RIFLESSIONI: IDEA D'INFINITO

'Dalton' is an interesting band from the early Rock Progressivo Italiano movement. Their sound is close to Folk Prog a lot of the time, similar to Jethro Tull... and they utilize the flute as often and usually as effectively as Tull. They also seem to have a strong American Hard Rock influence in their sound.

A lot of the songs have a strong 'Spaghetti Western' atmosphere... i can picture cowboys wearing dusty clothes heading for a shootout; roaming arid landscapes full of tumbleweed. I don't speak Italian so i have no idea if that's the intended imagery, but from the music (and the band name, and album cover) that's what i see in my head.

The album starts off very strong with two hard and heavy songs laced with gloriously flauting, fuzzy rock guitars, and sporadic Moog and organ all mixing together perfectly and giving the impression that this will be one great rocking album. Sadly, near the end of 'Stagione che Muore' things start falling apart... there is a decent flute solo but it's backed alone by dreadfully shabby drumming that sounds like a rickety mining car about to fall off a rusty track.

There are some very weird and/or bad transitions from song-to-song; one songs fades in as the last one fades out... it gives the impression that the songs were all unfinished and hurried through a rough splicing process in a weak attempt to make it flow like one long suite. The album is less than 30 minutes long, which adds to the feeling that the band must have been rushed to complete this album and didn't have enough time to flesh out each song.

'Cara Emily' is a beautiful heartfelt ballad which features very nice piano playing. This song reminds me a lot of a 'Rolling Stones' ballad, but i can't recall which song it is... i'm thinking 'She's Like A Rainbow'. It doesn't sound exactly like that, but it's similar in approach and mood... and i really quite like it, though it isn't very 'Proggy'.

'Riflessioni' is a bad Boogie Woogie track that reminds me of old Country-fied Electric-Blues and features some very annoying metallic clangy keyboard sounds that are way too loud in the mix. This is not my cup of tea at all... and the rest of the album isn't much better honestly. It's sad that such a poor second half has tainted an otherwise very good album.

This album would be a good addition to an already large RPI music collection, but it's not essential nor is it a great investment if you're new to the genre. I wasn't sure whether this was worthy of '2' or '3' stars... but i'll award it '3' for the strong opening half.