NOVA

1. "Tailor Made - Part 1 & Part 2 (5:09) what starts out sounding rather funky turns into driving blues-rock when the singing starts, but in the instrumental intervals between vocal passages it's highly-charged Jazz-Rock Fusion! Saxophonist Elio D'Anna is on fire but so is that rhythm section! What a temperamental song from these headstrong lads! (9.25/10)

2. "Something Inside Keeps You Down - Part 1 & Part 2 (6:11) opens as a kind of meandering, wandering "warm-up" or "practice" session turns into something quite else when Corrado Rustici enters singing in a high almost-falsetto voice. After two minutes, the singing shuts down and the band folds into a heavy rock motif that is anchored by some awesome deep bass playing and amazing drumming from Franco Lo Previte. Heavy and brooding but not bombastic or pedantic, this is very solid instrumental (9.25/10)

3. "Nova - Part 1 & Part 2 (7:10) opening with some funky rhythm guitar, Franco enters with some stunning drum work while everybody else settles into the rock 'n' roll groove. Elio takes the lead with some awesome sax screaming--on multiple instruments--while the guitars work out from beneath who's the lead and who's the rhythm. The brothers duke it out with Danilo shrieking out his more blues-anchored style before giving it up to Luciano Milanese's bass by way of short bursts from Elio and little brother Corrado with his fire-breathing machine gun. Elio gets another solo sixth minute which allows us to focus more on the different playing styles of the Rustici brothers: Danilo being all blues-orented while Corrado is so much more Mahavishnu--which is especially demonstrated when he finally lets loose in the final 30 seconds with some of his fire and brimstone. (13.5/15)

4. "Used to Be Easy - Part 1 & Part 2 (5:12) picked and strummed electricguitar chords over which Corrado starts singing in his higher-pitched vibrato voice that I'm so familiar with from my love of the band's Vimana album. The music beneath is sounds quite firmly founded in blues-rock, though you can tell from both his vocal and guitar that Corrado is very much interested in going a different direction (Elio, too); as a matter of fact, the rhythm section of Franco, Luciano, and Danilo all feel so firmly rooted in the blues-rock forms that this is the first time I'm conscious of the rift that must have led to their departure from the band. (8.66667/10)

5. "Toy - Part 1 & Part 2 (4:21) nice semi-funky rock with some jazzy elements coming from the rhythm guitar, lead sax, and drums (a bit)--the rest is more instrumental jam-band rock. By the time they get to the third and fourth minute the infectious groove has gotten so inside your being that the solos become quite enjoyable. I can't believe how 180 my view of this song became over the course of its four minutes! (9/10)

6. "Stroll On - Part 1 & Part 2 (10:33) hard-drivin', blistering-paced, near-metal blues rock with rather coarse and aggressive vocals from Corrado while the band races forward for the first six-and-a-half minutes, Luciano Milanese sounds very much like he's trying to match the speed and style of Percy Jones. Then they slow down a bit, allowing for a bit of space within which the various instrumentalists are able to clearly, patiently inject their solo--though the highlight of the entire song is Elio and Corrado's paired melody lines during the song's final two minutes; the two are in sync! (17.75/20)

Total Time 38:36

Interesting to contrast the two guitar styles of brothers Danilo and Corrado: the former is far more blues-rock oriented with lots of note bending and favoring a much more "dirty" sound while the latter is clearly a student/emulator of the technical wizardry of Mahavishnu John McLaughlin. At times Corrado's vocals sound so much like David Bowie! As accomplished as the musicians are, the sound engineering mix is not very enjoyable: the bass and drums are mixed farther forward than any of the other tracks! And Luciano Milanese is no Percy Jones (future member/contributor to the band) but he and drummer Franco Lo Previte are quite a force as a rhythm team. Though the music is often far too close to standard blues rock in both sound palette and style, I have come away very impressed with the power and presence of this album. I think the power of the music even helped me to cast aside my initial myopic orientation to only being open to Jazz-Rock Fusion. This is not Jazz-Rock Fusion. Still, it is my opinion, that the band's core trio's next move--to move to London, England, where they will use studio musicians in supporting rolls to record their next albums--is the best move they could have made.

