STORIA DI UN ICEBERG

I really didn't know what to expect from this work, but since it is mentioned "worth a few spins for diehard Genesis fans" in their bio; I have decided to give a try.

Those musicians were apparently best known as cover bands than really producing their own music but when I listened to the fine "Prologue" I was quite enthusiast: a little peaceful and melodic overture which is followed by a quite symphonic "Il Ladro Romantica". Vocals are fine and in Italian for most of this work.

The feel is quite good after all: nothing to do with some neo-prog clones as one might have feared. "Algebra" plays a soft and melancholic music. There are evident links with "Genesis" of course (the intro of "Verso Il Nulla" is quite similar to the second hald of "After The Ordeal"). But this is not too much bargaining, right?

This was an excellent start, which is seriously compromised by "Claudia": a short jazzy/neo- prog piece which features rather average vocals. Press next to reach "Today Images" which is not a masterpiece either. It starts alright with a fine acoustic guitar play, but these vocals in English are quite dreadful. Only a short and extremely melodic guitar solo is saving the bill.

Now, we have to face a medley of ?"Genesis" songs! It all starts with a poor rendition of "Afterglow", followed by the closing section of "Firth Of Fifth" (the band could have prevented the last few vocal lines?). As the genuine band was used while they were four, "The Musical Box" is represented by its closing section. The vocals are really terrible. Awful.

What is quite unbelievable is that the next tune ("A Prayer") is a total rip off of "Sweet Jane" from the great Lou Reed. The riff if totally stolen and this song is quite out of place on this album. What the hell did this band want to achieve??? I can just pray to reach the end of this masquerade of a track. Only some instrumental passages are OK (like the fine mellotron one). Yes: this band mixed "Sweet Jane" for a while with mellotron to end!

I can't say that the next couple of song are thrilling: why did they feel the need to sing in English? While the lead vocalist was keeping the sweet Italian to express himself, it was quite OK. It is really incomprehensible. The result is far much better with the title track, which sounds like a jewel after these dreadful moments. It is all symphony, poetry, melody. Sweet keyboards, fine acoustic guitar and pleasant sax. Their manager (if any) should have been put in jail IMO!

The band was quite effective during the few tracks sung in Italian but the English tracks (+ the cover) dragged down this album to very low levels. Unfortunately. I knew it was a risky business to be the first one to post a review with some comments.

Fortunately "Russian Suite" is not sung in ? Russian. This long instrumental holds lots of fine parts: piano, electric guitar, violin but the whole is not really interconnected and sounds more as a bunch of "solo" from each member than a true combined effort. Still, the music displayed is very pleasant.

I was quite perplexed while I read the band bio from Lise: "their work ranges in quality from 'ok' to 'so-so' to downright abysmal". She was god damned right!

Two stars thanks to the Italian songs and the instrumental piece.

A rather unknown Italian band,carrying over 25 years of history,ALGEBRA were found in Benevento,South Italy in 1983 by Rino Pastore,Salvatore Silvestri,Carmine Ielardi and Mario Giammetti.In May they recorded a single with little success and the next year the band split up,with Mario, Rino and Salvatore joining the pop band Taxirum until 1988.In 1993 ALGEBRA re-united (without Carmine Ierlandi) and with the help of guest musicians they recorded a brand new album entitled ''Storia di un iceberg'',released on Mellow Records.

STYLE: More than an hour of Neo/Symphonic-oriented Progressive Rock with a few Pop tunes here and there.The album sounds more than an 80's release due to the production and keyboard sounds.Compositions are split in English and Italian sung tracks.''Storia di un Iceberg'' offers a variety of melodies both on guitar- and keyboard parts,which include piano,organ and synths.Not much of energy or complexity,the work is almost totally based on pleasant melodies,romantic vocals and an harmonic aura.Note that ''The prayer'' and ''You can't'' belong to the old ALGEBRA single from 1983,while the album features also a GENESIS meddley,consisting of parts related to ''Afterglow'',''Firth of fifth'' and ''The musical box''.

INFLUENCES/SOUNDS LIKE: Influences come from both from the Italian (BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO,LE ORME) and UK Prog scene (GENESIS),of course in a more accesible package.First bands that springs into my mind are natives SITHONIA and ATON'S.

PLUS: Regardind the symphonic face of the band,it all comes around the very strong guitar melodies and the fascinating keyboard work with lots of fine moog synth solos and organ passages.Italian vocals are also quite romantic.Compositionally the band stands at a very good level.

MINUS:...but regarding the pop tunes,these are very plain,boring and forgettable.English vocals are among the worst I have listened to,bad singing and very accented.Production is also pretty amateur.Some piano parts sound very childish.

WILL APPEAL TO:...a closed community regarding the more symphonic side of prog,including Neo Prog and RPI.

CONCLUSION/RATING: The album hardly gets the 3 star rating.Most compositions are strong and very melodic,despite their simplicity and the band is very talented,but either the bad production or the amateur (English) vocals can spoil much of the enjoyment.Approach carefully.

If I had to write a one-word review of this album it would be 'dull'. Sorry folks, but I'm really struggling to find anything to get excited about here. The title-track is one of the better pieces and yet its overall effect is quite soporific. You keep waiting for some kind of happening but apart from a brief sax solo five minutes in it just keeps plodding on, as if the band was sleepwalking when it made the recording.

The songs are split more or less fifty-fifty between Italian and English language vocals. Among the latter is a medley of Genesis tracks comprising parts of 'Afterglow', 'Firth of Fifth' and 'Musical Box'. Algebra is perhaps best known as a tribute band and this medley is actually okay, although the thin and weedy production makes it sound like a demo-track.

The 13-minute instrumental 'Russian Suite' at least ensures that the album finishes strongly with nice interplay between violin and piano, although I'm a bit vague on the connection with Russia. The small handful of other good tracks is rather cancelled out by some horribly cheesy pop music, and as previously noted in another member's review 'A Prayer' sounds as if it has been shamelessly filched from the Velvets' 'Sweet Jane'.

I don't like being too critical and although I haven't completely savaged this album I do feel it has 'for RPI collectors only' written all over.

Algebra - one of the obscure italian prog bands formed early '80 manage to release their first album in 1994 named Storia di un iceberg. Well, the music is melancholic with smooth and soft moments overall, not bad at all, but far from really impressive. Genesis influence band, they even had a Genesis medly track here clocking around 9 min, but the best tunes are first two, Prologo and Il ladro romantica, very good symphonic prog, typical for italian school. Overall, an ok album, nothing more, 3 stars for this unnoticed band and album. In some parts they remind me of another italian band Slogans with their one and only album Photosynthesis released in 1983.