Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.rock.progressive
Titolo: Altri capolavori

Apryl (Italy) - 2002 - "Alorconfusa" 
(47 min, "Mellow") 
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Track List:
1. Hesperia 14:43
2. Ghe-pardo 8:21
3. Tarta-ruga 10:10
4. Nelle Vesti di Adia 13:58
All tracks: by Apryl.
Line-up:
Ermanno Barse - keyboards & piano
Giorgio Riodato - electric & acoustic basses
Alberto Celotto - electric guitars
Andrea Lorenzet - drums & percussion; programming
Leandro Di Giovanna - vocals
Produced by APRIL, Giorgio S., & Sergio B.
Engineered by Giorgio at "Black Bird", Venice.
Preamble. I have never heard of Apryl before, so I am not in the know
whether "Alorconfusa" is their debut album or not. 
The Album. There will be some objective similarities between this
review and that of The Far Side's debut album, "Parallelebiped", which
I wrote yesterday. "Alorconfusa" features four epic tracks, three of
which are songs. These are Hesperia, Tarta-ruga, and Nelle Vesti di
Adia (1, 3, & 4). Overall, the music that is presented on each of them
represents quite a complex and diverse Classic Symphonic Art-Rock, the
roots of which are certainly in the 1970s. This is mostly a
keyboard-driven music, and solos of the Hammond organ and synthesizer
and passages of piano are 'at the head' of arrangements much more
often than those of guitar and bass. Regardless of all of this
however, and despite the fact that there are lots of the band's own
original ideas on each of the songs on the album, the traces of
influences of the most influential Art-Rock band, Genesis, are notable
here as well. Which, though, doesn't diminish the overall value of
them. Especially since purely instrumental arrangements cover more
than a half of each of them, and all the vocals are here not only
original, but are also of a romantic rather than dramatic character.
(Quite the contrary, the vocals on The Far Side's "Parallelebiped",
where there are traces of the influences of Rush, are of a dramatic
rather than romantic nature. Those in the know should certainly
understand what seeming contradictions I am implying here.) Quite
unexpectedly, it turned out that the instrumental composition,
Ghe-pardo (2), which is highly original in its entirety, is about an
atmospherically symphonic Space Rock with elements of Classic
Symphonic Art-Rock and Prog-Metal. To say more precisely, Ghe-pardo
consists of two parts. The first of them, which is of a spacey
'origin', lasts about six and a half minutes, while at the end of the
track the music suddenly transforms into a blend of Classic Art-Rock
and Prog-Metal. 
Summary. First, I was a bit discouraged about the stylistic
inconsistency between all three of the songs and the only instrumental
composition on the album, which, in addition, is located on the second
track of it. Later however, I began to understand that in this very
case, "second track" is by no means "second-hand" and not only. In
fact, the instrumental piece, Ghe-pardo is hardly less inventive and
effective than its 'vocal' counterparts on the album, which, thus, is
very interesting as a whole. Highly recommended. 
--------------------------
Moon Fog Prophet (Finland) - 2002 - "Taunting the Bells Through the
Mammal Void" 
(72 min, "Mellow") 
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Track List:
1. Appearance 5:38
2. The Duke 11:45
3. Outside the Ring 2:43
4. A Meaningless Discussion 6:31
5. Morning Evening 6:44
6. Baker's Wife 1:19
7. Wagons 4:55
8. Apocalypse On Schedule 6:40
9. Triumph of Oppression 12:40
10. The Parks 8:25
11. The Council Never Ends 5:06
All tracks: by Moon Fog Prophet.
Line-up:
Mika Ratto - keyboards; vocals
Teemu Majaluoma - guitars; vocals
Veli Nuorsaan - drums & percussion
Mikko Elo - basses
The band's (!) notes: 
Various other instruments appear uncredited.
Special people appearance by: M. Elo, T. Elo, & D. Finley.
Produced by Moon Fog Prophet, H. Wetterstrand, & T. Elo.
Engineered by Moon Fog Prophet & H. Wetterstrand.	
Preamble. Above all, I should note that I asked Mauro Moroni at Mellow
Global Media to send me the most innovative and non-standard albums
