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Finnforest View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 05 2010 at 21:30
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 Folk Destroyers by I TRENI ALLALBA album cover Studio Album, 2008
4.00 | 2 ratings

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Folk Destroyers
I Treni All'Alba Eclectic Prog

Review by andrea
Prog Reviewer

4 stars I Treni All'Alba are prog band from the north western Italy that was formed between Aosta and Turin in 2002. The line up features Paolo Carlotto (acoustic and electric guitar), Daniele Pierini (acoustic and electric guitar), Sabino Pace (piano and keyboards) and Felice Sciscioli (drums and percussion). All the members are experienced musicians with different influences that managed to shape an amazing blend of folk and progressive rock. In 2008 they released their first full length album "Folk Destroyers" for the independent label Smartz Records. The album was recorded with the help of some guest musicians that contributed to enrich the sparkling sound of the band, with counter bass, flutes, sax, congas, trumpet, violin, accordion and many other musical colours.

"Watch TV, buy, obey the authorities, do not think, do believe in the collective truth, no ideas, no imagination..." . The only vocal parts on this album are some ominous warnings freely taken from "They Live", a 1988 film directed by John Carpenter where aliens rule on society and control humans through the TV broadcasts and mass media. The single tracks have no titles but each track is described in the beautiful booklet by a drawing by Domenico Sorrenti. The music flows away like in a long suite where quiet acoustic and folkloric passages melt in fiery percussion rides and vice versa. Some sources of inspiration could be find in the album "Anime salve" by Fabrizio De André, then you can find reminders of samba, tarantella, Ravel, Piazzolla, Le Orme and PFM...

Some words taken from a book by the Italian writer Stefano Benni that you can find on the booklet try to describe the right approach to this work: "We should always feel like we are leaving the next day, or like we have just got back. Everything becomes more precious: what we leave and what we find. To hear the tiny voice of hope , beyond the screams of pain. It could be interesting to come to a train station to find it... hope.". The name of the band, I Treni All'Alba, means the trains at dawn...

On the whole an excellent album!

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote andrea Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2010 at 00:32

^^ great album...

 
Here's the link where you can find it:
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote toroddfuglesteg Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2010 at 05:49

Angelo Branduardi's La Luna album............ WOW !!!!!!!!!!!

 


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2010 at 09:39
^ hmmmm, wonder if Mr. Walker has the Branduardi.....
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Todd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2010 at 10:31

Branduardi's first two albums, the second of which is La Luna, have been out of print for a while.  He rerecorded the album and added a few songs for his 1980 album Gulliver, La Luna e Altri Disegni.  That's the only access to those compositions I've been able to track down personally, and I really enjoy them. 

In fact, I have to admit that I absolutely love Branduardi.
"I have seen the broken sky turn blue."



My Gnosis Ratings

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2010 at 11:47
Todd, you are going to have to launch a blog on availability issues with RPI titles.  There is no one more on top of this stuff than you.  Clap
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nightfly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2010 at 18:12
Vault Pick: Well worth getting but only seems to be available as a Japanese import at the moment which isn't cheap...
 
 Reale Accademia Di Musica  by REALE ACCADEMIA DI MUSICA album cover Studio Album, 1972
4.15 | 40 ratings

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Reale Accademia Di Musica
Reale Accademia Di Musica Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by LinusW
Special Collaborator Italian Prog Team

4 stars 1972 was in many ways a golden year for the Italian Symphonic Rock movement, with titles such as Storia Di Un Minuto and Per Un Amico from PFM, Bancos's debut plus Darwin! and Le Orme's Uomo Di Pezza. Bands and albums that are familiar if not by nature, surely by name to many proggers out there, all seen as perhaps the most representative of their particular sub-genre.

But 1972 is also the year that spawned Reale Accademia Di Musica's self-titled first album, after being successful on the Italian festival scene under this name and I Fholks for a while. Perhaps that makes this album even more interesting in the discussion of pioneering efforts of this movement.

What this album presents the listener is predominantly a very lush symphonic landscape, with soaring Mellotron strings and various keys together with an earthier blues-rock touch in a mellow Atomic Rooster and Deep Purple area. Don't expect to hear clear influences from those bands, it's just to categorise parts of the sound in something with substance. Not always an easy task, believe me. It's heavy on piano, based around the piano on some tracks - acoustic and electric - and in my eyes that's always a good sign, adding delicacy and poignancy like no other similar instrument, and it really is the albums big bonus.

