All Prog From Italy Appreciation Thread

Clappies time for another review posting IT reviews.....Cheers Adam from the ISP loons!!


  Apoteosi
Apoteosi Italian Symphonic Prog

Review by AdamHearst

This is an absolute masterpiece of Italian Progressive Rock!

The prefatory instrumental piece 'Embrion' heralds in this incomparable treasure of an album: a baroque organ builds a nocturnal mood: a starry summer night sky... slow gliding synthesizers wash through the vista like wispy clouds obscuring a full moon. A darkly romantic serenading piano follows, which then erupts into an aggressive Jazz-like attack with an excellent rhythm and bassline underneath wondrous Moog leads from the masterful Massimo Idà. This short two minute piece is a masterpiece unto itself and contains more quality and emotion than some band's entire albums. And the best is still to come...

Mere words can not describe the magnificence of the 'Prima Realta, Frammentaria Rivolta' suite. In my opinion this is one of the greatest pieces of music ever recorded. The first movement of this epic is an aggressive tour de force with myriad layers of synthesizer atmospherics and technically impeccable and emotive piano playing. The rhythm section is one of the best in all of the Rock Progressivo Italiano scene. The guitarist is good but often overshadowed by the virtuoso keyboardist most of the time.

The suite takes a dramatic shift into a soft mellow Pop-like arrangement which sets the stage for the singer's first appearance: delicate and haunting female vocals submerge the listener in a fantastical world of unparalleled emotion and languid beauty. Soft gentle cascades of flute and melancholic voice coalesce... a rare angelic beauty results. This portion of the opus is evocative of an Italian version of Minnie Riperton's hit 'Loving You'. This might seem like an odd comparison, but it's meant as a sincerely positive comment... just listen to the two songs back to back and see.

The song continues through a progression of alternating soft and hard themes; every movement of the suite is of extremely high quality and the atmosphere it weaves is inescapable... you become totally immersed.

'Il Grande Disumana' sustains the magic and contributes the most aggressive segments on the entire album. There is a great change of pace when male vocalist Franco Vinci takes over and wails like a banshee for a couple of verses... at one point he sounds close to Rob Halford of 'Judas Priest' when he hits a few particularly high notes in a very theatrical operatic style. I like this delivery very much, it is a great contrast to the tranquil female vocals.

The drummer also pounds out some very heavy double-bass patterns that remind me of Stained Class era Judas Priest. This is an extremely dynamic album... after the pseudo metal portion it morphs into a 'Selling England By The Pound'-style extended instrumental section with great synth soloing and guitar leads.

From beginning to end this album is just perfect: perfectly composed, performed, and recorded. This may just be my very favorite Italian Symphonic Prog album. Always melodic and dripping with emotion, there is never a dull moment.

I highly recommend this to all Symphonic Prog fans, and RPI fans in particular. 5 stars

A fine instrumental prog-rock band added to my Blog today.  Think many of the fusion fans and hard instrumental prog fans will love this.  Give 'em a listen at their myspace. 


Soaring, spirited songs color a great debut



Often very technically gifted shred and fusion outfits can leave me pretty bored and uninspired so it was refreshing to come across the Rome based trio called A II R (as in A2R, a play on their first names.)  Contrary to what you might expect when you encounter an instrumental trio of the technically proficient variety, A2R play a fluid and engaging progressive rock that should be a lesson to many shred bands that what you play is far more important than how many notes you can cram into a song.  The 8 tracks on their debut CD release are crisp and concise songs that will grab and hold any fan of “Moving Pictures” era Rush, Satriani, Karcius, or Ohm.  They allow the hooks and melodies of their songs to appeal to the listener and simply use their playing skills to up the ante, as opposed to making every a track just a showcase for chops.  These are songs you want to hear again because they’re good songs and not simply shred-fests.  

Guitarist Andrea Pietrosanti, drummer Roberto Pirami, and bassist Roberto Fasciani met years ago in music school.  Pirami and Fasciani began session work and also collaborated on a project called Hyrda, while Pietrosanti worked on projects with numerous bands and vocalists in Rome.  They also work as music teachers.  In 2006 they formed A2R and quickly realized they shared a special and unique musical connection.  The songs were born fast and furious from improvisation which makes it all the more impressive how listener-friendly the final product turned out.  By keeping the songs in the 4-7 minute range A2R has given each song enough time to communicate the theme (yes, there are themes hinted through the titles) while keeping them focused, never allowing a listener to get “bored” from the shred-fests that some bands exploit.  Regarding those themes Roberto told me they are present in their minds but of course the listener’s interpretations can be very different with instrumental music especially.  These songs are intricate, varied in mood, feature challenging playing, but temper that playing by keeping it under control and spicing it with light psych, acoustic, metal, and fusion influences.  That said this is clearly not a jazz, metal, or psych album but a rock album, a delicious, unapologetic instrumental progressive rock that soars.  There are no weak moments to be found.  The tracks are chock full of one interesting section after another, each building up in excitement, sliding to another section and then sometimes returning back.  Vocals are absolutely not needed in music that is this much fun and in fact they would be in the way.  

