ANONIMA SOUND LTD.

One of the stranger prog bands of the original 70s Italian scene was probably the least Italian sounding of them all despite emerging from the heart of Italy's Marche region in Urbino. The band's roots dated back to 1964 when then simply Anonima Sound was a beat band that released a total of four singles from 1967 - 1970 but after guitarist / vocalist Ivan Graziani left in 1970, the remaining duo of Walter Monacchi (bass) and Vello Gualazz (drums) changed the name to ANONIMA SOUND LTD and reformed the band in 1971 with several members as well as changing its sound to a trippier psychedelic folk style.

As ANONIMA SOUND LTD the band released its first single 'Io Prendo Amore' in 1971 and had a minor hit but soon the lineup was turned into a seven member crew and the band which included the Americans Richard Ingersoll (vocals, flute) and Claudine Reiner (drums) along with Englishman Peter Dobson (guitar) gave it a more Anglo dominant sound. The band began adopting the influences of Jethro Tull and completely removed any shred of its Italian origins. After finding a home on the Arcobaleno label as ANOMNIMA SOUND LTD the band released its sole album THE RED TAPE MACHINE in 1972.

Sounding several years behind the rest of the prog scene in Italy, this album sounds more like a Cat Stevens album than anything that could possibly come out of Italy. Primarily folk rock based songs with lyrics completely in English, the musical constructs are backed up by Tull-ish flutes. The album sounds more like a California folk rock band but offers some interesting contrasts between the folkier sections and the overtly rock moments. The 60s beat aspects are still quite present in the drumming patterns and the vocal style which makes this sound more like something that might have emerged from the psychedelic rock scene on the West Coast of the USA in 1968 rather than the heart of Italy in 1972. It's a very melodic album with catchy hooks. Meloni's vocal style may be a bit limiting but it's not horrible either.

While some will claim this as an overlooked gem, others who stumble upon this will wonder how in the world this strange little album ever emerged from Italy in 1972. While not unpleasant in the least bit there is nothing even remotely similar to the symphonic and heavy prog bands that were flooding Italy by the day in the early 1970s. The bluesy stripped down nature of this one has certainly attracted its underground admirers but unless you're into roots music with a few psychedelic and prog flavors then this one will completely disappoint. I'm attracted to some of these low rated albums because sometimes certain artists were just to weird to be understood and totally up my alley but in this case this is just an average and rather bland anomaly that despite coming from the 1970s Italian prog scene sounds as alien from it as any i've yet experienced.

Italian band with a non-Italian sound.

It was the early 70s and a band named Anonima Sound Ltd. released this album called Red Tape Machine, the first time i listened to this album i hardly believed this was an Italian band, since first of all the vocals are on English and also the music is not close to the folkish nor symphonic Italian sound that we use to listen, and to be honest if we listened to this without knowing where the band comes from, we would assume they were from England, or even Germany due to the sometimes acid sound.

Sometimes as a reviewer, i feel there are some albums that it`s enough with 3 listens to review, this is the case, i use to review albums after 5 listens in order to give a more accurate opinion about it, but sometimes an album may be easy to review maybe because the music is not the most complex, you know that term easy listening might be labelled to some albums or artists.

This album contains 8 songs around and a total time of 40 minutes, there is just one song above 7 minutes, the other ones goes from 4 to 5 minutes average. It starts with the title track Red Tape Machine, since the first vocals you will find that this is not the typical Italian band, despite it features some nice flute making that sligh folkish tone, this is mostly a psych song with nice guitar riffs. The Last Debutante is a catchy song, well actually i may say a poppish song which could have been a single hit in the UK charts of the 70s, i insist, no Italian sound over here. Window on the City for some reason reminds me a bit to Jethro Tull, this is an acoustic guitar driven song with some acid organs and nice bass lines and some flute here and there. Metro`s Song, again an acoustic guitar driven song, this time with a bluesy sound at the beginning. Then it turns faster just in order to return to the same sound as in the beginning a plain song in my opinion. Dog`s Life follows the same bluesy line again reminding me to some Tull passages, nice guitar riffs. Triangle is the longest song of the album and i think its interesting in a way, i mean it caught my attention so there has to be something there, the music actually its pretty similar to the English bands of the late 60s early 70s, so this is nothing original, but interesting anyway. Freedom actually its like the 2nd part of Triangle, the guitar sound is really similar, so are the vocals, but it suddenly becomes into a song with a happier feeling. The Roofer at last the last song of an album which lacks of originality and progressiveness, this song is maybe the heavier of them, psychedelic oriented music.

The prog element on this album is minimum, actually i wouldn`t call it prog myself, the music is not bad at all, but as i said above there is nothing original here and being an Italian band, the fact that they dont show any RPI flavour makes me being dissapointed of it. I definitely dont recommend it to fans of Italian prog, and actually i hardly recommend it to any prog fan, 2 stars for me.