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of hard-driving technically-awesome jazz-infused bluesy rock 'n' roll music.

1. "You Are Light" (6:19) opens like something from the band's previous effort, Vimana, before getting a little disco- and jazz-imbued. The hooks in the second minute are reminiscent of both DAVE SANBORN and Narada Michael Walden's solo albums. Still, tit is a very engaging, enjoyable, and well-produced song. (8.875/10)

2. "Marshall Dillon" (3:53) a funked up jam in the vein of contemporary artists like Earth Wind & Fire, the Isley Brothers, Kool & the Gang, Ohio Players, Gap Band, Average White Band, and The Brother s Johnson over which Corrado's incendiary guitar is unleashed (but, unfortunately, much more processed). Very nice foundation from bass player Barry Johnson, Renata Rosset, and drummer Ric Parnell. Polished and well-engineered, just not "great." (8.875/10)

3. "Blue Lake" (6:50) rain, river, boat sounds over which Corrado and choir sing angelically. Elio's heavily-treated sax playing over the atmospheric music is nice--could have served more in the lead than the vocals. There are nice performances top to bottom though the mix is often surprising (bass so far forward and vocals and sax mixed into the rest of the soundscape). Renato's blend of keyboards is the song's perfect glue. The most surprising element is the complete restraint (or "absence") of Corrado's blistering guitar (until the very end). Almost a great song. (13.375/15)

4. "Beauty Dream - Beauty Flame" (6:22) a very beautiful pastoral song with subtle but beautiful chords and melodies and exquisite performances from the all-acoustic piano, acoustic guitar, flute, and "Nectar Smile Choir." Very much like Chick Corea's Return to Forever pieces like "The Romantic Warrior." (9.125/10)

5. "Golden Sky Boat" (6:09) starts out as a decent jazzy-rock song before Corrado's vocals and the funky Return To Forever driving chorus enter and dominate. The musicians are really all working out at top speed with bassist Barry Johnson and Renato Rosset's clavinet, Minimoog, and Fender Rhodes doing a masterful job in the low end. Corrado's guitar power chords are a sad joke, taking away from his true skills, talents, and tendencies. (8.666667/10)

6. "Loveliness About You" (5:53) the band here ventures into the sexy-lullabuy world of the future: the pop-pandering sounds (and lyrics) of that which will soon become known as "Smooth Jazz." It's pretty, it's romantic, it's very smooth, but it's moving far away from the complex hard bop and modal jazz forms and styles that launched the J-R Fusion movement. Almost like a watery AMERICA song. (8.875/10)

7. "Inner Star" (6:31) space cowboys! I mean: the sounds of American Country-Western music coming through rock 'n' roll instruments--' la American bands like the ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION and LITTLE FEET. This is actually a fairly well-balanced song with interesting hooks and performance surprises and a very solid rhythmic base. Though I hate Corrado's guitar playing seemingly bending (down) to the will of the demands of the rock 'n' roll gods, it does help make for a more cohesive and effective song. (9/10)

8. "Last Silence" (5:11) pretty, dreamy music with Barry Johnson's fluid EBERHARD WEBER-like fretless bass and Renato's floating Fender Rhodes keyboard play providing all the cushion one might need to float off to sleep (or opium-induced Nirvana). With this song one can see how Corrado Rustici ended up moving into roles as studio musician (Narada Michael Walden, Angela Bofill, Phillis Hyman, Stacey Lattislaw, Teena Marie, Patti Austin, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, George Benson, Sheena Easton, Kenny G, Calrence Clemons, Zuccharo, Ligabue) and record producer (Zuccharo Sugar Fornaciari, Loredana Berte', Paul Young, Randy Crawford, Elisa, Claudio Baglioni, Ligabue). (8.875/10)

