MIKE VISAGGIO

But after more intensive listening and correct judgment I have to admit Visaggio does play his music in a quite complex way and therefore deserves the inclusion in the end. His playing style has some similarity with Vangelis but he plays his board pretty fast and so he makes a nice virtuoso impression because of that. In a few songs Visaggio also does the vocals but they aren't really great I have to say.

I'm pretty ambivalent about this release and have a hard time to decide for the ultimate rating. It's right in between 2 and 3 stars for me because I'm not very impressed with this album where the content of progressiveness is concerned. It's almost borderline prog to me and that's the reason I will round down. Nevertheless nothing really poor here so if you like your prog not too complex and enjoy the more easy listening/background style within music this could be for you.

Musically the classic prog bands from the 70's; Yes, Genesis and ELP are named as some of his influences. And the musical output on this album has a distinct 70's sound to it, in style as well as in production and mix. Of his named influences, ELP may arguably have had the greatest impact on the music on Starship Universe but other influences will most probably be noticed by listeners more familiar with 70's prog than myself. The music here is all keyboard based, which generally is a weakness. Even the best of melodies will sound better performed by "real" instruments than they do from keyboards alone, and Mike's music do suffer a bit from it. The mixing and production isn't high tech either, which may be off-putting for some.

In many aspects this release reminds me of the German one-man band Soniq Theater, both play symphonic prog heavily influenced by the 70's in general and ELP in particular. The main difference between the two is that Visaggio not too often emulates other instruments, while Sonic Theater emulates other instruments in most songs. And of course the vocals; Soniq Theater is a mostly instrumental project, whereas Visaggio does have vocals on quite a few songs.

And that last element will affect some potential buyers decision about getting this release or not. In my ears the pitch and timbre of Visaggio's voice too often sounds wrong, and I could have sworn (although my better half with a long choir background disagrees) that the vocals are off-key with the melody a few times too many. Visaggio has an ok voice, but somehow the vocals just don't sound right to me.

Apart from that, there are some cool songs here, with the cover of ELP's "Blues Variation" being the most interesting. And if you are a fan of retro-sounding symphonic prog, this could be worth checking out. Sound samples can be found at Mike's homepage as well as on CDBaby, so that you can hear for yourself whether or not this music is to your liking.