EL TOR

Originally the band that led to the formation of the Naples progressive rock act Osanna, CITTÀ FRONTALE found a second coming as a band that emerged from the breakup of Osanna after its fourth album "Landscape Of Life." This band existed briefly in 1970 with Osanna members Danilo Rustici (guitar, organ), Elio D'Anna (sax, flute) and Lello Bandi (bass) along with keyboardist Gianni Leone who jointed Il Balletto di Bronzo in time for their lauded masterwork "Ys." During its first formation the band only existed briefly and left no recordings behind but after the initial breakup of Osanna, that band split into two bands, CITTÀ FRONTALE and Uno.

Ironically the three original members of CITTÀ FRONTALE who left to join Osanna were the ones who formed Uno leaving Osanna members Lino Vairetti (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Massimo Guarino (drums, percussion) to set up shop as the new version of this band. Ok, i'm dizzy now :/ Under this lineup which also included Gianni Guarracino (guitars, moog), Paolo Raffone (keyboards) and Rino Zurzulo (bass), CITTÀ FRONTALE released only a single album titled EL TOR (Uno also released only one album before Osanna reformed a few years later). The eight songs on EL TOR were all written by Massimo Guarino who also created the album cover art.

The music continues where "Landscape Of Life" left off with the sax based rock of Osanna mixed with Mediterranean folk music and jazz only more lightweight and less demanding. Long gone were the days of prog perfection of "Palepoli" which none of the members of Osanna would ever even come close to capturing again in that band or these side projects. Despite coming off as tame in light of Osanna's earliest albums, EL TOR is not without its merits as it delivers a nice mix of jazzy sax rock in fine progressive form with just enough Mediterranean folk flavors to give it that Neapolitan touch. With two mellotron players on board, the album features a lot of keyboard action with jazz fusion techniques and knotty prog workouts in the guitar work but delivers a rather light and breezy pastoral vibe and never really amping up the hard rock as heard on early Osanna releases.

The album was released on the Fona Cetra label which had also released albums by Osanna, New Trolls, Alusa Fallax and many of the well known Italian prog bands of the day. As with most Italian prog, EL TOR was performed exclusively in the Italian language and although hefty chunks of the album are dedicated to musical jams and knotty progressive workouts, the lyrics do feature a theme of a sick society afflicted by cholera. In fact the title EL TOR is actually another name for a particular strain of the bacterium: vibrio cholerae which causes cholera and therefore the album is actually quite the depressing subject matter if you can comprehend the Italian language enough to grasp it. The music belies the theme however with a rather upbeat bouncy and even cheerful form of jazzy rock that borders on pop crossover at times.

Anyone expecting anything comparable to Osanna can let those notions die like a cholera inflicted corpse. Unfortunately EL TOR while decently performed and hardly unpleasant just doesn't measure up to the magnificence that glutted the Italian prog market in the 1970s. I commend the band for attempting to forge a new sound and not simply reviving the Osanna playbook but in this case it all comes off as a bit lukewarm with a sense of mediocrity despite being well performed and finding all the musicians and vocals sounding quite pleasant to the ears. It's the compositional fortitude department that is lacking which lies on Guarino's shoulders solely. Perhaps if the other band members would've participated the album may have emerged as a little more vibrant. While worth a spin, unfortunately EL TOR is not what i'd call a high priority Italian prog release of the 70s. For deep diver's only really.

3.5 rounded down