Perhaps he was the pursued or the pursuer. He couldn't remember (...the pursuer?), too much time had passed, all his mnemonic energies had been drained by the "Search." Oh yes! That's what he remembered! He was on the "Search." The journey had already been quite long, but he hadn't even reached (the search...) halfway through his journey. The old madman Mahjnun (is my name), traveling the slave trade route across the desert, spotted in the distance the "Great Citadel." It wasn't his destination, but surely lying down in a warm corner of an inn would do him good. Maybe he would find what he was looking for (...no!)
To review this massive work by the "Area - International POPular Group", I had to overturn my writing method. Of course. So I will have to relegate what I felt emotionally from this album to the end. Yes, because when I talk about "1987, the gods leave, the angry remain!", I become a Fan-boy ("and Fan-boys shouldn't speak" - self-citation) and, for this reason, I have to try to contain myself. So I will start with the slightly more "rational" part of the review.
The album is, like all their discography, alive. The sudden changes of musical register (from song to song, or directly within the same track) and the enviable blend of instruments by any other artist, accompany us (but without holding our hand) throughout the record. Only the first three tracks could almost be grouped together, with their "Arabesque" arrangement. Wanting to dwell a bit more on this "trilogy" of songs, I must highlight the masterful work gifted to us by Tavolazzi with his bass in "Il bandito nel deserto" and in "Interno con figure e luci". Additionally, I mention the "experimental-vocal diphony" of Stratos in "Return From Workuta", which, by the way, will remain forever engraved in my heart. We then move on to the most absolute compositional freedom of "Guardati dal mese vicino all'aprile!", where the moments in which the song changes and explodes, evolves and devolves, are almost uncountable. "Hommage à Violette Nozières" is the Mediterranean in music, you can even smell the broom flowers on the Greek coasts (it's also the most "catchy" song, and, indeed, I recommend it to newcomers of the band). And here the album changes further with "Ici On Dance!" and "Acrostico in memoria di Laio" which seem at times "Funky" pieces with jazz components (a round of applause to Capiozzo, for heaven's sake!) in which Demetrio Stratos once again shows us his incredible vocal and acting confidence. We finish with two sublime tracks, "FFF" (festa, farina e forca)" and "Vodka Cola" where the first track showcases Fariselli's masterful piano skills, and the second presents almost "Zappa-like" moments (thanks also to the delightful final choruses).
And now for the new section, the "Perceptive Rant Moment":
The first time I listened to "1978, the gods leave, the angry remain!" I was in that period of life where I felt completely lost and inert in the face of the future, so inert that I didn't even want to relax by listening to a few CDs, let alone the radio. But one day it happened that, wandering the web, I stumbled upon "1987" by Area. I had already devoured the previous productions ("Arbeit Macht Frei" above all), but for some reason, the group's last work (pre-departure of Stratos) had never intrigued me. This time, however, I clicked on the "YouTube" link, started the "full album," and lo and behold, the Area astounded me once again. I immediately bought the CD, but I didn't fully understand why this music had penetrated so deeply into my DNA (even more so than their other albums). But years later, I finally understood. Probably I sensed (and still do) some sort of lack, almost like the one I felt within myself.
The Area, at that time, had to face substantial changes in the group's life. The guitarist/experimentalist par excellence, Paolo Tofani, left the group for personal reasons, as did their lyricist Gianni Sassi, and furthermore, they had to leave their record label and find a new one. In short, they had to make up for some absences, and to do so, they had to set in motion the engine of "Search." Indeed, in this record, you can perfectly sense these absences (unlike the rest of the discography), and perhaps that's why it's considered the "lesser" among all. However, the most important and etched perception in the LP is that of a new musical "Search" that slowly detached itself from the past, almost as if it was to be a new beginning for the Area and not, alas, an end. And this reasoning gave me a push to improve and try to fill those gaps I carried with me. To conclude, I absolutely recommend listening to this album, first of all because it is extremely valid from all points of view, and also because it might be a nice cognitive experience that perhaps will remain vivid in your imagination.
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