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Rating: 1975. Punk is about to explode, Progressive with its massive dinosaurs is taking its last breaths of a long and intense journey. In Italy, we have learned to love Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis, and maybe some fearless listener has encountered the less successful experiments of the Canterbury scene. In such a delicate, special context, characterized by huge changes, only one name, one brand perhaps survives even more inspired and volcanic than ever.
The brand in question corresponds to the acronym AREA (International POPular Group), the album is the third of the band: "Crac". Area are the Italian Progressive group with a capital P that embody the most experimental and visionary aspects of the genre. Five musicians who blend the novelty of progressive with its irregular times and meters, jazz-rock style improvisation, Balkan musical roots, and experimentation shared with the "Companion on the journey" John Cage with whom Demetrio Stratos, leader of the band, would establish a long and fruitful collaboration.
"Crac" from 1975 represents the album of maturity. After the political concept "Arbeit Match Frei" which brings with it the inevitable controversy about concentration camps and dictatorships, and the bewildering "Caution Radiation Area", with "Crac" the experiments reach the perfect equilibrium with the song form, making the seven tracks of the album a perfect musical mix that encapsulates every significant aspect of Jazz, Progressive, and Avant-garde experimentation. The album kicks off with a brief and rapid experimental introduction: "Area5". Here, Stratos's vocal experiments blend with the almost free-jazz double bass of Ares Tavolazzi, who dons the role of jazz double bassist much more than in the previous album "Caution Radiation Area". Then one of the band's classics, "Gioia e Rivoluzione", kicks in with a piano intro by Fariselli that hints at the "jazzy" perspective within which the band decided to move in this album. The lyrics have never been so strong and polemical: "My rifle is a double bass that shoots on your face what I think about life, with the sound of fingers you fight a battle that takes us to the roads of people who know how to love".
"Implosion" is pure improvisation where the five musicians showcase their enormous technical value with the tight and irresistible drumming of Giulio Capiozzo, a drummer of impeccable technique and taste, and the always throbbing bass lines of Tavolazzi. Stratos doesn't sing and "duels" with his inseparable Hammond organ with bursts of scales, chords, and lightning-fast arpeggios, with a Fariselli who is nothing short of unleashed. Next is "L'elefante Bianco" where uneven timings in pure prog style merge with a rapid instrumental progression indebted to the most varied musical influences in pure Area style. The lyrics are always incendiary. The most beautiful episode of the album is definitely "La mela di Odessa" , a track of astonishing beauty. But it's not just that. Beyond the absolutely devastating drumming of Capiozzo and the great instrumental technique combined with great musicality, there is the title of the track, never so eloquent, and a politically uncomfortable text. Odessa is the name of the Russian city where a young Dadaist of nine Apple hijacked a German ship in 1920. The Russians celebrated the hijacking by blowing up the ship and passengers.
"Crac" is a quick, incisive record, its listening is pleasantly compelling, and the music, the themes addressed are of a unique rawness and vigor. Testimony to this are the last two songs "Megalopoli" and "Nervi Scoperti", which combine the vocal experimentation of Stratos with Avant-garde experimentation with extensive use of effects and hallucinatory distortions coagulated by an omnipresent instrumental progression.
An album to listen to, re-listen, study, capture to understand the other side of the "Progressive", that phenomenon which is not only made in England.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 L'elefante bianco (04:37)
Corri forte ragazzo, corri
la gente dice sei stato tu
ombre bianche, vecchi poteri
il mondo compran senza pudore
vecchie immagini, santi stupidi
tutto lascian cosi com’è
guarda avanti non ci pensare
la storia viaggia insieme a te
Corri forte ragazzo, corri
la gente dice sei stato tu
prendi tutto non ti fermare
il fuoco brucia la tua virtù
alza il pugno senza tremare
guarda in viso la tua realtà
guarda avanti non ci pensare
la storia viaggia insieme a te
Impara a leggere le cose intorno a te
finchè non se ne scoprirà
la realtà districar le regole che .
non ci funzionano più per spezzar
poi tutto ciò con radicalità
02 La mela di Odessa (06:44)
C'era una volta una mela a cavallo di una foglia.
Cavalca, cavalca, cavalca
insieme attraversarono il mare.
impararono a nuotare.
Arrivati in cima al mare, dove il mondo diventa mancino, la mela lasciò il suo vecchio vestito e prese l'abito da sposa più rosso, più rosso.
La foglia sorrise, era la prima volta di ogni cosa.
Riprese la mela in braccio, e partirono.
Giunsero in un paese giallo di grano pieno di gente felice, pieno di gente felice!
Si unirono a quella gente e scesero cantando fino alla grande piazza.
Qui altra gente si unì al coro.
"Ma dove siamo? ma dove siamo?"
Chiese la mela.
"Se pensi che il mondo sia piatto allora sei arrivata alla fine del mondo. Se credi che il mondo sia tondo allora sali, e incomincia il giro tondo!"
E la mela salì, salì, salì, salì, salì.
La foglia invece salutò, salutò, salutò.
Rientrò nel mare e nessuno la vide più.
Forse per lei, mah, il mondo era ancora piatto.
....Vicino al mare dove il mondo diventa mancino....Se credi che il mondo sia tondo, allora sali,sali! E incomincia il giro tondo!
The Apple from Odessa
Once upon a time there was an apple riding a leaf
(it) rode, rode, rode
together they crossed the sea
(they) learnt to swim.
Once arrived by the sea
where the World becomes lefthanded
the apple left its old dress
and took the wedding dress
the reddest, the reddest....
The leaf smiled
(it) was the first time of everything
(it) took again the apple in its arms and left.
(They) arrived to a country coloured of yellow by grain
full of happy people
full of happy people
(they) joined those people
and went down singing
until the big square
here other people joined the chorus
"Where do we are
where do we are"
the apple asked...
..."If you think that the World is flat
then you arrived to the end of the World
if you think that the World is round
than come up, and start a ring-a-rosy"
and the apple went up, up, up, up
the leaf instead greeted, greeted, greeted
(it) entered back into the sea
and nobody saw it again
maybe for it the World is still flat.
Close to the sea where the world becomes tiny
if you think that the World is round
than come up, come up! And, start a ring-a-rosy!
05 Gioia e rivoluzione (04:41)
Canto per te che mi vieni a sentire
suono per te che non mi vuoi capire
rido per te che non sai sognare
suono per te che non mi vuoi capire
Nei tuoi occhi c’è una luce
che riscalda la mia mente
con il suono delle dita
si combatte una battaglia
che ci porta sulle strade
della gente che sa amare
che ci porta sulle strade
della gente che sa amare
Il mio mitra è il contrabbasso
che ti spara sulla faccia
che ti spara sulla faccia
ciò che penso della vita
con il suono delle dita
si combatte una battaglia
che ci porta sulle strade
della gente che sa amare
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By puntiniCAZpuntini
Stratos’ voice, capable of various modulations, with very abstract lyrics on the theme of 'non-violent freedom'.
Either you won’t like them, or you’ll stay online for 2 days to get the complete discography.
