PERIFERIA DEL MONDO

Just a month after the release of Periferia del Mondo's debut the Italian band was among the names to participate in Demetrio Stratos' tribute album ''Omaggio a Demetrio Stratos'', a work of Mellow Records, covering a track by one of their favorite influences, Area and ''Arbeit macht frei''.The recordings of the second album ''Un milione di voci'' took place at Elefante Bianco Studio in Rome between November 2001 and April 2002.The album was again released via the Akarma label.

Yet another versatile album by Periferia del Mondo, mixing Jazz Rock with Psychedelic Rock tunes and echoes from the Classic Italian Prog era, the question was if these sounds combined would result a consistent album.The band grew well in time and, despite avoiding any attempts on long tracks, they came with a beautiful work, dominated by the pronounced violin runs of Alberto D'Annibale, the interesting keyboard work of Bruno Vegliante and the edgy electric guitars of Max Tommasi.They did not fall in the trap of resembling to vintage groups, presenting a modern production and they blended nicely the old stylings with contemporary sounds.I name the band as the Mediterrenean answer to FROGG CAFE, Periferia del Mondo play a flexible Prog Fusion, which respects the melody of Italian Music, explores the complex Prog territories and displays plenty of intelligent, virtuosic parts.Tons of organ, synthesizers and electric piano sit next to the fiery but also crying violin strings, the acoustic guitars add the appropriate folky enviroment, the rhythm section is pretty solid and the electric guitars burst some good amounts of energy.The arrangements are absolutely convincing with some poppy flavors around, powerful breaks, laid-back orchestrations and flashy, instrumental solos, wrapped up in very tight packages.Alessandro Papotto's wind instruments are rather downgraded and his main contribution comes in some nostalgic, dreamy, almost symphonic soundscapes of the legendary past.

Definition of Progressive Fusion.Elements of Jazz, Classical, Pop and Psych/Folk, offered through complicated but very consistent pieces.Nice work, strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

Going back probably over fifteen years ago now, my good prog friend Tom (Prog Archives member Tom Ozric) and I purchased the debut album from a then new modern R.P.I band called Periferia del Mondo, either from the Freak Emporium in the UK or from the late Michael Piper (help me out, Tom!). The group were an offshoot of Banco del Mutuo Soccorsso, formed by a member of that classic band, woodwind player Alessandro Papotto. It not only looked amazing on the LP format, but it turned out to be a very good album. The late Franceso Di Giacomo from Banco guested on the first track, and the album raced through an assortment of prog styles - classical based Italian prog, jazz/fusion and even some Neo flavours, with plenty of exciting extended instrumental passages. Even after not hearing it for a while, when the announcement of a new album from the band came out, I instantly ordered the CD expecting more of the same quality from this talented band, but instead I've been left a little disappointed and somewhat surprised.

`Nel Regno dei Ciechi' slumps about in a wide range of confused styles, trying to mix progressive rock with everything from bad poppy numbers, adult commercial rock and lots of tired heavy metal posturing. It also doesn't help that the group constantly sings in English, and often badly garbled incomprehensible English at that. A band like this has no chance making an impact in international music circles, so why alienate your existing Italian fanbase for some delusional hope of appealing to a wider crowd that would have no time for a band like this in the first place? When the band sing in Italian, the results vocally are unsurprisingly a lot smoother, and I suggest the band stick to this in the future. But if you take the time to wade through the poorer sections, there's still moments where a track will suddenly take a promising turn and get your hopes up. It's a frustrating listen, because with a bit of work, the band would have delivered a really strong album here.

Despite a thoughtful lyric about the Japanese tsunami of 2011, the bland opener `Sakura Zensen', with it's chiming electric guitars, would barely make for a Hogarth-period Marilion or U2 B-side filler. The melancholic `Purity' had endless potential with it's programmed trip-hop percussion, electronic ripples and Steve Hackett-like guitar tones, so it's a shame the English vocals make it all sound a little forced, and it also has a lazy anti-climactic fadeout. The tiresome album closer `Alibi' is a cheesy poppy groover that begins and ends with sludgy heavy-metal stomping. Actually, so many of the tracks on this disc use heavy metal to open and close the tracks, even though it's totally unnecessary, seems so lazy and uninspired, and seriously undoes some of the good work on display elsewhere on the disc. But worst of all is the tedious novelty rocker `I Need U' (urgh, even that `hip' spelling makes me cringe). I think it's meant to be a slightly comical or tongue-in- cheek piece, but the joke is lost on me, and until I looked at the CD booklet, I was sure, due to the dreadful English vocals, that the band was singing `Honey Dew', pledging their love for the green melon!

