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Rating: At the time of their second album, Area was going through the most creative and experimental period of their history. It's 1974, and the debut masterpiece "Arbeit Macht Frei" from the previous year had introduced the prog audience to this avant-garde and unique band.
In this second record, the Italian band pushes the concept of prog-rock-jazz-fusion to the limit, blending it with searing electronic experiments and creating a very forward-thinking avant-garde work, both fascinating and challenging at the same time, with a truly incredible instrumental and compositional technique from the members.
The Area lineup, composed of Patrizio Fariselli on synthesizers and piano, Giulio Capiozzo on drums, Ares Tavolazzi on bass, Giampaolo Tofani on guitar and flute, and Demetrio Stratos THE SINGER, the one who "plays the voice", one of the greatest voices in music history and a scholar of using the voice as a musical instrument, kicks off with "Cometa Rossa," laying all their cards on the table: over Fariselli's Mediterranean melodies, the fusion bass and Capiozzo's intricate drumming chase each other in fast rhythms, then stop to make way for Stratos and his vibrant, deep vocalizations, marking the Greek lyrics in a spine-tingling crescendo. "Zyg (Crescita Zero)," waves of electronic sounds introduce Stratos's filtered and synthetic voice in a short and sparse but captivating text; the rest of the track unfolds in fast and complex tempos with Capiozzo in top form behind the drumset and synthesizers creating magical atmospheres until the end, "Brujo" is a delirious sonic fresco with mad notes creating instrumental whirlwinds in full electric and electronic ecstasy, culminating in a hypnotic and disorienting finale with Stratos's vocal experiments at the forefront. A powerful and tangled sound mass, dissonant and courageous supports the entire album, and "Mirage? Mirage!" rises as an avant-garde monument with each musician engaged in a progressive "sabbath" of over 10 minutes, finding in Demetrio's voice a whirlwind of mixed words, screams, and lyrical voices (always by Stratos) that create surreal and bewildering atmospheres. The last track of the album "Lobotomia" is a completely electronic experiment, violent and heartrending in its noisy and atonal progression, far from anything ever heard before.
"Caution Radiation Area" is one of the greatest masterpieces of prog and of music in general, its strength is as overwhelming as that of a man submerged, chained, and imprisoned by steel and iron, seeking to reach freedom by diving into the warm belly of the earth.
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Other reviews
By mayhem
The class is there, the originality certainly is not lacking, but there remains a certain dose of 'indigestible' passages that seem to never end...
Stratos studied singing techniques all over the world and developed a singing ability that allowed him a vocal range up to 7000 Hz and the ability to perform multiple vocal lines simultaneously.
By R13569920
The quintet thus formed enters the studio charged and fiercely determined: even the last arrival understands that the group will never make a dime, but their music and communism are their entire life.
Paolo Tofani violently unleashes the ring modulator of the synthesizer and produces four continuous minutes of deafening 'white noise'... leaving an undeniable sense of unease.
