Another birthday present of Italian prog from daughter's boyfriend. I do love these little gifts, even if the music's not always to my taste, It's always fun to listen to a genre of which I knew very little at the time.
My very basic Italian tells me that this is a concept album beginning with the long piece L'Evoluzione, sounding grandiose, overblown and magnificent, clearly owing a debt to ELP's Tarkus released a year earlier. My one irritation is that the vocals sound so earnest and serious that I wonder if any humour or tongue-in-cheek is lost by not knowing the language? Then again, I don't recall many Greg Lake pithy quips in Stones Of Years. La Conquista Della Posizione Eretta continues instrumentally (at first) in the same vein.
La Danza Dei Grandi Retilli has much more of a jazz trio feel at the start, with a middle organ section, and the ELP comparisons in my head continue, while Cento Mani Cento Occhi feels like very formulaic Europrog, with a rocking central section that rescues it, while 750,000 Anni Fa is a dull over-earnest ballad with a mysterious keyboard section. Miore Alla Storia is a grandiose instrumental with a spoken (growled?) section in the middle, and the final track Ed Ora Io Domando Tempo Al Tempo Ed Egli Mi Risponde...Non Ne Ho, a strange fairground sound, lacking the grandeur (pomposity?) of the previous song.
I've enjoyed this much more than I was anticipating, and it will certainly undergo further listening.
3* - a solid prog effort, derivative in parts, but enough new ideas to keep it interesting. But Francesco, why so serious?
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