil and Good. The music and lyrics evoke dark fallen angels, winged demons and damned souls burning in the flames of hell waging war against the illuminated, divine power of science and knowledge: everyone expects to win on the border between Darkness and Light, in an endless fight raging in a world without glory... 

The melancholic “Il mendicante” (The beggar) starts by a touching, classical inspired, solo piano passage, then soaring vocals backed by the other instruments begin to portray the image and feelings of a desperate, solitary beggar who’s on the brink of committing suicide by jumping from a bridge into the icy waters of the city river...

The following “A Deer In The River” begins with an acoustic guitar arpeggio and is a bitter-sweet piece dealing in a surrealistic way with the problem of emigration. The music and lyrics tell of the fate of a woman who had to leave her little country village on the banks of a river and go in a big city to earn a living. She never feels at ease in the metropolis and her feeling of nostalgia is always strong. Eventually, before passing away, she comes back to her old hamlet and becomes a deer longing for peace in the river...

The following “Crop Circles” is a long track with a mysterious atmosphere and a science-fiction theme. At night a spaceship lands in the middle of a wheat field. Suddenly the wheat start to dance under a strange green light but there’s no sound nor fear... Meanwhile a farmer sleeps and dreams in his house, unaware of what’s happening in the field. At dawn, when the farmer and his family wake up, everything seems in order but in wheat field there’s something new... It’s up to the listener imagine what!

Overture on stage, 2018

The last track, “Ephesia’s Chime” is a dark, disquieting piece where the music and lyrics tell about a child game turned into nightmare. There’s murder and betrayal, hidden secrets that lead to madness and a storm of haunting melodies and voices coming from the unconscious... Here every now and again the music and the subject matter could recall the deep red colours of Goblin but the band manage to add their own strokes of colour to the musical tableau in an effective way.

On the whole, I think that this is a really good work although the band seem definitively more at ease when using their mother language...

You can listen to the complete album HERE

Overture: Overture (2018). Other opinions:

Michael "Aussi-Byrd-Brother": Controversially performing in both English and Italian, their music is full of lush electronics, grand guitar runs and piano prettiness alongside flute, violin and double bass, and their debut offers everything from elegant symphonic touches, classical grandiosity and jazzy detours, all taken even further by charismatic theatrical vocals in the rich vintage Italian prog tradition... Sung in Italian, the music flows with so much naturally romantic passion and vigour, but in English it's a little clunky in comparison... (read the complete review HERE)

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/overtureprogressiverock/

A BARBARIC LEGACY

Ilienses were born in 2018 in the province of Nuoro on the initiative of multi-instrumentalist and composer Mauro Medde from Gavoi and vocalist Natascia Talloru from Tonara. The name of the band refers to the ancient Nuragic people who lived during the Bronze and Iron Ages in central-southern Sardinia, in an area called Barbagia, a natural region located alongside the Gennargentu massif. Their aim is to blend the sound of Sardinian traditional instruments such as tumbarinos, pipiolos, tumborro, corno, triangulu, campanacci di Tonara or cantu a tenore vocals with modern rock instruments such as electric bass, piano, synth and drums. The result is a very particular mix of dark folklore and progressive rock full of experimentalism and original ideas... 

In 2020 Ilienses self-released an excellent debut album entitled Civitates Barbariae, recorded with the help of the guest musicians Fabio Perra (drums), Alessio Zucca (piano) and Daniele Soru (bassu tenore). All the tracks of the albums are linked together to form a long suite dealing with the history and the spirit of Barbagia. Narrative vocals in Italian introduce the subject matter driving you in an ancient, imaginary world where proud wild tribes fight for their freedom opposing the foreign rule. In fact, Roman domination in this part of Sardinia was never more than nominal...

According to the band, this work was conceived as an imaginary soundtrack for a film although the plot is up to your imagination. There are many whispered and recitative vocal fragments in Sardinian language taken from the works by Peppinu Mereu, a poet from Tonara, to stir your imagination and to add colours to the picture while the music flows leading you through an enchanted, almost magical world. You can hear the sound of blades and spears or the echoes of ancient pagan rites, there are ghosts riding under the moon… But if you pay the due attention you can also perceive that the music and words are the fruit of a real philological research. In the end, narrative vocals in Italian evoke the soul of the land that tired to wander into blooded soil and pain surrenders to fate. But even in the darkest moment the beauty of Sardinia’s natural and cultural heritage shines through...

By the way, to promote the album the band shot an evocative video to give an idea of what their music is about… Have a try!

