MAXOPHONE

Never boring, Maxophone's one-and-only 70s album stands as one of the classics of the era, shifting between sonic timbres and moods. Although released in 1975, its sound is more like 1971. The drum, electric guitar, and organ sounds in particular avoid the more slick recording quality that dominated the UK and US rock scenes in the mid-to-late 70s. The guitars can sound quite harsh at times, actually, which is somewhat refreshing, and contrast nicely with the sometimes very sweet Italian singing (I have the Italian language version, which I much prefer). The album begins with some amazing piano playing before shifting into one of the better tracks on the album ("C'è Un Paese Al Mondo"). The second track breaks with this sound, instead building around an electric guitar riff (ala 'In-a-gadda-da-vida'). This is to my ears the weakest track on the album, but I still listen to it. The third track is very mixed, moving between styles, including hints of Canterbury-esque time signatures, medieval flute passages, and quirky horn parts. My favourite track is the fourth track ("Elzeviro"), very musical, with an electric mix of styles (from beautiful flute soloing, to sweet Italian singing, to harsh moody guitar). The fifth track is an eclectic mix of harmony vocals, slowish classical music, and a touch of cheese, but with some very interesting and musical chord changes in places. The closing track brings back the horns, mixing more of a rock feel, a great sax solo (and even a synthesizer) and some really interesting changes and quasi-sentimental singing. The song/album closes with a mass- like organ and choir soul ending. While not my favourite RPI album, I still put this on every once in a while. Even the parts that aren't so musical are easy to take, as no section lasts very long, and there are a lot of nice cool sections that follow. I give this 8.1 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which translates to four PA stars.

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