It's no surprise that many reviews mention the similarity to PFM, or more precisely the earlier PFM, with regards to the sweet romantic melodies and becoming melancholy. Vocals are very pleasing, never really grasping for either emotional highs or lows, which has different prospects for different people. But where PFM aims for more grandeur on Storia Di Un Minuto (which I consider closest to RADM), this is in many ways a more down-to-earth AND a more spacey album (and also stripped from the clearer classical influences of PFM). Instead of choosing one, why don't take both and place it on top of the omnipresent symphonic properties? The down-to-earth part is pretty self-evident, with the blues-rockier approach on both structure and instruments (especially the guitarist presents some rather familiar licks) that can be found on songs like Vertigine and Padre. Ognuno Sa also has a slight boogie-feeling to it, contributed almost exclusively by the piano. The spacious bits and pieces are a little harder to explain. But on Favola and Il Mattiono and then scattered around the other songs are quite lengthy parts with a clear and crisp not to say dreamy and distant, quality to them. These are what thrill me the most; exciting, enticing and inviting in a strangely beautiful way.

I'd say three tracks affect me more than the rest: Favola, Il Mattino and Padre. With a sensitive, hypnotizing guitar in that indescribable Mediterranean style, Favola is a mellow and relaxing tune, with a dreamy interlude from the keys in the middle. Comforting, and yet deeply sinister, it evokes a mildly unpleasant uncertainty I find irresistible.

Il Mattino is the killer track here, beginning with another crisp and soothing display, this time lead by a melodic piano. And then it just explodes. Distinct build-up from bass and drums with an escalating tone from the keys, it soon turns into a fest of crescendo after crescendo, a tsunami of musical energy with the piano riding on its top. Unstoppable as it might seem, it suddenly.just stops, falling back into a reprise of the dreamy first part. A powerful example of how important structure is when making music of any kind.

Repeating a theme from the keys over and over again, a slow, yearning and slightly darker build up from the rest of the instruments launches Padre. Guitar-driven and tense, it has a certain Dazed and Confused vibe to it from time to time and leaves a lot of space for keys-induced atmosphere and plenty of emotions. A song that just works on many levels.

Pleasant, lush and melodic and not particularly challenging are the keywords for yet another Italian success. If not for the band, at least for us listeners.

Heartily recommended. 4 stars.

//LinusW

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2010 at 23:24
Ahhh, Linus my boy.  My favorite PA reviewer, bar none.  That's one of his mid gear reviews, you should see some of his best ones.....no one describes sound like the Wik.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nightfly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2010 at 13:44
Vault Pick  Thumbs Up
 
 Sun Supreme  by IBIS album cover Studio Album, 1974
4.08 | 29 ratings

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Sun Supreme
Ibis Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by Andrea Cortese
Special Collaborator Italian Prog Specialist

5 stars "climb the point and we can't reason why. Overhead, another kind of sky. How we can wait? We see vision of majesty..."

After the release of their classic album Searching for a Land, it was quite clear that New Trolls' members couldn't remain together longer. Too much the differences between musical ideas of the two enemy/friends Nico di Palo and Aldo De Scalzi. Two leaders cannot easily share the same place!

So the band split up but the litigation continued in the Civil Courts for the use of the famous name of the band. De Scalzi won the game while Di Palo, after a first album titled "Canti d'Innocenza, Canti di Esperienza" under the undefined name of "Nico, Gianni, Frank, Maurizio" thought it was a good idea to ask the fans which would have been the best choice. IBIS was what fans suggested him, and so Ibis it was for the second album of the band, the memorable "Sun Supreme".

"Sun Supreme" is a wonderful gem, magnificient opus with strong performances of guitars, acoustic and electric guitars. I was really blown away since the very first listening 'cause I did not expect such high standard of quality. Di Palo wanted to explore more hard rock territories but he and the band knew how to mix their choice with a relevant progressive structure that still remains well imprinted in the record. Flute and keyboards never seem to go too far. Vocals provided by Di Palo are fine and lyrics are completely sung in english 'cause they strongly hoped this work could have been a starting point for greater success even outside of Italy. A special mention goes for the drummer, a certain Ric Parnell, ex Atomic Rooster.

The opus is a subtle concept on spirituality and ascension of spirit to the highest peaks of interior consciousness. The metaphore is the climbing of a high mountain upon which, over the clouds, the one who can be there will have the opportunity to see and contemplate Divinity.Two long suites then, one for each half of the album. Titled respectevely "Divine Mountain/Journey of Life" and "Divinity", both divided in shorter sections (and even sub-sections).