It's not all bad though. The title track, despite being bookended with uninspired metal riff clichés, has a sublime moody Pink Floyd-like instrumental passage in the middle with Alessandro's lonely sax over humming Hammond organ and a powerful vocal rise. Instrumental `The Bridge's Resilience' also opens and closes with silly grungy metal riffs, but is briefly saved midway by lovely quirky keyboard twitches, haunting sax and a dreamy Gilmour-inspired electric guitar solo. Despite a droning and mostly unsuccessful English vocal melody, the instrumental parts of the 12 minute `Suburban Life' - snarling electric lead guitar, delicate electric piano jamming, restrained drumming, thick punchy bass and drifting saxophone - are especially thrilling, but the fade-out at the end is unforgivable! `Suburban Landscapes' is a bluesy guitar over rising and falling placid electronic washes interlude reprise. But special mention must go to `A Ryttu U Jelu', the absolute highlight of the album, a seven minute instrumental that really displays the musical skills of all the players, driven by a relentless bass throb and middle-eastern styled flute around classical guitar. There's a drowsy improvised jazzy middle with howling sax and warped electronics - Periferia guys, why wasn't the whole album this good?!

The biggest problem I have here is that 2013 was not only a superb year from progressive rock in general (possibly one of the best since the vintage days), but especially for the Italian prog artists, either comeback bands or brand new acts, with some releasing almost instantly classic works. So an album like `Nel Regno dei Ciechi' just doesn't quite totally cut it with so many other more consistent options available, and a few brief tasteful instrumental flourishes and a decent track here and there simply isn't quite good enough.

I really hope Perifieria del Mondo have a bit of a rethink and push themselves to step up the quality and compositions for their next work (and ditch the metal too), because they're an extremely talented bunch of musicians that I know can do better, and they also look like a bunch of good blokes on the CD booklet photos. There's a few tracks of superb musicianship on display here, with a bunch of questionable choices that should have been worked on or removed altogether, so it ultimately leaves `Nel Regno dei Ciechi' as an occasionally wonderful but flawed missed opportunity.

Two and a half stars - but rounded up to three, because when it's good, it truly soars.

Ah, Italy! The cradle of so many bands, so many classic bands. In fact, almost an uncountable number of bands came from there and still come. Periferia Del Mondo is one more band that comes from Italy and has roots in their glorious musical background. Periferia Del Mondo is not a new band, though. They were formed in 1996 as a side project of Alessandro Papotto (vocals and wind instruments), also the member of the classic Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso. The band's line up also includes Claudio Braico (bass), Giovanni Tommasi (guitars), Bruno Vegliante (keyboards) and Tony Zito (drums).

Nel Regno Dei Ciechi (2013) is Periferia Del Mondo's 4th album and it was released in April by Aereostella/Immaginifica. The album was produced by the band itself and was recorded, mixed and mastered in Rome, Italy, in the Recording Solutions studio.

Nel Regno Dei Ciechi (2013) is my first contact with the band. I wasn't really aware what kind of Prog they would come with, but as soon as the album starts you can tell that the band is drinking in 'heavy' waters. 'Sakura Zensen' starts Nel Regno Dei Ciechi (2013) as a homage to the catastrophe that happened in Japan in 2011. Then 'I Need U' follows and it is a straight forward Heavy Rock, not much Prog in here. The title-track 'Nel Regno Dei Ciechi' starts with some very heavy guitars by Giovanni Tommasi, which will happen quite often throughout the album, but soon the song becomes a bit more calm with Bruno Vegliante keyboards softening the sound. When the solo section comes in, they have the heavy guitars back, some Hammond kind of keyboards and saxophones. It is also one of the two tracks sung in Italian.

'The Bridge's Resilience' is an instrumental piece, and to be honest, VERY weird. Giovanni guitars seem to be out of place and then a wave of almost silence comes in. Interesting and weird at the same time. 'Purity' comes in as a complete alien within the record, almost electronic music. The track changes a bit in the middle, but it doesn't change the fact that it is a totally unnecessary track in Nel Regno Dei Ciechi (2013).

