WRONG FROM THE BEGINNING

First, I'd like to say that Jim is the one that actually did most of the work to get this band on the archives, which can sometimes seem like the quest for the Holy Grail ? never-ending. The Swiss sextet (including the soundman) form the Italian-speaking county of Ticchino, but bearing a rather Alemanic-sounding name, released their sole album in the late 70's, quite a bit of time after their original musical-theatre show was formed and mutated into a fairly typical Italian-sounding symphonic prog (with a slight twist of space) album, even if the group chose to sing in English.

Only four tracks (ranging from 7 to just-under 10 minutes) on this rather charming album, thus your initial proghead reaction of "yummmmmy!!!" is the correct one, because RSC's album is indeed anything but Wrong From the Beginning, but a small unearthed gem just waiting to find its ray of sunlight to shine like gold. Despite some evident influences, WFTB is even managing to find somewhat its own sound, which is somewhat a feat in those years, where new bands were indeed not hiding their influences much. Some of you may not find it all that RPI, but the songwriting had to take into account the English language chosen for the lyrics and vocals. So, sounding somewhat like a GenYEsLP with some more Latin touches, RSC's four tracks are definitely keyboards dominated, loaded with breaks and counter-breaks, constructed on tricky time sigs and complete with plenty of interplay between the musicians.

The opening flipping has a fairly festive atmosphere (sometimes bordering the circus ambiances), its early vocals sounding like Cryme-era Gabriel, followed by a few ELP-like breaks, etc.. The title track has a familiar Floyd ring (Eugene's Axe) to it at first, but flips into a Yes-ian (TYA-era) in its second part. On the flipside, the Floydian (Saucerful-era) To Be Or Not soon morphs into a frantic Emersonian passagewith some almost dissonant moment only to return to its starting Floyd blocks, then venture out into Banksian territory, and finally onto a Descamps (Ange) promenade. The exiting (sorry, no "c") Closed Boy has a psychey The Nice feel

I'm not sure I would call this album anything close to essential (it's definitely too derivative), but it's definitely a pleaser and deserves its "minor gem" status, but it might sound a bit dated to some - as if it was recorded some 6 or 7 years sooner than its actual release.

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