The Italian Prog Appreciation den

This group from Rome has a history dating back to the early 1960s when the first incarnation of Paride De Carli and Pier Carlo Leoni were known as The Happy Boys. In the mid 60s they played for The Peppermint Group before forming I Mhanas around 1969. This group had the experience of becoming a cruise ship band and they entertained people aboard the Flavia Costa for a couple years in the Caribbean. This was a really great learning experience because they would often have to quickly learn new sets depending on what port they were sailing to. After a few years they returned to Italy and sensed the change in the air around 1971. Seconda Genesi formed around this time with Alberto Rocchetti coming from a band called Rokketti. They rehearsed for several weeks in a church basement before quickly recording "Tutto Deve Finire" in just four sessions. Released on a small label named Picci, the LP had a series of custom different colored covers, which combined with the small pressing of just a couple hundred meant that the vinyl version became an expensive collectors item. Not that this translated into success for Seconda of course, they were just another of the many great Italian one-shots to release a fine album and split up during Italy's turbulent classic progressive era. They did manage to perform at several of the big festivals including Villa Pamphili and later Civitavecchia in 1975. They also performed on the albums of other artists on the Picci label. It appears they split around this time of 1975.

Musically this album is a gem and in spirit reminds me of Paese dei Balocchi even thought they have a different sound. They remind me of Paese because while possessing typical RPI charm it has a very independent streak and an unpredictable nature. The album leads off with some wild and weird jazz flavored craziness. A saxophone lost in a fog of swirled guitar and percussion make this sound like Maudlin of the Well at times. Slowly the lead guitar takes over and things get more "normal" for the rest of the first track, before "L'urlo" really blows the mind. A truly relentless, repetitive rhythm that drives one insane with a bullying sax solo over the top of it. But from this point on the album will morph and many have commented on the differing styles from beginning to end. Dropping the somewhat cerebral opening the band moves into a hard rock/heavy prog atmosphere of riffs and Tullish flute embellishments with wonderful Italian vocals and good lead guitar. The bass and drums are stellar too, these guys were all decent players. By the end of the first side the Hammond has made an appearance as well. Side 2 opened with the longest track at 8 minutes, a nicely constructed pillar of acoustic guitar and organ getting louder, with some blistering flute standing atop, then a break for the melodic male vocal. Very nice track. More curve balls follow with a very short classical guitar interlude and a nasty bar room piano jammer. Then, to complete this interesting but somewhat unfocused recording we are treated to a beautiful piece of soft, hazy, light-psych combined with romantic piano ballad. Scented Garden described the album as "interesting music, alternating between instrumental jazz-rock improvisations ala Soft Machine (fourth album), clasically-inclined heavy progressive in the Vanilla Fudge-school (introduced in Italy by The Trip and The New Trolls) and vocal songs similar to early Van Der Graaf Generator and the second Raw Material album."

Yet another classic RPI sound painting for those who approve of esoteric attempts at a little bit of this, and a little bit of that. Recommended easily to fans looking for a deep RPI collection though not the place to start.