Modern Italian Prog Recommendations

^ The album doesn't seem so long when you have to get up four times to flip the records :P

Cool thread!

Mascodagama wrote: I dig this to bits:

Oh man, cheers for posting this, I haven't heard it in years...from what I remember it was a Fabio Zuffanti-related work, and had quite a darker/gothic/Goblin-like sound do it?

I'm actually quite sad to say that I let this one slip by...will need to catch up and add it to my collection.

BAND: PSYCHO PRAXIS



ALBUM: Echoes from the Deep
Year: 2012

A bit of a controversial album this one!

The ferocious and surging power on display throughout the debut album by Italian band Psycho Praxis, formed in Brescia in 2004, shows so much variety and highly promising talent. In addition to a kicking electric energy and frequently frantic vocal delivery, swirling flute crosses English band Jethro Tull with Italy's Quella Vecchia Locanda and Osanna, the darker jazzy atmospheres are reminiscent of Van der Graaf Generator and the dirty organ/guitar interplay gives a rough Biglietto Per L'inferno RPI sound.

There’s a pretty big BUT, though…The album employs English vocals, which seemed to be an attempt by the band to appeal to a world-wide audience. Thankfully it’s one of few English language Italian albums that still perfectly captures the manic and theatrical quality of so many of the Italian discs (yes, there are occasional examples where it works, as hard as it is for us RPI purists to accept! ).

Perhaps the English language might serve to be a good safe introduction to what the Italian bands can offer for newcomers, and that can’t be a bad thing! Sadly no follow-up release to date, so let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Please check out some clips below:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73iLn4JhNho


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwBQAGeDFlw

Prog Archives band page: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7857
Prog Archives album page: http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=40546

Edited by Aussie-Byrd-Brother - July 01 2017 at 16:51

Edited by omphaloskepsis - July 02 2017 at 15:56

^ I 100% endorse this one, too. It's one of my favourite finds of the year so far - an absolutely top-shelf production, and should definitely appeal to the more eclectic/avant crowd. 

Edited by Magnum Vaeltaja - July 02 2017 at 16:25

Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote: Mascodagama wrote: I dig this to bits: Oh man, cheers for posting this, I haven't heard it in years...from what I remember it was a Fabio Zuffanti-related work, and had quite a darker/gothic/Goblin-like sound do it? I'm actually quite sad to say that I let this one slip by...will need to catch up and add it to my collection.

Yeah, it's one of Zuffanti's and that is a pretty apt description. The five tracks on the album are all versions of Italian 1970s TV show themes - and even without knowing the originals, which I don't, there is a kinda hauntological vibe to it. It's a bit more leftfield than Z's usual stuff and a very fun listen, well worth hunting down.


Edited by Mascodagama - July 03 2017 at 02:52

The Tullian sound doesn't bother me too much, Sam, but at least it doesn't have Ian Anderson-y vocals!

This is a pretty easy one to return to for me, mate. It's a shame, as TheH has said, that the band has gone very quiet....hopefully just for now!

Zaal's Onda Quadra is a jazzy fave of mine:





Their other album I get less out of, though it does have some good stuff.