'I don't belong here', said old Tessa out loud

I'm pretty sure that what happened to me happened to a ton of people all over the world, but pre-pandemic I barely used youtube. Sure, I'd go there sometimes, either to see a music video, or a game playthrough, maybe a trailer. But I certainly didn't spend hours there every day, I didn't follow any channels or content creators. All that changed, though, with the pandemic. And maybe there was a boost in whatever was being suggested to me in my feed, and so I started listening to a wider range of content there. 

Many of those channels, though, and even though they still exist and are quite successful, I've stopped following as fervently as I did. Even the one that inspired this week's post - a channel called Sea Of Tranquility - is one I watch only a small portion of their output. But for a few years I watched pretty much everything the channel released. And some of it resonated with me, and some of it didn't. But fairly early on I got addicted to two of their regular shows : 'The Prog Report', which dealt with all kinds of prog music, as well as '4Fusion Friday' which was dedicated to Fusion. Now, the funny thing I was never a fan of any of those genres, but the shows themselves were quite entertaining, and are still the only two I keep on watching regularly.

And sure enough, one of the things I've been meaning to explore since then was none other than Italian prog. Let's hope it turns out well, this incursion of mine...

Day 250 - Le Orme - 'Felona e Sorona'

First off, I really, really liked this and one of the thing that made me like this was the fact that a) it was only 33 minutes long and b) there were no 15-20 minute long epic tracks. But also, I really loved Aldo Tagilapietra's voice - very calm, very soothing, every word clearly enunciated. Heavy on the keys, synths and mellotron, this was a really enjoyable listen. Now, my Italian isn't so good that I could understand the themes of the album, but luckily we have the interwebs : 

'... it is a concept album pivoting on the story of two planets which revolve one around the other, without ever coming in contact. While Felona is shiny and flourishing, Sorona is dark and home to plagues and catastrophes; however, in the second part of the suite, the fate of the two planets is inverted.'

Boy oh boy, that's some heady stuff. There's a version of this that's sung in English, but I stuck to the original. And I'm glad I did, though if I can fault it for anything... then I have to say I wasn't a terrible fan of the production. Still, good enough to get a 7/10

Day 251 - Locanda Delle Fate - 'Forse Le Lucciole Non Si Amano Più'

I am of two minds about this one. If on the one hand I really liked the instrumentation found in this record, on the other hand I found the vocalist's voice to not really fit in with the music itself. And that said, is it a bad voice? No, not at all. I found the singer's voice to be quite soothing, but more in a pop oriented type of music. What with the music being (mostly) so airy, I'd say something in a somewhat higher register would have suited the music much better - and in the song 'Non Chiudere A Chiave Le Stelle' the voice reaches a softness that's just gorgeous. I wouldn't have wanted a Jon Anderson type of singer, but maybe something in the middle would have fared better. This - unsurprisingly - is reminiscent of Yes, Genesis or Camel, and that's why I ended up enjoying the instrumentation so much. Could have gotten a higher score, for sure, but I'll give it a 6/10

Day 252 - Reale Accademia Di Musica - 'Reale Accademia Di Musica'

In truth, this wasn't the band that I had elected for today, but because Apple Music didn't have pretty much anything by said band, I had to choose another one. Also, I found out online that that specific band was somewhat polemic for its time, and boy howdy, would it be polemic now. So I settled for this one, and I really enjoyed this one : very beautiful, delicate, with some decidedly tender moments. It's very well played, and it gets heavy-ish in parts as well. As with Locanda Delle Fate, I wasn't such a fan of the vocalist's voice here as well. I liked him better than Locanda's, for sure, but sometimes his voice is just too quiet. Some songs could have a done with a more powerful range. Another thing at fault here is the production, I think this is one of those records that would really benefit from a remix or a remaster. I found the guitars to be fairly muddy, especially the rhythm guitars. Sometimes they feel just like random noises rather than actual guitar playing, and the bass is too low in the mix for my tastes.

Bearing all that in mind, I just really enjoyed this album, and I'll gladly give it a 7.5/10

Day 253 - Il Balletto Di Bronzo - 'Ys'

There was a time in my early teenage years where, having fallen madly and hopelessly in love with videogames and consoles (especially Nintendo), I consumed a wealth of imported American and British magazines, some of which I bought, others I borrowed and a great deal more I... erm.. procured. I gave them the five finger discount, if you catch my drift.

