STORIE DI UN'ALTRA CITTÀ

Hailing from Genova, Italy, Garybaldi were, in the seventies, the outlet for Pier Niccolò "Bambi" Fossati's guitar wanking. A devout disciple of Hendrix, Bambi Fossati had enough sense to employ creative and intelligent musicians who helped balance Fossat's psych hard leanings with sensitive Italian melodicity and good technique, ensuring that their "Nuda" LP from 1972 was a minor classic of early spaghetti prog.

The group ended its activities in the mid-seventies after a series of lineup changes and a change in name, but emerged in the 2000s like many minor prog groups in the Boot Peninsula. However, Bambi Fossati was forced to retire by a serious illness that ultimately killed him in 2014; the band by then was led by the only original remaining member, drummer and co-vocalist Maurizio Cassinelli.

"Storie di un'altra città" is a pleasant, warm album of mediterranean rock with clear prog leanings. It is ripe with compositions written with intelligence and gusto like the hard/melodic cross "Sulla strada", which opens the album; or the prog divertissement-meets-faux-circus-vaudeville-music "William Fix", with David Jackson (yes, our beloved former Van der Graaf) coloring the tune with his saxophone; or the beautifully sung theme of the minisuite "Nove" (incomprehensibly divided into three parts, when the whole minisuite is less than 7 minutes in length). The tunes are never too long, so they never tire the listener, and the band carefully tends to each song with interesting arrangements and details, like a rhythmic variation, a catchy solo from guitarist Davide Faccioli ("Nova", part 1), or the addition of unusual instruments (violin, cello, sax, flute, bassoon, french horn) in strategic locations of the songs.

Leader Cassinelli and co-singer and keyboardist Jon Morra are able to take upon themselves the legacy of the group after Bambi Fossati's demise; and there is also a tribute to their late friend with the song "Vicino in un momento", the last tune he recorded and sung with the band before dying.

Garybaldi are not concerned with being innovative or with expanding the frontiers of progressive music: at this point in their career, their main goal is to provide the fans with a collection of good songs that can stand with dignity the test with their own past. In this sense, they create a truly beautiful, nostalgic album that, though not really engaging, will appeal to all fans of the more melodic side of 70s spaghetti prog.