4

As can probably be gathered from the album title, this is the fourth album by Italian instrumental quartet Metronhomme. Formed in the Summer of 2003, the band comprises Mirco Galli (electric bass), Tommaso Lambertucci (piano, synth), Andrea Lazzaro Ghezzi (drums) and Marco Poloni (guitars) and they were joined on this album by guest keyboard player Paolo Scapellato along with Manuele Marani who contributed double bass on one number. The normal way of releasing music independently these days is through digital only releases, and this like many others is indeed available on Spotify etc, or possibly a CD if the band can scrape together the cash or already have a following, but these guys instead came out straight away with an honest to goodness 180 gm vinyl release so needless to say I was already impressed before it made it to the player.

I was even more impressed by the time I had played it a few times, as here is a band who often use piano as the underpinning instrument, allowing the bass and drums to keep a melody in mind while the guitars move in many different styles. Synths are often used to pervade some brass-type sounds as opposed to the massive string-styles so often favoured by Italian progressive acts. One's mind is immediately drawn to the Seventies, as there is a definite flavour for that period, often mixed in with jazz-fusion, but not always. It is music which is immediately accessible, with the melodies intertwining and weaving together to create something which is both complex and immediate at the same time. On Prog Archives they are listed as being crossover progressive, and if I were still in the team I would have definitely have voted yes as this is solidly within that genre with commerciality and progressive attitudes combining together to create something which is incredibly pleasing and interesting to the ear. It is relaxing but never laid back, commercial yet still pushing boundaries and creating something which provides best results when the listener is prepared to do just that, listen with no other distractions. This is my first introduction to the band, but I look forward to hearing much more.