This album has far too many good moments and details to attempt a track by track rundown but I want to talk a bit about the playing styles.  Andrea is simply an unbelievable guitarist who covers every conceivable style with seeming ease.  He possesses great instinct for how to approach the leads on each track, knowing how aggressive to take things, when to fall back a bit.  His solos are little works of beauty, just full of emotion, from the juiciest squeals to the driest runs, he can be disciplined as hell or cut loose for fun at a moments notice.  Truly a virtuoso but not a stuffy one.  Roberto F shares many of those same attributes on the bass.  He is not defined by the rhythm section anchor role in the least, but rather a co-lead instrumentalist to the guitar, playing nuanced leads in a conversational way.  He often plays in higher registers giving it more of the lead feel before falling back when necessary to support Andrea.  The tradeoffs and teamwork between the two on “Reflection” is a prime example of how the songs are strengthened by the approach.   Roberto P is the secret weapon of the trio.  Often when you have highly talented drummers the tracks can just become cluttered in an endless sea of one explosive fill after another.  While Roberto occasionally allows himself to go nuts on a fill he doesn’t live there…instead choosing a more selfless style of play by simply creating a grounded, stable backbone for the axes to paint around.  This is wonderful because it keeps the songs from ever getting annoyingly “busy” and creates so much more space…and it also means that when he does turn up the flash like in the mid section of “Lifetime” it elevates the track significantly.  Just another example of how these guys are working together at crafting effective songs rather than showing off.  My favorite songs were the lovely “Lost in You” with its inventive drumming and lilting mood as well as a very cool ending bass lead by Roberto.  There are “Aum” and “Lifetime” which most remind me of Moving Pics-Grace era Rush sans keyboards of course, and the calculated feel and tension in “Prism.”  “Aum” rocks particularly hard with chunky Tom Sawyer-ish chords and heavy riffs leading to explosive soloing.  Very thumpin’ stuff!   I’d love to see this live!!—and the band informs me that they mix it up quite a bit live so you can expect the songs to have some different twists from the studio version.  The last track “Sunrise” is yet another gem with the acoustic guitar bringing just a touch of a Latin feel aboard that holds its own against the strong bass presence.  The band looks forward to recording again and playing live but explained to me how difficult finding gigs can be in Rome, something I’ve heard from others as well.  How sad that a place with so much quality original music has not the venues when it seems every city is full of cover bands preaching to the converted.  As music fans it is our responsibility to pay more attention to newer original bands and less to cover band entertainment.  It should be about the music, not about drinks and dancing to covers.  Or at least a more equal mix of the two in the venue count.  I know, I’m dreaming here.  I urge fans reading this to support unsigned independent bands I’ve written about lately like A2R, Tea Club, and David’s Lodgers by going to their sites and getting a CD.  For the price of a couple beers at the clubs you can help keep the spirit of independent music alive.  

For an instrumental rock experience truly full of colors and great songs, A2R is a band you need to check out.  I love it.  Go immediately to this link for song samples and purchase their CD which boasts good sound quality: A2R band site - click here


[Jim Russell, 14 February 2009]

Great review, Jim! Unfortunately, it seems A2R will have to wait in limbo for heaven knows how long.... The HP team gave them the thumbs down, and so did the JR/F team and the Post-Rock team. I was in favour of adding them, but can't impose them on my team. Oh, well, I suppose there's nothing to be done until this state of affairs continues

This album has just arrived today. I'm playing it now and it sounds great!

Paul--congrats, good choice

Finally have a moment to get these up here............

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Edited by Finnforest - February 16 2009 at 17:40

Finnforest wrote: And this one from the D man  Review Permalink | Submit a review for this album Studio Album, 2005 3.86 | 10 ratings BUY Nostos Ubi Maior Italian Symphonic Prog Review by DamoXt7942 FULL OF GROWIN' PASSION! In this debut album Nostos they might pack all of things they wanted to do. There are many kinds of songs...one with full of heavy riff and frequently altered rhythm, and another with straight rock sound and catchy melody. However, all songs are same at the point that Mario's voice should have strong passion. Well I want to emphasize this point to all listeners! I suggest we can understand their identity and potential with listening to the first track Vendetta . In this song are almost all of their music styles. Exactly, a lump of heavyness, strict rhythm, terrific melody and hot voice. This about-ten-minute song know all of their Italian spirits. They can have a gentle style in the song Terra Madre or play a melancholic keyboard-play in Livia ...yes, they should have lots of faces. The longest track in this work Nostos has many short pieces with various waves. Sadly there's not an exploded part like Close To The Edge, so my first hearin' I felt the song so long and slightly flat. But listening again and again, I can always feel their large possibility in future. Of course, they can play well not only their original songs but also a covered track of IL BALLETTO DI BRONZO ( La tua casa comoda ). Ubi Maior is now growing, I can realize. Their next work will be absolutely climb up the mountain named Italian progressive rock!

New Japan mini list from Doug Larson....some old friends are back in the best format possible!

Italy	Acqua Fragile	same	Japan	1973	BMG	$27.00	mini lp
Italy	Acqua Fragile	Mass Media Stars	Japan	1974	BMG	$27.00	mini lp
Italy	Banco	Darwin!	Japan	1972	BMG	$27.00	mini lp
Italy	Cervello	Melos	Japan	1972	BMG	$27.00	mini lp
Italy	Museo Rosenbach	Zarathustra	Japan	1972	BMG	$27.00	mini lp
Italy	PFM	Storia di Minuto	Japan	1971	BMG	$27.00	mini lp
Italy	PFM	Per Un Amico	Japan	1972	BMG	$27.00	mini lp
Italy	Quella Vecchio Locanda	Il Tiempo Della Giola	Japan	1973	BMG	$27.00	mini lp
Italy	Reale Accademia di Musica	same	Japan	1972	BMG	$27.00	mini lp
Italy	Volo, Il	same	Japan	1974	BMG	$27.00	mini lp
Italy	Volo, Il	Essere O Non Essere?	Japan	1975	BMG	$27.00	mini lp

Alberto Muñoz wrote: Nightfly wrote: This album has just arrived today. I'm playing it now and it sounds great!     I have that too, ihaven't listen, how do you describe the album ?

Interestingly I always feel Gli Alluminogeni was a good rock band...outside RPI...IMHO.