Total Time 47:08

Co-Producer Narada Michael Walden's presence is still very strongly felt in everything about this album--even the spiritually-oriented lyrics. The songs are, however, more standard in format and polish but the sound is, unfortunately, heading toward that "Smooth Jazz" realm that usurped all Anglo-American jazz-rock fusion artists (more like "labels) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. For my tastes this album is too polished and squeaky clean--ready for radio play--even R&B and Contemporary Jazz and Adult Rock Radio formatted stations.

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of proggy jazz-rock fusion--though the album as a whole represents quite a varied sample of prog and Jazz-Rock Fusion as it stood in 1977.

Nova Vimana is probaby the best of all their releases with Wings of Love coming in second. The blazing guitar work of Corrado Rustici, the slamming grooves of Percy Jones of Brand X fame and Narada Michael Walden of the second incarnation of the Mahavishnu Orchestra give this band a very strong jazz rock effort. The lyrics I found distracting and were quite sappy, affecting some deeper spiritual context which is why I didn't give this release 5 stars. Rustici has some killer chops -- right up there with the jazz rock fusion players of that era. Finding a CD for less than $50 is nigh unto impossible. Recommended.

The band start by dashing through a sprightly and up-tempo killer funky pop-rocker `You Are Light', home to nimble and frantic instrumental dashes, silken harmonies and an infectiously catchy spiritual chorus that will lodge itself in your brain for all eternity! `Marshall Dillion' is a brisk fusion instrumental burst backed to a peppy dance-like beat, then drowsy reflective vocal piece `Blue Lake', one of the album standouts, reminds of Perigeo with its dreamier hazy moods, where seductively murmuring bass duels with piercing electric guitar themes that grow in twisting intensity back and forth. `Beauty Dream/Beauty Flame' holds gentle yet stirring instrumental melodies by way of mysterious faraway flute, delicate acoustic touches and sparkling restrained piano musings, all together bringing a dusty eastern mirage-like mystery.

The flips side's opener `Golden Sky Boat' is another up-tempo funk-popper with addictive and skilfully reprising soaring sax themes and aggressive bass grumbles aplenty. `Loveliness About You' is, unsurprisingly with that title, a sparkling ballad that gently reminds of the more elegant and heartfelt Beach Boys tunes in fleeting little moments amongst some alternatively reflective and sultrier sax musings and sighing group harmonies. `Inner Star' unleashes plenty of fast-paced red- hot electric guitar soloing tearing through spirited and almost whimsically cheerful flute breaks and a soulful vocal, the track almost sounding like something from the `Borboletta'-period Santana band, and `Last Silence' is a final reflective jazzy come-down of great taste and restraint flecked with breezy Moog trills.

Some will find the smoother or more openly romantic qualities too sappy, and the music is too concerned with marrying a funky pop sound to the instrumental runs to perhaps fully impress the more intense jazz-fusion followers, but `Wings of Love' offers plenty of thoughtful and energetic music throughout the entire disc, topped off with sublime vocals, and it makes for a classy LP by a talented group of musicians.

Four stars.

2. "Night Games" (9:37) acoustic guitar opening that sounds like it could come from Al DiMeola or John McLaughlin, floating Fender Rhodes chords and arpeggi and more bubbling bass popping in and out of the void fill the first 90-seconds of this as subtle cymbal and percussion play also sneak in here and there, but then Elio D'Anna's insistent soprano sax enters and announces its leadership in establishing a melody--one that is matched note for note by Corrado's dextrous electric guitar. The music stays surprisingly spacious even up to the point at the end of the fourth minute when Corrado's treated-voice breaks through in song. Renato's four/five chord keyboard progression paces the song slowly forward until something seems to break loose at 5:18. Thereafter we return to a spacious void in which Narada Michael Walden's intermittent staccato drum flourishes and Renato's clavinet chord play provide the only solid steady backdrop over which Elio, Percy, and Phil add their occasional inputs. Corrado returns to front and center around the seven-minute mark with another foray into singing just before unleashing an ungodly barrage of machine gun guitar runs--some of my favorite obtuse lines ever. It's over before the start of the ninth minute, the band returning to the spacious main theme for more lyrics and more sax, drum, and bass displays before Corrado and Percy take us out with their rapid fire artifice. Very interesting song--again expressing a very unusual compositional style. (18/20)

