R.A.M.: IL LINGUAGGIO DELLE COSE

It's been almost 35 years since this band released a studio album. Well they're back although to say that might be a little misleading, especially if your like me and consider their debut to be a romantic Italian classic. Misleading because none of the band members on this particular release played on the debut. And honestly there is nothing in common between the two albums whatsoever as far as i'm concerned. This was a tough one to listen to this past week. It's very samey with the focus on the vocals for almost 67 minutes.

"Genesi" is pastoral with percussion and synths. Piano joins in and vocals arrive 3 1/2 minutes in. "Uomo-Terra" is mellow with sounds coming and going. Vocals before 1 1/2 minutes with prominant bass. Piano and drums join in. Strings before 6 1/2 minutes. "Il Linguaggio Delle Cose" features synths and reserved vocals early. It picks up after a minute. "Dance With Me" opens with the keys, bass, percussion and synths standing out. Vocals before 3 minutes. Lots of piano late.

"Homeless" opens with sparse sounds and the vocals that arrive before a minute are reserved. A beat follows. Not a fan but it gets better later on. "Infinito" opens with atmosphere as a beat comes in before 1 1/2 minutes. Vocals follow. It's a little heavier before 8 minutes. "La Pace Nelle Bigle Di Vetre: "Un Mondo Nuoava"" is the over 18 1/2 minute closer. Strings to start as bass and a beat follow. Vocals before 1 1/2 minutes. They get passionate after 5 minutes. Some vocal melodies after 11 1/2 minutes.

Very disappointing especially after a few other RPI bands have made successful comebacks recently like DELIRIUM for example.

In 1974 Adriano Monteduro released an album with Reale Accademia di Musica, then, after a single in 1978, in the eighties he left the music business and relocated in Santa Teresa di Gallura, in the province of Sassari. In 2008 he exhumed the name of the historic Roman Italianprog band for an album entitled "Il linguaggio delle cose" that was released on the Delta Italiana label with a line up featuring, along with Adriano Monteduro (music, lyrics, arrangements, keyboards, vocals) also Giuseppe Aramo (vocals, percussion), Antonello Monteduro (piano, keyboards) and Manuel Muzzu (bass). There are no founder members of Reale Accademia di Musica involved in this project and the overall sound is very different from that of the 1972 eponymous album of the band. Here the music is closer to new age than prog while the hermetic lyrics deal with philosophical issues...

The calm, reflective opener "Genesi" conjures up the imagine of a bonfire breaking the darkness to let you see the unknown and give breath to the truth... Then "Uomo-Terra" (Man-Earth) every now and again could recall some pieces of Franco Battiato from the eighties and deals with the duality of life and the relativity of time and space. "Il linguaggio delle cose" (The language of things) evokes the mysteries of cosmos and life and in some melodic lines reminds me slightly of Bob Seger's We've Got Tonight...

Despite the English title, the following "Dance With Me" and "Homeless" are sung in Italian. The first one tells in music and words of a moonless night and of the desire to dance cradled by the sound of the sea waves, in harmony with the world, the second one portrays a storybook of wrong choices, dreams of freedom, shadows and lights...

Next comes the ethereal "Infinito" (Infinite) invites you to the show of creation in a timeless time pulsing in the veins of eternity... The closer "La pace nelle biglie di vetro: un mondo nuovo" (The peace in the marbles: a new world) is a very long track (more than 18 minutes!). It's a piece about the need to push the limits of what human beings can achieve without surrender in front of the raging waters of sea of Life, in a game of atoms where the future runs free... Here the music flows away at a slow pace and the rhythm never takes off.

On the whole, a good album with a slow pace and refined electronic arrangements but beware! It could have a strong soporific effect.