'Suburban Life' is the longest track in the album and changes the mood completely with flutes and Gilmourish guitars. Soon a nice riff comes in and weird vocals follow up. In the middle the track changes completely. It is basically a part 2 of the same track. This is quite an interesting song. Then the album goes towards the end with two instrumental pieces of music in a sequence: 'A Rutta U Jelu' and 'Suburban Landscapes'. The first one has an oriental feeling, the second is a short song pretty much like the intros you have on the Pink Floyd albums from David Gilmour era. An intro for the last track. 'Alibi' closes the album and once again the band shows some Heavy Prog. As soon as the vocal starts the track changes a bit into more calm and melodic pace with the heavy guitars coming back in the vocal breaks. Interesting keyboard bit in the end.

Periferia Del Mondo delivers a weird mix of Heavy Prog in Nel Regno Dei Ciechi (2013) with some really unnecessary 'modern' touches here and there. Sometimes not even much Prog. All in all, Nel Regno Dei Ciechi (2013) is an interesting effort made by the Italian band, quite a few catchy moments here and there, but nothing really groundbreaking can be found on the album.

(Originally posted on progshine.net)

3.5 stars. PERIFERIA DEL MONDO is the project of BANCO's woodwind player Allesandro Popotto, he also is the vocalist here. We actually get a couple of BANCO members helping out on the first track as well. Man this album is all over the place when it comes to styles. In my opinion there are three great tracks on here while the other five are ok to pretty good. Vocals are in English and Italian.

"L'infedele" is one of those great tracks with BANCO's legendary Francesco Di Giacomo on vocals and Rudolfo Maltese on guitar. It opens with what sounds like news samples before the music kicks in sounding so much like AREA. Nice bass too. A calm before 2 1/2 minutes with acoustic guitar. Flute joins in then organ. Female vocal melodies before 4 minutes. It's building. Francesco comes in singing before 5 minutes. Nice. The song ends with that strong AREA flavour. "Ladro" is jazzy with piano and vocals standing out. The guitar is prominant too. Drums and bass lead after 2 minutes. Vocals and that earlier soundscape return. "Leave Your Daily" kicks in quickly. Fast paced vocals join in. It's ok. "I Bless The Night" opens with melancholic acoustic guitar. Keys join in followed by reserved vocals. A fuller sound before 3 minutes. It turns melancholic again as contrasts continue. Not a bad ballad. "Meltemi" is one of those excellent tunes. Organ, sax and drums open the proceedings in a dramatic way. Sax then leads as the tempo picks up. Nice bass too. Vocals join in. Intricate guitar 2 minutes in. It turns kind of spacey then the guitar and chunky bass come in. Sax too.Vocals are back 9 minutes in.

"In Ogni Luogo In Ogni Tempo" is the other top three. This one gets pretty heavy as the mellow sections and heavy are contrasted throughout. "Brand-Y" has to be a reference to BRAND X no ? A jazzy affair with horns,keyboards, bass and drums standing out. Some guitar too. Not a fan of the 3 minute drum solo though. No vocals. "The Ghosts In The Shell" is a good way to end it. Faint sounds to start as reserved vocals and string synths come in. The tempo picks up then it gets heavier. It settles a minute later as contrasts continue. It ends with a thunder storm and sax.

It's a shame this one isn't rated higher, and my 3.5 stars isn't going to change that unfortunately. A talented band I just think they could have done better here.

PERIFERIA DEL MONDO are another jazz rock outfit coming from Italy,who were founded in Rome by mid-90's.The band managed to debut in 2000 with the eponymous album ''Periferia del mondo'' and,despite categorized as jazz rock,this album offers a blend of musical styles like jazz,funk,symphonic and psychedelic rock.

The start of the album is excellent.''L'infedele'' features an amazing AREA-related intro and outro with beautiful clarinet,heavy guitars and nice keyboards,while the middle section is dominated by the expressive vocals of Francesco DiGiacomo.Not surprisingly this section is similar to the best works of BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCROSO.Despite the amazing start,the next songs do not offer the same level of high expectations.''Ladro'' is an average funky/jazz track comparable to NIACIN,while the next track ''Leave your daily'' is an interesting one with a funky synth start and a beautiful symphonic ending section.''I bless the night'' is an amateur dull ballad with english lyrics but with heavy italian accent,not my cup of tea.''Meltemi'' is a strange track.Despite some vocals and a jazz rock arrangement in the starting section,the track soon delivers some kind of spacey/psychedelic music for about 5 min with loops and keyboard effects and the jazz face of the band returns at the end again.''In ogni luogo''... comes next and its a great one.Alternating between heavy guitar moments and acoustic/vocal dominated ones with some addition of good sax,this track shows the talent of the band.In ''Brand-Y'' the funky face of the band returns but soon the track delivers only some drum solos by Tony Zito,so at the end the interest for the track is limited to zero.The 12-min. ''The ghost'' is also sung in english (I prefer the italian language for the Italians) and delivers the more symphonic/eclectic face of the band with average results.Some nice piano and acoustic guitar,very good sax,beautiful background keyboards are what you will meet in this one, but unfortunately the sound of the heavy electric guitar spoils the good arrangement as it sounds a bit out of the whole atmosphere...

