AMBIGRAM

Ambigram is a new band formed by four musicians who have all been around the scene for years, and they somehow also managed to get Greg Lake involved the project who co-produced opening song "A Mediterranean Tale". This is more than six minutes long, and while the vocals are great, and there is some quite superb bass, I was finding it all a little twee and quite boring in its laidback style. Then just before three minutes it totally changes direction, becomes upbeat, has some lovely classical guitar, and my view changed quite considerably. It is almost as if the band was lulling us into thinking one thing, before suddenly they took the blindfolds off and let us see them in their full glory. It is when they are more frenetic that singer Francesco Rappacioli really comes to the fore as he is just sensational, but Beppe Lombardo (guitars), Gigi Cavalli Cocchi (drums), and Max Marchini (bass) all play wonderful roles, so much so that the more time is spent listening the more there is to discover. Max is definitely far more to the fore than many prog bassists, but he is not running a heavily distorted or fuzzed sound but instead keeps it clean.

There are many complex and complicated strands in their music, with a huge amount of space, and they have also brought in additional musicians and singers to fill out the sound (keyboards are incredibly important, hats off to guest Max Repetti). Towards the end of "Cerberus Reise" Francesco allows himself some lovely long notes before a gently fading oboe ends the piece which is really nice. These guys should be considered crossover in its truest sense as they are mixing together loads of different styles, and while they often are in neo they definitely bring in other elements while never going to the style often associated with Italian bands of huge banks of keyboards. This is a debut prog album well worth discovering, which repays repeated listenings.