Bakery
Momento

Great year 1971. While I was timidly climbing the steps of the G. Baldessano Classical High School for the first time, ping pong diplomacy marked the rapprochement between China and the USA. The crew of Soyouz 11 died from an air leak and on July 3rd in Paris, Jim Morrison left us. In the same year, speaking only of music, we also lost Igor Stravinsky, Louis Armstrong, Duane Allman, and Secondo Casadei. In August '71, a rock concert was held at Madison Square Garden in New York, the proceeds of which were (or at least should have been) donated to the people of Bangladesh. I should also recall that it was the year of the release of Tago Mago by Can, the fourth album by Led Zeppelin, and among others, "Aqualung" by Jethro Tull.

We now move to Australian soil where our Bakery, formed in Perth the previous year, released their first work titled "Momento".

We weren't completely ignorant about Australia, as Alberto Sordi enlightened us that year with the film "Bello onesto emigrato Australia sposerebbe compaesana illibata," in which the latter was Claudia Cardinale.

Our group consisted of John Worrall on vocals and flute, Peter Walker on guitar, Mal Logan on keyboards, Eddie McDonald on bass, and finally Hank Davis on drums.

It's not been long since I discovered this album, but in the last two months, it has played a lot on my player. The reason lies primarily in the justly balanced blend of Rock, sometimes even hard Rock, and Jazz with forays into typically Progressive terrains that are never oppressive but rather with generous injections of spacious and airy environments, almost as if wanting to give us the image of the great spaces of their land.

The second reason for my fondness lies in their mastery at crafting songs with challenging and often very complex harmonic progressions without ever seeming awkward or heavy, in always being balanced whether they tackle acoustic ballads or when they forcefully venture into the progressive lands, which can often be very treacherous for those who don't have a clear idea of what they want to musically convey.

I don't love all the songs on the album to madness, which, in its CD edition, also contains four bonus tracks that I will almost completely skip over. However, I find "Holocaust" absolutely stunning at the opening, with the voice melting and re-amalgamating in reverberated effects, then giving way to the persistent and almost hypnotic theme of bass and piano accompanied by a free sax that leads us into the overwhelming tonal modulation of the second part of the track. This song alone, in my opinion, is enough to make us understand that the Bakery is still rightly remembered and considered one of the best progressive bands Australia has given us.

Interesting among the bonuses is "Bloodsucker" which is a cover of the homonymous song by Deep Purple contained on the LP "In Rock"; they also released this track as a single, which sold very well in their land.

Spend some time on this album, it's worth it, and not just for Progressive lovers.