3. "Poesia (To a Brother Gone)" (5:11) all acoustic fare like the opening of RETURN TO FOREVER's "Romantic Warrior." Steel-string acoustic guitar, flute, and piano--the band's core--all displaying their lightning speed skills. Impressive (especially Renato Rosset!) but, once again, failing to feel like something concrete and "finished" has been displayed. (8.875/10)

4. "Thru the Silence" (5:43) the drummer gets to open this one. Funky bass, clavinet, and fast-picked guitar chords with Narada Michael Walden's driving drumming provide the base for Corrado's singing. At 1:45 the band switches into. a more Latinized motif with all kinds of percussion work, wild screaming saxophone and bouncing clavinet Probably my least favorite song on the album, there's nothing really wrong with it--and it's one of the few songs that actually feels "finished"--but it lacks the melodic or astonishing hooks. Plus Narada's able drum play is close to being on the disco spectrum. The instrumental fifth minute (to close) is the best part with Percy's bass play, Narada's drum play feeling more Lenny White-straight ahead, Renato's clavinet and Minimoog and Corrado and Elio spitting out the same machine gun lines. (8.75/10)

5. "Driftwood" (10:03) my favorite song on the album--one that haunts me in the best way--opens with some very atmospheric slow-played, volume-pedaled, "distant" guitar play while cymbals, synths, and tenor sax flit in and out of the spacious mix for the first two minutes. In the third minute, things setttle into another spacious, atmospheric pattern over/within which Corrado's odd voice gives his best, most impassioned performance backed by some extraordinary flanged strummed acoustic guitar. As he concludes that "I must destroy you" his love all hell breaks loose at 5:40 with sax and guitar absolutely shredding the skies with the army of band mates following the charge. But then calm is restored around the seven-minute mark despite the fact that Corrado's surprisingly Zen Buddhist lyrics assurance that the destruction is inevitable. A small squall of whole-band cacophonoy precedes a rather beautiful and wholly-ambiguous exit. Such a fsacinating song! The detachment toward such underlying existential violence and is extraordinary! (19.25/20)

6. "Princess and the Frog" (7:44) a rather simply-structured ABACAB song with straight time and straightfoarward piano chord construction turns out to be a convenient vehicle for some more fiery displays of guitar and drums as well as some silly Minimoog play rather disappointingly dull percussion play (from Phil and Zakir Hussen, no less!) The two-part song is halved at the five-minute mark by a bleed over into riverside birdsong and gentle Fender Rhodes arpeggi over which some guitar, synth strings, and light-hearted male laughing occur. The motif feels lifted from Minnie Ripperton's "Lovin' You" and seems to be just waiting for her bird-like vocals to step in. I also think that Andreas Wollenweider must have heard this song (and album) before he set forth the composing and recording of his 1981 classic, Behind the Gardens - Behind the Wall - Under the Tree . . . . (14/15)