from the label's recent releases. Having received a bunch of requested
promo CDs this week, first, I decided to review those by Finnish
bands. Which, above all, is due to my knowledge of Finland's
Progressive, which is by no means intimate. So, the hero of this
review is the "Taunting the Bells Through the Mammal Void" album by
Moon Fog Prophet. 
The Album. A highest originality, complexity, and intensity, a
wonderful eclecticism, hypnotism, mystery, and magic - these are the
key aspects of the "Taunting the Bells Through the Mammal Void" album.
It consists of eleven tracks, four of which are instrumental
compositions. Three of these instrumentals: Appearance, Wagons, and
Triumph of Oppression (1, 7, & 9), and the two songs: A Meaningful
Discussion and The Council Never Ends (4 & 11), are about an
incredibly unique and highly intricate Symphonic Space Metal where,
though, the quantity of purely symphonic textures is quite
considerable. The song, Apocalypse On Schedule (8) is stylistically
close to the predominant stylistics of the album (that I've just
defined), though it's a bass, and not an electric guitar, that plays
an aggressively 'riffing' role in the arrangements on it. The music on
the songs: Morning Evening and The Parks (5 & 10), and the remaining
instrumental piece, Baker's Wife (6), represents a truly Modern, very
original and, at the same time, highly complex, Symphonic Art-Rock
with elements of Space- Rock or Metal. The first of the said songs
however, features also just a wonderful instrumental episode where all
the soloing parts suddenly transformed into the distinctive features
of Jazz-Fusion, which, though, is here completely original as well.
There are two singers on "Taunting the Bells Through the Mammal Void",
and what is especially amazing, is that the vocals of both of them are
operatic. The female vocalizes are heard on the album from time to
time as well. Can you imagine a highly complex Space Rock of a
dramatic character and with operatic vocals? I think not - unless you
get and listen to this album. Nevertheless, purely instrumental
arrangements that, by the way, are intensive throughout each of the
aforementioned nine tracks, cover about two thirds of any song on the
album and, mainly, represent Space Rock jams that are both eclectic
and hypnotic. The set of main soloing instruments is here traditional.
These are electric and semi-acoustic guitars, synthesizers and the
piano, bass, and drums. The parts of hand percussion instruments are
present on The Duke and Wagons (2 & 7), and those of organ only on A
Meaningful Discussion (4). As for the instruments that these brave and
ambitious Finns didn't mention in the CD booklet, these are a violin,
harmonica, and acoustic guitar. The excellent, 'velvet', passages of
violin is featured on Triumph of Oppression (9). While the rhythms of
acoustic guitar and solos of harmonica represent all the instrumental
contents that the strangest song on the album, Outside the Ring (3),
consists of. In my honest opinion, this song and The Duke (2), which,
overall, is about quite a monotonous spacey music, were pointlessly
included in this brilliant album. I really wonder why these talented
Northerners decide to add two more accessible songs to those nine
tracks that I've described first, especially since taken together,
they last 58 minutes, which is more than enough for a full-fledged
album. 
Summary. Nevertheless, the presence of a couple of unnecessary songs
on this outstandingly original and complex album doesn't diminish the
value of it at all. I warrant you that Moon Fog Prophet's "Taunting
the Bells Through the Mammal Void" is just a fantastically innovative
and interesting album. Furthermore, I don't remember even a single
Space Rock album that would be as intricate as this one. You will need
many listens to this album to get into, but it's really worth it. 
Al solito ringrazio le fanze italiche che mi supportano sempre con
amore e dedizione :-))))
--
Mauro Moroni
Mellow Global Media Ltd.
http://www.mellowrecords.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mellowrecords/
mor...@pangea.it