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/iliensesofficial/

FIVE EXERCISES OF STYLE

The Sundering came to life in 2010 in Sassari as a heavy metal band. After some line up changes, in 2012 they started to work on new original pieces turning to a different, more elaborated style adding more colours to their musical palette by incorporating in their sound different influences ranging from psychedelia to hard rock and prog. In 2018 they finally self-released a debut album entitled Pentameron with a line up featuring Filippo Lacana (vocals, cello), Fabio Cuccu (guitars), Davide Mura (guitars), Carlo Berretta (bass) and Lorenzo Murineddu (drums, percussion). It’s an interesting work where the band showcase good musicianship and a passionate love for classic rock and prog. Lorenzo Murineddu and Carlo Berretta took also charge of the nice artwork that in some way tries to describe the musical content of the album... 

The opener “Rush In The Forest” is a long track where the music and lyrics depict a strange Celebration of the nature. Imagine a beautiful, uncontaminated valley and a soaring, haunting singing that draws you deep into the forest. Behind the trees you can see the source of the music, happy people dancing in circles to the frenzied rhythm of a lysergic tarantella: a peculiar mix of PFM and Blind Melon! 

The following “Life On Earth” conjures up the image of a lonesome hobo, a solitary man wandering like a ghost in a big city. His home is the street, his only friend is a dirty dog, his only pleasure is playing an old guitar and singing for the passer-byes in this time of emptiness. There’s the shadow of Tim Buckley on his back… 

Then it's the turn of the short, careless “Take A Blow”, a kind of exercise of style full of energy and rhythm that blends funky and hard rock, Led Zeppelin and Django Reinhardt with a pinch of red hot spicy flavours to tell that the world can’t be just black or white. 

The nervous, nightmarish “Freshness In The Night” blends psychedelia, hard rock and jazz and takes you on a crazy ride on the empty streets of a big city, under the mocking light of a sparking moon. You can almost feel chilling waves of tension coming up from the deepest of your soul... 

The long, complex “Call Of The Sea” features the guest Elisa Brett on classical guitar and ends the album with heavy, electric passages full of energy and softer sections that take you on a long journey across the sea, from the California to the sunny shores of Brazil… 

On the whole, this is a good album, even if it doesn’t shine for its originality. In my opinion a touch of Hammond could have improved the overall sound and the use of the Italian language for the lyrics could have added more distinctive colours to the final picture, but never mind! I enjoyed it anyway… 

You can listen to the complete album HERE 

More info: 

https://www.facebook.com/thesunderingofficial/

IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR

The roots of Entity date back to 1994 when Gigi Longu and Mauro Mulas, two skilled musicians based in Cagliari, formed the original nucleus of the band. After many years of hard work, personnel changes, some demos and a good live activity, in 2013 the band finally released an official full length album on the independent label Lizard Records with a consolidated line up featuring Mauro Mulas (keyboards), Gigi Longu (bass, guitar), Marco Panzino (drums), Marcello Mulas (guitars) and Sergio Calafiura (vocals). It's titled Il falso centro (The false centre) and is a conceptual work about an identity crisis based upon some introspective poems written by Yuri Deriu, an old friend of the band, that form a kind of screenplay that the musicians interpret with passion and enthusiasm. The music is rich in ideas, the influences range from classical music to jazz, from the Italian prog masters of the seventies to more recent sounds and the final result is excellent. If you like bands such as Le Orme or Il Banco del Mutuo Soccorso I'm sure you'll enjoy this album as well.

album cover

The opener "Davanti allo specchio" (In front of the mirror) is a charming instrumental piece that sets the atmosphere. It starts by an oblique waltz, you can imagine a kind of ghastly dance in front of a mirror where you can have a close look at your face and try to dig in your hidden thoughts. It's a perfect introduction to the following "Il desiderio" (Desire), a long, complex track where melancholia and desire run one after each other on a dangerous path leading nowhere. Are you really what you appear to be? Now you're nothing but an empty shape, drawn away by a vortex of passions, unable to break through the protective shell where you are trapped. Your desires are a continuous renewal of old wounds, they are burning you out but you can't help it, you are not able to stop, to come back from a labyrinth with no exit door... The music is powerful and evocative, the heartfelt vocal parts convey emotions and feelings... A great track!

"Il tempo" (Time) is a dark, melancholic piece about time passing by. The atmosphere is ethereal and perfectly fits the poetical force of the lyrics. Time is a great deceiver and too often it doesn't keep its promises, so you beg useless delays, lost in an endless waiting. You keep your memories in your heart, you keep your head down, you're always busy but you know that this is nothing but an alibi. It's like if you were flying into the glass of a window like a fly while the days inexorably fall from your hands like sand in an hourglass...

