MELLONTA TAUTA

Mellonta Tauta were a late-70's Italian band from Padova, which never made it to a studio album around the time, despite recording a good number of tracks.The band was Mauro Scapolo on lead guitar/backing vocals, Alessandro Garbelotto on drums/flute/backing vocals, Massimo De Mari on lead vocals, Maurizio Fava on keyboards and Andrea Pasqui on bass.Archival sessions of the band were collected and released in 1993 by Mellow Records as a self-titled album.

11 tracks in here and 8 of them show Mellonta Tauta' huge GENESIS influence, these pieces were recorded at the Gardus Ad Parnassum Studio in Padova in 1978 and at the La Fattoria Studios in Vicenza in 1980.They show a group revisiting the more recent GENESIS albums, as their influences come mostly from the 75'-80' period of the legendary Englishmen with some backdrops from the far past, especially during the acoustic parts.The sound is mostly based in acoustic and electric piano, synthesizer and guitars, creating a very soft atmosphere, which combines sensitive vocal lines with melodic soundscapes and a pre-Neo Prog feel.There are bits from symphonic keyboards and some STEVE HACKETT-like guitar chops, but the overall mood recalls GENESIS circa-''Wind and wuthering''/''...And then there were three...''.Mellow instrumental passages and light, melodic tunes dominate these recordings without the epic atmosphere of their idols, propably a sign they were downgraded by the period fashion for more accesible and harmonic arrangements.''In the name of God'' contains some nice echoes from the old GENESIS with trembling guitars, throbbing bass and crying solos, but it sounds extremely similar to the British band to be trully appreciated.

No wonder, the band evolved to the cover act Duke in 1981 with Scapolo, Garbelotto and De Mari joined by Marco Zorzato on keys and Giuseppe Borigo on bass.Three live tracks from 1983 at two different stages are displayed in the album, Steve Hackett's ''Every day'' and two Genesis medleys despite the confusing titles of ''I know what I like'' and ''The lamb lies down on Broadway''.All three executions are great with a full GENESIS-inspired sound, highlighted by the great bass and guitar work and the good use of keyboards (mainly organ and synthesizer).Good thing is the singer never tries to sound like Peter Gabriel.

When the album comes to an end and the three best tracks are the Genesis covers this is a problem.The original material is not bad, some melodies are pretty nice, but the lack of dynamics and a personal approach hurt these recordings.Recommended to fans of GENESIS-styled Neo Prog, but be warned that there are several albums better than this one out there...2.5 stars.