MORGANA

Among the more well-known bands, which helped for the revival of Italian Prog during the second half of the 80's, there were a few infamous ones, which contributed to the movement to a lesser extent.Prowlers from Bergamo are one of these cases, initially started as a Hard/Blues Rock act and found in 1985 by Laura Mombrini (vocals), Gianni Radici (guitars) and Roberto Biglioli (drums), Fabio Deho (bass) and Alfio Costa (keyboards).The first demo though was recorded with Giovanni Vezzoli behind the drum kit.Another demo was recorded by the band in early-90's with newcomers Stefano Piazzi (guitars) and Marco Premoli (bass), entitled ''Morgana''.In 1994 Mellow Records decided to release it as the first official Prowlers recording.

So, by early-90's Prowlers had fully transformed into a nice Psych/Progressive/Art Rock band, fronted by a decent female singer and a talented company of instrumentalists as listened in ''Morgana''.And the opening ''Day after'' with its dreamy, delicate and lyrically intense mood is not actually representative of Prowlers' early stylings, sounding too accesible and inflexible.However this is followed by four long tracks, three of them clocking at over 11 minutes, with rather cliche titles but very impressive musicianship at moments.These are characterized by low-tempo arrangements split between long, spacey and quite psychedelic vocal deliveries, supported by hypnotic rhythmic parts and dreamy synths, and passionate guitar explosions with fascinating solos and grooves with limited vocal interruptions and a very haunting atmosphere overall.The combination works extremely well and the shifting changes between spacey textures and guitar-driven energetic passages is almost fascinating.On the other hand the album suffers from the typical problems of a demo release: A mediocre production, an unacceptable mix and some false-sounding vocal lines prevent ''Morgana'' from being an essential album.

This is one of the releases I simply love.Underground Progressive Rock from Italy, performed and executed during Prog's darkest ages, but offering a bunch of well-crafted and semi-personal compositions.Warmly recommended despite its low recording quality.