PERIFERIA DEL MONDO are a band with talent and good potential for the future.My personal recommendations would be a more specific style of playing and the language of the lyrics to be limited in italia.For now,this is a decent 3 star album,easily recommendable to those who like a variety of rock styles in a single album,maybe with a heavier jazz dose....

This is the third and latest album released by the contemporary italian prog band Periferia del Mondo. A surprise to my ears because of the large variety of sounds and influences and the wide range of instruments, especially saxes, flutes, clarinet and whistles. Perhaps the thing I've appreciated most.

The jazz-rock element isn't really dominant but its sparse and gentle flavour enriches the atmosphere giving sometimes the vague impression of some Arti + Mestieri mood. But the album is much more than this. They are classically and symphonic inspired, they play melodic and harder rock parts with many solos on electric guitar and erupting hammond organ as in "Ocean" (4,55 mns). Also the mellotron like sound and piano have an important role as in the inspired "Ciaroscuro" (4,58). Interesting the changes of tempo in a jazz-swinging-swirling mood.

"Come un Gabbiano" (8,53 mns) opens softly and melacholically giving you the idea of the seagull flying over the vast sea. A hard electric guitar playing with excellent accelerations and sudden keyboards's eruptions.

"Alghe" (4,42 mns) is the most strange track here. Synth and other different keyboards plus slow spoken words give really the idea of the wavering in the underwater world.

The highest point of the album, in my humble opinion, is "Suite Meditteranea: a) Tra le Terre; b) L'Oracolo di Delfi; c) H. H. Blues" (8,37 mns). Spoken words in ancient greek language open the song with mystical and piano sound and dramatic electric guitar in an almost mystical atmosphere. Recently other italian band Ubi Maior decided to put some ancient greek words in their eponimous debut "Nostos". But let's go back to "Suite Mediterranea". This song has all a fanatic prog lover needs and die for. Many variations, soli and changes of tempo, but above all, is based and structured upon many different musical influences, from mediterranean to balkanian with saxes having a great role in the first part. In the second part whistles come out from behind the cloud and build up a WONDERFUL folky atmosphere that made me think, initially, to Gryphon. A great track, one of the best from the recent years, I think. And an important visiting card for this often overlooked band. Highly recommended.

Second album from this modern Italian "symphonic" prog band, which records on the Akarma label and gives it a chance to issue their albums in the mini-Lp format. Too bad the group did not take advantage of it as it had done for their first album. I had remembered PDM's debut album as a fairly disjointed album, not really knowing which direction to take, but this was only an impression, since I had only heard some 20 minutes of it at my usual record shop hang-out and had opted out.

The least we can say is that this album is much stronger, but not anymore focused than its predecessor. Having taken a definitive turn towards jazz-rock, PDM is not exactly breaking new ground, but who is nowadays? After two short introducing tracks, the group attacks a good three-piece mini-suite, where the nonchalant Italian spirits marry the cool jazzy laid back fusion that had succeeded to a dynamite first movement where the sax, the guitar and the violin had traded licks. However the next track comes way too abruptly and fails to capitalize on the delicate ambiance previously built. Incanti is actually trampling everything with its wooden clogs and metallic guitars and uninspired pop-vocals, where an organ solo is thrown in there "au petit bonheur la chance", (half- hazardless? Where the hell is that dictionary when you need it? ;-) Wind-player and lead singer Papotto is all over the place, but I suspect that he a big partake into this involuntary/messy/unorganized/unthought chaos.

An average acoustic guitar piece precedes another rocky jazz-rock (EvaLuna) track, but unfortunately it resembles a bit too much the previous Incanti. The succession of tracks much different from one another is a bit perplexing and disconcerting as to what they are trying to pull: the classic clarinet track (Cercanda) preceding the Santana- plagiarized Can Stop then followed by a harpsichord-flute classical ditty (Espresso), abruptly changed into an Arabian-laced jazz-fusion, reminding Ponty or Colosseum II. This goes all over the place a bit too carelessly for my tastes. An average ELP-like Foglie is transformed into a surprising title track with a rapping section (yes, rap!!). However the last track Io Brucio, with its short intro, is the second highlight of the album. What can be said about an album where the third best track is a Santana rework?

