BALLETTIROSADIMACCHIA

One of the trully mysterious cases of a band presenting itself as an Italian one, but the endless mistakes in the cover notes and lyrics indicate that this was not actually an Italian album.Ballettirosadimacchia's (a compressed form of ''Balletti rosa di macchia''-pink-colored ballets) sole self-titled album remains a mystery until today.The quartet of the so-called Tonino Leo Ucchi, Antonio Sassada, Gianni Mazzi and Marcello Taddeo Matteotti had to be either Japanese musicians under fake names or even Germans of Italian parentage, none though of these cases has been confirmed.Moreover some sources insist on the recordings being placed sometimes in the 80's.The only truth is that the album was released in Canada by Rockit Enterprises under a German producer.

Japaneses, Germans or half-Italians, these guys came up with a decent attempt to immitiate the Classic Italian Prog sound of the 70's and if it weren't for the mistakes on the lyrics this could have been easily circulating as an Italian release until today.The sound of Ballettirosadimacchia was Mellotron/organ-drenched semi-Symphonic Rock with a nice dose of flutes and acoustic parts, pretty good in terms of compositions and having overall a nice romantic Italian-related atmosphere.Vocals are decent, sometimes reminding of early-70's Italian groups, especially on the multi-vocal parts, and good reference points would be definitely acts like I GIGANTI, BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO or ALUSA FALLAX.Musically the album contains plenty of slightly-psychedelic sweet guitar parts, huge organ-based symphonic themes and fantastic Mellotron-led orchestral themes to go along with driving flutes and synth-based breaks, while the arrangements are often interesting, alternating between smooth acoustic and electric passages.Even after several listenings the final feeling is that these musicians had something to do with Italy, if not their adaption on this sound was certainly succesful.

This is an album in need for a legit CD reissue, as the only one I am aware of is a Tachika mini-LP sleeved boot version.Italian or not, ''Ballettirosadimacchia'' has plenty of great moments to offer to any fan of Classic Italian Prog, though far from being a masterpiece, and comes warmly recommended.