In any of these mags, you'd see any number of feature articles, news, reviews, as well as a bevvy of ads for vendors who specialized in imported games. Among those very many games being advertised, you could often find games from a series called 'Ys' - and from that moment on, and well until past my 30s... I've always read 'Ys' as 'Whys'. Even though by that time in my life I'd already listened to Joanna Newsom's 'Ys' and my forays into high fantasy and the research I'd done on mythologigal places somewhat related to the Arthurian lore - think Avalon, Lyonesse, Hy-Brasil - had crossed their paths with this fallen city of legend, I was still flabergasted with the fact that it's pronouned 'Ees' and not 'Whys'.

And 'Ys' is the name of this album, by a band that released a couple of albums in the early 70's and then disbanded. And if I'm honest... I wasn't a huge fan of it. Let me see if I can explain this : I've listened to some stuff these past few years that's labeled 'Jazz Rock' and I never really got that. Because in my mind, 'Jazz Rock' sounds a bit like, well, a rockier kind of Jazz. And it never does, in whatever it was I listened to. And it does here, perhaps a bit too much for my tastes. And I didn't care - at all - for the free jazz bits. Also I should mention that whilst I do think that the singer has a good voice - he's much more on the rock side than on the crooner side - I wasn't entirely convinced that a) he actually sang that well and b) his voice wasn't the right fit for this band. Maybe had be been the singer of Locanda Delle Fate then everything would have been perfectly balanced.

This isn't bad, not by any stretch of the imagination, but... I only really liked one song on the album, and it's a bonus track at that. It gets a 5/10

Day 254 - Semiramis - 'Dedicato a Frazz'

No preamble here, this is a fucking masterpiece. 

Basically a one and done band, they recorded this glorious piece of music when they were teenagers. And the singer was 16 when he recorded the vocals for this album, and he sounded much more like a man, a proper man, at 16 than I do going on 50. Jesus.

Everything is here is absolutely top notch, though - as always - a cleaner production might have elevated it a bit more. That said, everything here is so, so good, that I can't give it anything less than a 9/10

Day 255 - Premiata Forneria Marconi - 'L'isola di Niente'

If I've been hitherto been somewhat charting uncharted waters, then these next two bands aren't utterly unknown to me. Meaning that I at least knew them by name - though just the how I knew those names I cannot fathom. It's possible that I somehow came across a record of theirs in a record shop, or on a flea market. Maybe it was a tattered t-shirt I saw someone wearing somewhere. But I was aware of their names for many, many years - I'm talking decades here. And yet, not knowing (or otherwise being remotely interested in finding out) anything about them, I never followed up on them. 

And... cue the aforementioned Sea Of Tranquility Youtube channel, where these guys were mentioned often. Obviously, that made them prime candidates for this exercise. I have to say that I really loved this album - it has, perhaps, the best playing along with the Semiramis record. The production is gorgeous, everything can be heard clearly, and the singer has a real good voice - though I'll admit that the one song that's sung in English does seem a bit out of place. Vocally wise, not instrumentally.

I will have to admit, though, that I really didn't enjoy about the first half of the last song, but the last half more than makes up for it.

Really, really good, it gets a throroughly deserved 8/10

Day 256 - Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - 'Darwin!'

Just like PFM (the previous band), I can't imagine where I'd've heard this name before. It got me thinking if maybe this wasn't a band my godfather was into - he did like prog, and Fish and Marillion were certainly things he listened to. Could it be that I heard that name being mentioned, or maybe it was in some tape I saw in his car? I don't know, I really don't. But this name has echoed in my mind for years and years. 

The first thing I'm going to say about this album is that initially I struggled a lot with the vocals. The first song - though instrumentally very good - had some really not great vocals, and I almost thought that I wouldn't really enjoy this album. Then the strangest thing happens : from then on the vocals get real good. So good, that I almost thought that they either had multiple led vocalists singing here (they didn't) or whether the album was recorded throughout a long stretch of time, which might have explained the evolution of the vocals - but I don't think it was that. 

This album was very, very good - it's a concept album about the Darwinian concept of evolution. Instrumentally, this is top tier, and everything makes for a very, very solid listen. I'll give a strong 8/10

Next week I either do something potentially pleasureful or something likely painful. I'll decide tomorrow.