The music is so refined and different from what we're used to listen to from the italian classic prog scene. An interesting mix between Led Zeppelin and King Crimson (with only a Jethro Tull's touch): folky and symphonic with a strong "heavy-prog" structure. Some keyboards' and vocals parts are worth of mention for they really help to improve the general standard of the album.

A full five stars rating is the correct evaluation, in my humble opinion. Wonderful! Hope to read many other opinions on this site. I'm so curious to know what people think of it!!

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote seventhsojourn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2010 at 14:40
Yep, Sun Supreme is a fine album but, dare I say it, it sounds a bit too close to Yes. Just my opinion , mind. Good album, just not a 5 for me though. Thumbs Up
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2010 at 16:08
I just watched a show called "Visions of Italy" on PBS which takes an aerial view of the country from a helicopter.  So fun to see all of the towns and cities we read about every day in bios and reviews.  The photography is stunning and set to classical music, highly recommended if you like that kind of thing.  Italy must be the most beautiful country in the world. 

Short video preview


Click to close image, click and drag to move. Use arrow keys for next and previous.


Edited by Finnforest - August 07 2010 at 16:13
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nightfly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2010 at 17:23
^ It's my intention to go one day and come back with a suitcase full of Italian prog cd's. Big smile Pity BTF shut up their shop.

Edited by Nightfly - August 07 2010 at 17:26
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2010 at 17:40
BTF is gone?  You mean just the brick and mortar store?  Not the website I hope.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nightfly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 08 2010 at 04:03
Yes, don't worry Jim, just the bricks and mortar store, the website and label is still up and running.

Edited by Nightfly - August 08 2010 at 04:05
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote opethpainter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 08 2010 at 19:48
BTF is still alive. Working for them, I can tell you they are. :)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 08 2010 at 19:49
Originally posted by opethpainter opethpainter wrote:

BTF is still alive. Working for them, I can tell you they are. :)


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nightfly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 09 2010 at 15:13
Vault Pick: A classic Thumbs Up
 
 Crac ! by AREA album cover Studio Album, 1975
4.25 | 63 ratings

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Crac !
Area Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by andrea
Prog Reviewer

5 stars After the explosive debut album "Arbeit macht frei" and the experimental and controversial second one "Caution Radiation Area", in 1974 Area released "Crac!", probably their best known and accessible work. It was recorded by the classic line up featuring Giulio Capiozzo (drums, percussion), Patrizio Fariselli (electric and acoustic piano, synthesizers, clarinet), Ares Tavolazzi (bass, trombone), Paolo Tofani (electric guitar, synthesizer, flute) and Demetrio Stratos (vocals, organ, harpsichord, percussion). Gianni Sassi, Area's producer and "ideologist", wrote the lyrics and took care of the art cover. In the liner notes there are some words by Spanish "guerrillero" and anarchist Bueneaventura Durruti that should help the comprehension of this work... "We don't fear the ruins. We'll inherit the Earth. The bourgeoisie will have to smash its world into pieces before go out from the scene of history. We bring a new world into us and this world is growing, every moment passing by. It's growing, right now that I'm talking to you...".

The opener "L'elefante bianco" (The white elephant) is full of rebellious energy and blends rock with Oriental influences. It invites you to search for the obsolete rules that do not work anymore and to break them in a radical way... "Run fast boy, keep on running / People say it's your fault / White shadows, old powers are shamelessly buying the world / Old images, stupid saints are leaving everything as it is / Look foreword boy, don't think about it / History is running along with you / Run fast boy, keep on running / People say it's your fault / Take everything, don't stop / Fire is burning your virtue / Lift up your fist boy, do not tremble / Look at reality straight in the face...".

Next comes "La mela di Odessa" (The Apple from Odessa), a complex track that begins with experimental sounds and a drum solo... It tells in an allegoric way the story of a dadaist artist, a certain Apple, that in 1920 hijacked a German ship and led it to the seaport of Odessa, in the communist world. The people celebrated Aplle's heroic action blowing up the ship... Demetrio Stratos' exuberant and theatrical recitative vocals soar from a fiery rhythm pattern narrating this terrorist act like a fairy tale..."Once upon a time, there was an apple riding a leaf..."...

"Megalopoli" (Megalopolis) is an instrumental track that begins with synthesizers and vocals used as an instrument, then, after a drum roll, rhythm takes off blending modernity and tribal rhythms. According to some interviews with the band this piece was inspired by the construction of Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil, and by the blind megalomania of some governments that waste money building modern and useless cathedrals in the desert instead to think to the primary needs of their people...