Don't get me wrong, aside the weak Incanti and EvaLuna, I haven't heard one track that is less than good, if not very good on this album, but PDM completely lacks a sense of constructing an album. And this thing is way too long, also. A bunch of talented individuals that have problems melting in a single unit, is this writer's prognosis.

The Italian band Periferia Del Mondo has released their third album and decided to give it the name of the group so it's called Periferia Del Mondo but not their debut album. The 10 compositions sound alternating and contain a wide range of instruments. The woodwind instruments (clarinet and saxophone in my opinion) have an important role on this album, they colour the music in a very pleasant way. And you can enjoy lots of interesting musical ideas like a moving clarinet solo and sensitive electric guitar in the swinging titletrack, fiery guitar and an organ solo in the mid-tempo song Ocean, a spectacular synthesizer solo and many soli (including a clarinet inspired by Ravel's Bolero) in the Mid-Eastern sounding Suite Mediterranea and wonderful acoustic gutar with violin-Mellotron in Charoscuro. And in the song Alghe suddenly there is pure rock and roll guitar with organ and powerful vocals, it's all possible on this new and interesting CD by Periferia Del Mondo!

www.progwalhalla.com

This is the second album from the interesting Italian Roman ensemble (by excluding the live album), after their important debut-work in the vein of Banco and Arti e Mestieri-entitled "In Ogni Luogo , In ogni Tempo"-.nowadays They have partially changed route, sometimes in the direction of such a usual classic rock (listen to the first track), passing through a funky-oriented tune of the second track. Well anyway They haven't forgotten their "progressive" roots: for example you can find echoes from Banco in "Incanti e Perplessità", thanks to the Hammond-solo of Vittorio Nocenzi, but also the virtuosic violin of Mauro Pagani (ex PFM) inside "Can Stop", with a "fusion" mood, and even the prog-jazz music genre ( a bit Perigeo-like) of "Un Borghese Piccolo, Piccolo" (without forgetting their title track in the same style.). Naturally the most interesting parts regard the severe arrangement of "Monologo" and "Io Brucio" too, where the sound of the strings creates a contamination of classical music, this time in the vein of another versatile band like Quintorigo, always from Italy; and from these latter They are learning to compose easier tunes, suitable for a bit wider crowd, not for the fans of the progressive or fusion jazz-genre only.at the moment PFD have not reached this aim, but perhaps one day They could support Quintorigo all over Europe, trying to emulate the same fairly good commercial success!!

Another interesting work, after all!!

It's such a good debut album of PDF (from Rome), regarded as followers of the jazz-fusion/progressive scene in Italy (think of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and Ezra Winston for instance, in some circumstances only, but above all Arti e Mestieri from Northern Italy.), a bit symbolizing the re-birth of the progressive movement, along with their pretty album cover picture (from a famous painting by Eugene Barman, a Russian artist) which is worth checking out at least!

Of course it's their gift to the old Italian jazz progressive genre, which sometimes is far away from the Romantic movements, being often in the vein of another jazz rock ensemble like Perigeo, but you can't forget all the other styles, making this band a versatile ensemble (well actually let me think of an experimental project such as that one-for example- by "A Triggering Myth", an American Duo, and soon I lose interest for PDF, but it's only a question of personal tastes...). Anyway, coming to the present issue, the allegoric meanings regarding the artwork of such cover pictures of the seventies, in this case are used-actually- with the purpose to express their protest against the media, which still nowadays relegate the underground progressive scene into the margin. Otherwise sometimes also a remarkable band like Il Balletto di Bronzo was relegated on the fringe of the music market, above all when They chose a controversial cover picture portraying the bust of a famous dictator on a black background.at that time much "politically uncorrected" (even though their intention was absolutely diverse and clean too!!). Instead, talking about this debut album, the presence of Rodolfo Maltese and Francesco di Giacomo in "L'Infedele", supporting the Italian sextet in a excellent manner as usual, is important and quite exciting as well!! Therefore if you regard of the introduction by Area in the informative notes, the real masters of progressive jazz, "In Ogni Luogo." is also advisable for the followers of this particular "wide-ranging" music genre, a bit referred to the famous "creature" by Demetrio Stratos.

Interesting work!!