PROG AND FROGS 2024

 

More info: 

https://www.progandfrogs.com/

INSTRUMENTAL FUSION UNDER THE MOON

Drift Lab is a jazz rock project based in Rome that took off in 2020 with a line up featuring Manuele Montesanti (piano, keyboards), Federico Malaman (bass), Daniele Chiantese (drums) and Matteo Mancuso (guitars). According to their website, they were inspired by Bach, Miles Davis, Frank Zappa and by fusion music and the connection with these musical worlds is exactly the reason why they met. In 2023 they self released an interesting instrumental debut album entitled Moonlight where Manuele Montesanti’s sound design experiments and synthesizer programming are the basis of musical compositions developed by the creativity and virtuosity of the all musicians involved in the project...

 

The beautiful title track, “Moonlight”, opens the album with pulsing bass lines, hectic drumming and delicate melodic breaks that drive you through metropolitan dreams under the moon and the city lights... Next comes “Murano”, another excellent dreamy track full of dappled colours and soft atmospheres. The title refers to a locality in the Venetian Lagoon, best known for its glass making...

“King Of Nothing” is darker. It opens with the bass in the forefront and goes on with a perfect interaction with the other instruments evoking a strange sense of uneasiness while the following “M-I-M-M-A” is lighter and carefree, almost suitable for dancing...

 

“Chatterland” is calmer and with a laid back attitude. The great technicality of the solos never clouds the sense of melody and musicality of the piece... Then it’s the turn of “Japanese Experiment” a piece that slowly grows to take you to distant territories where all the members of the band showcase their great musicianship...

The brilliant “My Os” blends jazz rock with a touch electronica evoking the development of a very particular operating system and leads to the final track, the reflective, intense “Rebirth”...

On the whole, an excellent album of modern fusion

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:
https://driftlabmusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/DriftLabMusic/

OF CARTOONS AND OTHER STORIES

Tangle took form in 2019 in Bergamo with the aim of experimenting with new sounds drawing inspiration from jazz rock, fusion, prog rock and artists such as Porcupine Tree, Plini or The Aristocrats. The name of the band refers to their compositional style in which they blend many genres to play a music that, in their own words, is rich in variations, dynamic excursions and tempo changes. After a good live activity on the local scene, in 2023 they self-released an interesting debut album, entitled Entangled, with a line up featuring Fulvio Marcarini (guitar), Manuele Mariani (bass), Francesco Locatelli (keyboards, synthesizers) and Matteo Locati (drums). It’s a completely instrumental work that tries to evoke images, suggestions or stories in the listener and the art cover gives an idea of the musical content...

 

The beautiful opener “Splash” begins with a slow pace and a dark, threatening atmosphere that might recall Goblin’s Profondo Rosso but after a couple of minutes the deep red colour turns into pink giving room to a section that reminds me of panther walking out from a cartoon on the notes of famous theme by Henry Mancini. Then it’s the turn of a rock part with the electric guitar in the forefront before pulsing bass lines and powerful organ waves take the lead for a vibrant finale...

The frenzied “Chronicles Of A Chicken Thief” is a short piece that might recall bands such as Calibro 35 or La Batteria and the soundtracks of poliziotteschi films, a subgenre of crime and action films that was very popular in Italy in the seventies, full of scenes of car chases and bloody shootings...

The mysterious “Arrakis” features Eastern influences and is named after a fictional desert planet featured in the Dune series of novels by Frank Herbert. The music seems to invite you on a journey across exotic landscapes to experience a dangerous cosmic adventure...

The dreamy “Restless” starts with a nervous drum pattern, then goes through many changes in rhythm and mood with classical inspired piano arpeggios and Latin guitar solos à la Santana, calm passages and a final surge of dark energy...

“Kizaru” is a colourful piece with strong funky influences. The title refers to a character from the manga and anime One Piece, a Navy admiral who appears as a careless, absent and forgetful man, usually speaks in a very calm and composed manner and never gets upset, even when faced with problematic situations, in which he often feigns fear or amazement in a sarcastic way...

“Hoketi Poketi” begins with funky bass lines in the forefront that conjure up the funny magic of a 1963 animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney, The Sword In The Stone, and that seems to depict a very strange way of packing your bags for a fantastic trip to unknown realms...

“Red Sky” begins with a dreamy piano pattern soon submerged by a threatening rhythm and dark atmospheres. When the storm calms down an almost romantic section follows, classically inspired, that leads to a new dawn full of hope and good intentions...