"Nervi scoperti" (On edge) is a vibrant and tense jazz rock piece that leads to "Gioia e rivoluzione" (Joy and revolution), that after a peculiar introduction, features strummed acoustic guitars and powerful melodic lines... "I sing for you who come to listen to me / I play for you who don't want to understand me / I laugh for you, who can't dream... We fight our battle / With the sound of our fingers... My machine-gun is a counter-bass / Shooting into your face what I think about life...". It's one of the best known Area's songs.

"Implosion" is an instrumental track that begins calmly and then develops with sudden changes of mood and rhythm allowing the musicians to showcase their great musicianship while the last track "Area 5" is a short piece of "contemporary classical music" composed for the band by Juan Hidalgo and Walter Marchetti, two followers of John Cage. A bizarre way to conclude a great album!

Well, you can like or dislike Area's committed approach to music and share or not their revolutionary point of views about art and life but this is for sure one of the most influential album of the Italian prog scene of the early seventies and a must for every prog lover...

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cosmiclawnmower Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 09 2010 at 16:10
Hello everyoneSmile
I'm new to the progarchives forums and RPI forum looking for a little advice; ive been listening to progressive music since the 70's and got into the Italian scene through its most obvious proponents; PFM, Banco, New Trolls etc . After working for an Italian family (who were amazed i knew any of these bands) i aquired some more obscure stuff & then in recent years picked up a few more lps (after trips to Italy) but am very keen to discover more. i'm very much a vinyl man which makes tracking down this stuff expensive and complicated- you guys obviously really know your stuff and i would love to hear your top 5 (or more) lps you think i should hunt down next. I'll quickly list my favorites..
PFM Storia di un minuto/ per un Amico ( ihave all the others but these are my faves)
Banco Darwin/ io sono nato libero (,,   ,,  ,,  ,, etc)
New Trolls (all early lps)
New Trolls Atomic System
Alphataurus( my Fave!)
Osanna, Palepoli
Quella vecchia locanda(my Fave!)
il volo
Alusa Fallax, intorno alla mia cattiva educazzione (another fave!)
Metamorfosi, Inferno,
And more recently Finnesterre, Tale cue, Standarte & Nuova era.
I was given an I pooh lp which sounds like Queen (at BEST...)Confused
I have felona & sorona by Le Orme which i dont rate much but know they have much better lps...
Any ideas, suggestions & views to help enrich this middle aged Italian prog fans life very much appreciated!!!  All the Best to All!! JR
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nightfly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 09 2010 at 18:06
Hi John and welcome! To name my top 5 would be really tough but many of the bands you mention feature highly as favourites of mine. I see Biglietto Per L'Inferno are missing on your list so I'd deffinitely give them a listen. As you like vinyl (original 70's pressings not easy to come by) I was looking to see what BTF have available that you may like  http://www.btf.it/default.asp?id_tipo=3 
You could try from this page (some of my favs)  Campo Di Marte, Raccomandata Con Ricevuta Di Ritorno, Cherry Five, Maxophone, Procession and Area for starters though for Area I'd start with the first 3 which aren't listed as on vinyl at BTF as far as I know.
 
Also have a look here http://www.progarchives.com/subgenre.asp?style=28 if you haven't already. Lots of wonderful stuff like Semiramis, Rovescio Della Medaglia, Cervello (as you like Osanna), Ibis, Torre Del Alchimista (newer), Il Bacio Della Medusa (also newer) and that's just the top 100! I could go on but enough for now. Happy hunting and listening. Smile
 
By the way, if you don't like Felona E Sorona ( a highly rated Le Orme album) they may not be the band for you so I'd investigate the other areas I mentioned first.


Edited by Nightfly - August 09 2010 at 18:12
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 09 2010 at 20:11
Welcome JohnBig smile, we always love it when a new RPI addict enthusiast strolls into our mist.  You'll find a gold mine of picks in this thread and the previous one, which you can link to in the first post of this thread.  Also I have my top 20 somewhere in the Lists section, you can probably find it if you search Finnforest in the title.  It needs updating but there's good stuff there.

QVL is a fave of mine too, I assume you have both.  If not, there's a slam dunk for you.  Also don't miss Campo Di Marte, Semiramis, Cervello, Latte Miele, Jacula (if you like dark, weird stuff), Museo Rosenbach, Jumbo, and for something new try Il Ruscello or Lagartija.  If you don't have the BAnco debut that is essential. 

I find it so hard to make suggestions anymore, as I could now list hundred of Italian releases that are significant to me.  Trying to make suggestions is like picking your favorite child.  Wacko
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