The music of the beautiful "Il trip dell'ego" (Ego trip) recalls Le Orme and their brilliant counterpoints while the short vocal part evokes the loss of the sense of identity and a lack of direction. Then comes the romantic "ANT", a piece dealing with ideal, eternal love and the alchemy of feelings. It begins by a beautiful piano pattern, then Procol Harum could come to mind while the music and lyrics paint deep emotional landscapes, dreams carried away by liquid sentences and getting drowned in a lake of words, poisoned by troubled thoughts and desire.

The disquieting "L'armatura" (The armour) opens with grazing electric guitar riffs and dark organ waves conjuring up a nightmarish atmosphere. Your sweet-hart, your idealized love is gone and you feel the need of a shield to protect you from a falling sky, you feel like a trunk after a shipwreck, you're floating on the waves of life thanks to natural laws and not because of your will. But your armour is melting, you can't run away from your faults, you can't deceive yourself anymore, now you look in the mirror and for the first time you begin to perceive your real face...

Entity on stage 2010

The delicate, cathartic "La notte oscura dell'anima" (The dark night of the soul) concludes the album and comes like the calm after the storm, on the notes of a nocturnal piano passage. Finally, in a dark winter night you feel empty and distant from everything. Now you wear no armour but you feel lighter without the weight of your ego: a part of you is dead but you can start a new life with a new awareness...

Well, on he whole I think that this is a really good album, full of musical nuances and poetical strength: a must-have for very Italianprog collection!

Entity: Il falso centro (2014). Other opinions:

Uwe Zickel "Rivertree": Well, currently there's a lot going on, speaking of the Rock Progressivo Italiano genre. While offering fine melodies and an entertaining flow ENTITY turns out to be a real shooting star, this album certainly belongs to the Crème de la Crème... (read the complete review HERE)

Michael "Aussie-Byrd-Brother": 'Il Falso Centro' is simply one of the most self-assured, confident and downright bombastic Italian debuts of recent years, and the band perform with truly envious power and skill gained from the almost twenty years of honing their craft leading up to this work... (read the complete review HERE)

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/Entityprog 

SARDEGNA

It’s time now to set off and sail across the sea heading north west, to another Italian island and autonomous region, SARDEGNA, and its capital CAGLIARI. The city gave us in the past prog artists and bands such as Pierpaolo Bibbò (Official Website) and Gruppo 2001. Gruppo 2001’s keyboardist and singer Piero Marras (MySpace) is still active and is now one of the most appreciated singer-songwriters from Sardinia. The current prog scene from Cagliari features an interesting band, The Yleclipse (MySpace), who in 2008 released a concept album, Trails Of Ambergris, about the history of the island, freely inspired by the events of 1792-1793, when the French army tried to occupy Sardinia.

Other prog bands from Cagliari are Akroasis (Facebook), Julia Ensemble (MySpace), SVM Trio (Facebook), Grandmother Safari (Facebook) I Collegium (MySpace) and the emerging Entity (MySpace), Skull Cowboys (Facebook) and Sistema (MySpace). The other cities of the island have also their prog bands. IGLESIAS is home to Intermundia (Facebook), ORISTANO in the seventies gave us Salis while today it’s the time of a folk rock band called Nur (MySpace). Oristano is also home to Andrea Cutri (Bandcamp), guitarist and composer who in 2012 released a rock opera called Eterno divenire - L'amore di Barrett & Browning. SASSARI, in the north west part of the region, is home to Apollo Beat (Facebook), White Sunset (MySpace), The Sundering (Facebook) and Capside (MySpace) while the little town of Mores is home to Overture (Facebook). 

Then, the province of NUORO has an emerging band called Getsemani (MySpace) and Ilienses (Facebook), a band born in 2018 on the initiative of multi-instrumentalist and composer Mauro Medde from Gavoi and vocalist Natascia Talloru from Tonara. The name of the band refers to the ancient Nuragic people who lived during the Bronze and Iron Ages in central-southern Sardinia, in an area called Barbagia, a natural region located alongside the Gennargentu massif. Their aim is to blend the sound of Sardinian traditional instruments such as tumbarinos, pipiolos, tumborro, corno, triangulu, campanacci di Tonara or cantu a tenore vocals with modern rock instruments such as electric bass, piano, synth and drums. The result is a very particular mix of dark folklore and progressive rock full of experimentalism and original ideas...

Our prog tour of Italy is coming to an end now. Almost every day new bands are formed or bands split up and you can be sure that every Italian prog tour will be different from the previous one. So, after a break in the beautiful Costa Smeralda, you can always take a ferry-boat from the seaport town of Olbia, meet the Tobias Crime Quartet (Facebook), cross the sea, land back on the Italian Peninsula and have another spin!