STROMBOLI

3.5 stars. It was an interesting week spinning this double album as often as I could. STROMBOLI sounds Italian but they are from the Czech Republic and like many bands in Communist East Europe they were harassed by their government. Makes me think of Poland's SBB and sadly so many others. The recording comes across as a compilation album with it being part live and part studio and covering a two year period mainly with a four piece of vocals, guitar, bass and drums with a lot of guests. The female singer is soprano and all vocals are in their native language. We do get male vocals as well from band leader Michal Pavlicek. Actually the first three tracks on here are from his trio called MICHAL PAVLICEK & SPOI. They were renamed STROMBOLI in 1986.

My rating is because I am impressed with the instrumental work but to be honest I just can't get into so much of this. I am hard on double albums because I'm all about consistent records and this really goes into some questionable territories starting with track 12 and the drum machine and the three tracks that follow that leave me groaning a lot. Hey it was the eighties I'm not surprised. The guitar tone is metallic and not to my liking, it reminds me of the guitar in the band GARDEN WALL speaking of Italian. The female singer is best with her wordless melodies more than her sing words in my opinion. Oh and there's synth guitar which is a tough listen. On the other hand the closer is the one track I'd hold up as a song to check out and it's my favourite.

Clearly this band was about live performances and the visual shows they'd put on while on stage. You got your money's worth lets put it that way. An impressive collection of songs that are hard for me to enjoy. When it comes to the Czech Republic give me BLUE EFFECT, JAZZ Q PRAHA, ENERGIT, IMPULS, HOKR and more, still this band could perform with the best of them.