On the whole, an interesting work that deserves a try.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:
https://www.facebook.com/tanglemusic/

CONTRASTING FEELINGS

 Odi et amo, the third album by the Sfaratthons, was self-released in 2023 with a consolidated line up featuring Luca Di Nunzio (piano, keyboards, guitar, vocals), Cecilio Luciano (drums), Mario Di Nunzio (bass), Giovanni Casciato (guitars) and Giovanni Di Nunzio (guitar, vocals) plus the guests Geoff Warren (flute), Sabatino Matteucci (sax) and Alessandra Iandimarino (vocals). The music is, as in their previous albums, an excellent mix of vintage influences, modern sounds and bright new ideas in the best tradition of Italian prog. This time for the lyrics they were helped by Donato Di Luca and (in only one track) Pietro Lugli while the colourful art cover was painted by their friend and former bandmate Luca Luciano...

 

The beautiful instrumental opener, “Odi et amo”, begins with a dreamlike atmosphere but the delicate piano pattern and soaring flute notes are like the calm before the storm and the music goes on through many changes in mood and rhythm. The title is in Latin and refers to the incipit of a poem by the poet Catullus, Carme LXXXV. According to the liner notes, the music tries to evoke a mix of contrasting feelings and emotions such as hate and love or joy and pain drawing inspiration from the immortal poetry of Catullus...

“La donna amata” (The beloved woman) is another wonderful piece where dynamic progressive rock parts alternate with baroque passages leading through dreamy atmospheres and darker moments. The lyrics celebrate the love of a woman capable of shaking and giving strength to her man like a summer storm where the rain pouring down on the thirsty land can heal the wounds in the arid soil. The beloved woman shines like a fresh crescent moon in the sunset and after the storm is like an omen of adventure and a fulfilment of love...

The melancholic, mystic “Maddalena” is sung in Abruzzese dialect and tells in music and words of the feelings of a woman that tries to rediscover in the church near her home where she goes to pray what an evil man has stolen from her: faith and love. Many times she thought about taking her own life jumping off the cliff under the church with her eyes closed because her life sometimes seems worse than hell, bitter and dark like ash. But hope never dies and keeps her alive. The narrative vocals (in Italian) of the guest Alessandra Iandimarino close the piece playing the role of the protagonist...

 

“Saffo” is dedicated to a woman best known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music, Sappho, an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Most of Sappho's poetry is now lost and little is known of her life but her myth is still a source of inspiration for many hearts. Here she looks at you enraptured and feels like a goddess, one after the other she drinks the words of love coming from your smile and directed to her eyes, the eyes of woman eternally in love...

The long, complex “Zarina” (Tsarina) is dedicated to Maria Alexandrovna, born Princess Wilhelmine Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (8 August 1824 – 3 June 1880), Empress of Russia as the first wife of Emperor Alexander II. She married when she was still a teenager and her marriage was unhappy. She suffered from tuberculosis from 1863 onwards and spent long periods of time in southern Europe, in particular in the Italian town of Sanremo, to avoid the harsh Russian winters. The music and lyrics evoke the feelings of a fisherman watching the unfortunate tsarina walking on the sand of Sanremo beach. To his eyes she looks coming out from one of his dreams. He can’t get closer to her because she’s surrounded by the people of her circle and he’s too unworthy for them. But he can see the sadness in her eyes and perceive her uncertain breathing. Soon she will be gone and what will be left of her presence is just an army of palms. In fact, grateful for the hospitality of the place, the empress donated the first palm trees to the Municipality of Sanremo which still today adorn the Passeggiata Imperatrice (Promenade of the Empress), on the Sanremo seafront...

“Ti dono una canzone” (I give you a song) was written and recorded in remote mode during the Covid 19 pandemic and is dedicated to all the healthcare personnel and to those who took care of the sick in that dramatic period, those who really gave their best to overcome the crisis caused by the spread of the virus. It’s a song to listen to at night, made of tears and wind, weaved in style with a few notes for those who made of their job an act of love...

The instrumental “Odi et amo - Closing Session” is a short experimental track that closes the album with a disquieting atmosphere and a soft flute melody that seems almost to escape and take off from strange background noises, hidden chats and thoughts...

On the whole, an excellent work that deserves a place in every Italianprog collection!

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:
http://www.sfaratthons.eu/
https://www.facebook.com/sfaratthons/

PROG IN NAPLES

 

More info:
https://www.teatrotrianon.org/programmazione/osanna-in-palepoli/