ZUNDAPP

Zundapp is an obscure heavy prog band from Italy with two albums offered since today. Taken the name Zundapp from famous german motorcycle who ruled the roads between the two world wars, this italian band is a total winner to my ears. Great heavy prog concentrated on guitar arrangements, but aswell has a big amount of flute passages that gives to this second album named Sotero from 2009 a very pleasent listen. Strong musicianship, nice break, tempo changes, all the ingredients must have a heavy prog band to come with a valueble album these days. Similar lets say with Jethro Tull second album Stand up in manner of offering the music and overall atmosphere, with bluesy accesent here and there, Sotero mange to capture my intrest to the first piece to last. The album is entirely instrumental, where all musicians shine , from the opening track Black Commendha with nice crescendo arrangements to In a Club where the flute sounds excellent. The sound is vintage and damn great. I really like this album and for sure needs 4 stars easy, is catchy , well played obscure release. Great unknown italian band.

Proper debut from these Tuscan progressive bluesmen is a big step forward from their 2005 demo and gives us a band stuck in the past in the best way - with an early Jethro Tull pedigree but a more sophisticated jazz sensibility - a quintet that could and should open for any big prog act out there. The band plays to its strengths as a unit rather than to individual performances, each member contributing to a healthy group dynamic, just tight enough to impress but never enough to distract. There are a few passages that don't quite measure up to the rest of the material on Sotero (a set of entirely instrumental guitar-based prog) but that percentage is low and for a first pro effort, I think we have a winner that shows the promise of even better things to come.

The two guitars of Fabrizio Brilli and Moreno Mencarini loop together with Roberto Chechi's jazz flute for 'Black Commendha' and gives a taste of the melodic riffing abundant on the album, perhaps a bit unfinished but a decent opener with room for drummer Francesco Biagianti to solo. But 'Catalyst' leaves little doubt of this group's raw talent as they splay open this hefty hard-rocker and its distant clap of Aqualung thunder, followed by samba 'Elefantentreffen' and jazz beats of 'In a Club' with Chechi's lithe flute accents perfect over the band's heavy fusions. Tentative and unsettlingly-named 'Oswald Mincing Machine' gets into some neat guitar/bass drones, bassist Francesco Rossi holding it together nicely, Chechi taking some soft solos. It's followed by the insistent 'Rockwool' featuring a very prog midsection with lots of interesting changes and harmonies, rock 'n roll of 'Ruzzman' and very nice alternating tight-to-loose jams of 'Sinfonia per Traghetti'.

Full of nostalgic cool and an indifference to the modern music of the outside world, Zundapp are a welcome time machine to an era long past when five guys and three amps could just plug in and sound great. Three and a half solid stars.

This wonderfully spirited Tuscan quintet rock the house with their demo from 2005. Filled with plenty of crunchy blues riffs and rhythms in a biker bar meets jazz club way, the disc is mostly instrumental led by the guitars of Fabrizio Brilli & Moreno Mencarini, backed by the solid if frantic Rossi/Biagianti rhythm team and laced liberally with Roberto Chechi's cutting flute. At times these boys do evoke a very early Jethro Tull in a we're-still-developing-but'll-kick-ass-one-day manner. In fact some of the material is not unlike how Tull might've sounded had Tony Iommi stayed on as lead guitarist.

Chechi's flute is jazzy and light which works to balance a slightly brutish sound, a bit of metal shaking open 'L'Invasione del Cavalletti' as it becomes an old-time hardrocker with jazz charm, 7-minute 'Hursky e Stutch' just as good if not better with some great little moments and 'Effetto cera' is a pounding jam that grows in intensity. Melodious 'Phase A' moves around, changing and mixing colors but always of a particular palette, sometimes you can even smell the fragrant air of the Riviera. 'Black Commendha' is tough, and a completely unhinged vocal for 'Satam Blues' this time summoning Joseph Smalkowski's dismembered horrors.

A band with a whole lot of potential, Zundapp's proper and long-awaited debut in 2009 will likely be worth the wait.