UNO

Another band that on paper should be great but comes up short. This time it is Uno. They were formed in the ashes of the dissolved monster Italian band, Osanna (a band every prog fan should have). In 1974 Osanna split for to form Uno and Citta Frontale, with the second band aimed at an internal Italian audience, and Uno aimed squarely at a UK/Europe audience with aspirations towards America. There are two different versions of this record, one with a cover by Hipgnosis and sung completely in English, and this one, sung half in Italian and in a stunning laminated psychedelic cover. It was recorded in London, and they'd hoped to make some connections there to move beyond Italy. Guitarist Danilo Rustici and Elio D'Anna on sax and flute cover all the bases, playing bass, guitar, sax, moog, string synth all between them (which made touring as a trio difficult). The pleasant Van der Graaf vibes of a good chunk of the album collide with the overt blues pop of Popular Girl (which does however dip into a strong flute and guitar driven prog section, completely unrelated to the blues song). Overall, this lacks the urgency of Palepoli or Landscape of Life from Osanna, but is well produced and some fans of Osanna will groove to this. Ignore duffers like Stay With Me (but even this one devolves into a nice guitar/sax duel) and concentrate on the Italian sung songs. The low key Van der Graaf and Osanna vibes will bring in many fans of all kinds of prog. Another Pink Floyd reference besides the UK version cover is the presence of Liza Strike on wordless vocals a la her take on Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Overall, a pleasant listen, and even the weak songs have some unrelated instrumental additions as if they felt guilty in post production and thought: "damn we have to fix that somehow". Prog pop that can't really decide if it wants to be pop or really cool prog. 3 stars.