PALEPOLI

Back in 1993, I was a bit lost trying to figure out what kind of music I should try. I was discovering several lesser known prog acts (GENTLE GIANT, SOFT MACHINE, HENRY COW, even PFM) though ROLLING STONE books on record collecting. Then I met this guy from Eugene, Oregon who was a big time prog rock fan, and I was asking questions about these bands since he knew a lot more than me. And he gave me a blank tape. One side was MUSEO ROSENBACH's "Zarathustra". The other was OSANNA's "Palepoli". And here I was 20 years old at the time, not realizing there were way more Italian prog than just PFM, and I was totally blown away by this tape.

On the subject of "Palepoli", well tracking down a CD reissue seems to be a bit more difficult (it's time this album received a more permanent CD reissue print, and make it more readily available through places like Amazon). I still listen to it through that cassette to this day, ten years later. Finding an orginal LP isn't exactly easy to come by either. In 1993, "Palepoli" was by far the most challenging and exciting prog rock I've heard up to that point. The JETHRO TULL, KING CRIMSON, and VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR influences are quite obvious. Lots of twisted passages, very aggressive, and tons of Mellotron. This album also benefits as being OSANNA's only album to be sung entirely in Italian (the thing that often bugged me about their other albums was their English wasn't that great). The music never stays one thing for long, one minute they might get in to a minblowingly intense jam, then next they quiet down with some sinister sounding passages, then they get all quirky and silly the next. Easy to get in to this is not. LOCANDA DELLE FATE, PFM, or CELESTE this is not. But if you like the more aggressive end of prog, you're certain to enjoy this.