LAVORO D'AMORE

I was asked to do a review of this album and at first hesitated at the thought of doing so as essentially I'm not a fan of instrument only albums, further than that the rio / avant genre of prog music is not one that overly appeals to me. Essentially I am a neo prog, symphonic prog and prog metal guy who enjoys a harder edge to his music than is to be found in the rio avant spectrum.

Having said that I must say that this music appealed to me. Through a few of the tracks I found myself waiting for Andy Latimer to let loose one of his ear blisteringly beautiful lead solos but that of course didn't happen as this isn't Camel but the music at times powerfully reminded me of that now legendary band - especially of Camel's Snowgoose, Nude era. The Camel reminder was not a bad thing for me to find here, in this album, as it means that it held my attention.

On at least one occasion I was reminded of early Pink Floyd and I also heard an early Mike Oldfield influence throughout much of this album.

There is a lot of melody throughout this work and I am definitely a fan of melody. There are no instrument histrionics and there is nothing that speaks instrument virtuoso but the music is tight, melodious and enjoyable and I did find myself disappointed when the album ended as I was wanting more of it.

So, working through the negatives being that my listening preferences don't lead me in the direction of this style of music and that there isn't the drama here that I seek in music I did find this very enjoyable, very well and tightly performed and I'm not beyond adding the Roz Vitalis discography to my collection (after this listen) so that I needn't be disappointed when the music on the album ends and leaves me hankering for a bit more of this bands direction. A solid four stars from me for surprising me and for being, not sublime but, really damn good.