Total Time 45:36

I have to admit that Vimana is one of my secret favorites from back in the day. There was a time when I was trying to collect anything and everything that fretless bass virtuoso Percy Jones touched. Thus, I stumbled upon this one. Boy! was I sucked in by the entirety of this excellent album. Corrado Rustici's guitar work astounds me to this day (and to think that he would go on to production Hall of Fame with his work with Whitney Houston and others!) Narada Michael Walden is awesome and I, for one, love the "cheesy" Sri Chimnoy-inspired music, titles, and lyrics of he, (Devadip) Carlos Santana, and (Mahavishnu) John McLaughlin. Each song presents atmospheric sections of heavily treated guitars and keyboards which then invariably build into fiery soli from either sax man Elio d'Anna or axe man Rustici. The only straightforward song is the finale, "Princess and the Frog," which is quite catchy. "Driftwood" and "Vimana" are among my all-time favorite songs from the 70s. Not a masterpiece but definitely one that I'd recommend to any prog lover!

A/five stars; a minor masterpiece of proggy jazz-rock fusion.

This Italian band are a rare find of very impressive and pleasing Jazz-Rock material. From beginning to end, they just keep pulsating - as if there was no tomorrow.

Comparisons with Nucleus, mid-term Soft Machine (Six) on steroids would not be misplaced here. To my ears though, it's perhaps closer to IF than anything else.

There are some funky rhythms present, but not in a commercial, African-American manner, rather groovy instead.

The presence of Morris Pert (of Brand X and else fame) is a pleasant surprise and - no doubt - adds to the band's credibility enormously.

My usual gripe is the vocals. Not really bad, only excess to requirement. They may not fragment the complete works, but wouldn't be missed. Still, one could get used to (or ignore) them. With that in mind, my 4.5 rating here is rounded up to 5. Great work!

The music is indeed some Mahavishnu Orch,Return To Forever and maybe some Jean Luc Ponty without the violin but Woodwinds,sax instead.These guys made some very catchy music indeed and gives you a feel of you can walk without touching the ground.All musicians are excellent.I think the cheese factor people are talking about and I can see why,is with the singing and the lyrics.Lyrics are in the cosmic glossy eyed Sri Chimnoy vein.There are 3 instrumentals out of 8 songs here.If you like Narada Michael Walden's(producer of this album) first solo album,there's a good chance you'll like this one.

After the first high octane frantic Blink and the more mellowish and smooth Vimana,I think Nova here on Wings of Love found the right balance between the first 2 albums.

If they had smiley faces in 77,they should have been plastered all over the cover and inner sleeve.It is a really nice feel good album.Thankfully they had one more album up their sleeve with Sun City which is also a dandy.4 Super novas.

"Tailor Made" opens with strummed guitar then it kicks in quickly with a full sound including sax then vocals. A guitar outburst 1 1/2 minutes in. I don't like this track at all mainly because of the vocals. "Something Inside Keeps You Down" opens with mournful sax until almost spoken vocals arrive before 2 minutes. Drums and bass a minute later.This is better. It's pretty intense 5 minutes in. Great sound ! "Nova" opens with guitar as drums, sax and a full sound join in.The guitar is back out front 2 minutes in.

"Used To Be Easy" is mellow with flute to start along with cymbals and guitar.Vocals before a minute followed by sax. It picks up 2 1/2 minutes in. I really like the drumming here but not the vocals. Big finish. "Toy" is my favourite.This is a funky number with sax blasting over top.The guitar replaces the sax before 3 minutes. An excellent instrumental. "Stroll On" kicks in before a minute. The drumming is killer. Vocals 1 1/2 minutes in.The guitar solo after 3 minutes is incredible.The man can play with speed if he wants to. Vocals are back 4 1/2 minutes in. Guitar is back 6 1/2 minutes in this time with a laid back solo. Sax ends it.

A good album no doubt about it but not worth 4 stars in my book thanks to the vocals.

What a wonderful record, i can listen to it over and over and never get bored. I have a copy from the original LP...wish there was a reissue...

This is an album filled with magic, wonderfully concieved and executed. Beatifully sang, extremly funky... i always feel like dancing when i listen to it! Sometimes i even feel like making love, haha! Wings of Love is one of my favourites of all time. 5stars without a doubt!