 amore e dedizione :-))))
Non c'è che dire : sei proprio un bel leccaculo  ^__^
r.

Ma nessuno conosce Umanamnesi ('96) dei Spirosfera?
"Mauro Moroni" <moroni@COMPRATE_SOLO_CD_ESTERIpangea.it> ha scritto nel
messaggio news:vfpt7v0hh4oabb3l3...@4ax.com...


 >
... a proposito di capolavori Mellow, perchè non citare anche:
The Far Side (Italy) - 2002 - "Parallelebiped" 
(51 min, "Mellow") 
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Track List:
1. Crosstalk 7:02
2. Underworlds 7:27
3. Smells Like Winter 4:49
4. Cruise Speed 7:33
5. Gaze Deep 6:59
6. Fading Warmth 4:05
7. The Hug of the Few 5:10
8. Strange Attractors 7:33
All music: by Montrucchio, except 4: by Fasanelli.
All lyrics: by Montrucchio & Fasanelli.
All arrangements by The Far Side.
Line-up:
Simone Montrucchio - vocals; basses; keyboards, programming
Lorenzo Fasanelli - guitars; backing vocals
Davide Guidoni - drums & percussion
Produced by The Far Side.
Artwork & design: by Guidoni.
Engineered by R. Mosci & M. Ruscitto at "Elefante Bianko", Rome.
The Far Side: 
http://spazioweb.inwind.it/far_side/home.htm
 
Preamble. "Parallelebiped" is the debut album by Italy's The Far Side,
though the band - under different names - has existed since 1989.
Before, these guys released a couple of MC (cassette) albums, though,
according to them, "Parallelebiped" is that album, which initiated the
formation of their real discography.
The Album. Each of the first four tracks on the album features quite
an intricate music where the band's own and highly original ideas met
those influenced by Rush (in the first half of the 1980s) and Fates
Warning (on "Perfect Symmetry", etc). So, while listening to tracks,
located on the first half of the CD, I was almost sure that
"Parallelebiped" is an album of a unified stylistics that can be
defined either as a heavy Art-Rock or a soft Prog-Metal. Which, in
this case, is certainly doesn't matter much. (Those who are familiar
with the creation of Rush and Fates Warning well know that the border
between both of the said genres is literally erased on most of the
albums by these bands.) On Gaze Deep (5) however, the band has
unexpectedly and quite radically changed the musical direction. The
only instrumental on the album and both of the following tracks,
Fading Warmth and The Hug of the Few (6 & 7), are free of any
influences, and stylistically, they're about a pure Symphonic
Art-Rock, which is both complex and interesting, as well as the album
as a whole, though. The lush passages and bright solos of
synthesizers, varied interplay between them and the fluid solos of
electric guitar, the parts of bass, drums, and those of acoustic and
semi-acoustic guitars are typical for all them. The excellent piano
passages are present on Fading Warmth. Only the album's title track,
which is the last track on it, determined the predominant stylistics
of this parallelly biped musical entity. Musically, Parallelebiped is
in the same vein as all four of the first tracks on the album.
Finally, I think it should it be mentioned that with the exception of
The Hug of the Few, all the contents of which are of a romantic
character, all of the other tracks on the album have a distinctive
dramatic feel to them.
Summary. I heard a lot of bands, the music of which is about something
average between Classic Art-Rock and Prog-Metal, and The Far Side is
certainly better than many of them (including Cobweb Strange - just
for instance). Since there are much more of the band's own ideas than
those influenced by Rush on any of the five tracks, representing the
album's predominant stylistics, let alone the other three tracks, I
can easily call The Far Side the most talented followers of Canadian
legend that I've ever heard.
VM: February 12, 2003

(51 min, "Mellow") 
Basta che altrimenti il Benporath schiatta a vedere che Mellow rulez
everywhere.


 everywhere.
Complimenti stai facendo un ottimo uso privato di un media pubblico !
Renato

Complimenti stai facendo un ottimo uso privato di un media pubblico !
Grazie, ho avuto ottimi maestri :-))))
