Marco Salzano

DeRank : 0,58 • DeAge™ : 6903 days

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  • Here since 2 september 2006
Genesis: From Genesis To Revelation
CD Audio I have it ★★★
With a different, and better, production (and frankly it didn't take a George Martin to do better than King) we would definitely have had an album that we wouldn't have to be ashamed of. Nevertheless, several tracks are not bad at all, and then Gabriel's voice, albeit a bit raw, was already there, which is not a small thing. Personally, after having worn out the LPs from Trespass to Wind, I occasionally return to those "modest beginnings" with a certain pleasure and satisfaction. It's only (Christian) Pop but I like it.
Genesis: Foxtrot
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
The most representative album by Genesis with a capital G: imposing, romantic, surreal. All classics: the stellar opening of Watcher of the Skies; the wonderful simplicity of Time Table; the theatrical Get 'em out by Friday, steeped in bitter irony; the perfect mini suite Can Utility and the Coastliners. However, they pale in comparison to the brilliant Supper’s Ready, a paranormal journey into an Apocalypse in 9/8; one of the most devastating rock tracks of all time, not to mention death metal...
Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
A magnificent multimedia hyper-album avant la lettre, intriguing and unprecedented in its blend of vastly different imaginaries (graffiti street gangs, Greco-Roman mythology, the various metaphysical paths of spiritual redemption from Buddhism to Dante, etc.).
While not reaching the perfection of Foxtrot (also due to the transitional instrumentals) and representing rather a digression in the stylistic evolution of the group, which would indeed record Trick of the Tail as if nothing had happened.
Genesis: A Trick Of The Tail
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
The album clearly shows certain Jazz-Rock/Fusion influences, probably due to Collins, even though some of the more experimental adventurousness of "The Lamb" is no longer present, and the contribution of Gabriel's brilliant lyrics is also missing. That said, "A Trick of The Tail" is a very eclectic and varied album, in the best tradition of the classic Genesis who knew how to be both complex and accessible, light and mystical, humorous and solemn, cynical and romantic, all at the same time.
  • Kism
    3 jan 14
    Great job by the band, who despite Gabriel's absence, treat us to a beautiful album. The opening is stunning with a fantastic Collins on drums, but it's the entire album that impresses.
Genesis: Trespass
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
Like the early Crimson, Trespass is all about the dynamics between quiet pastoral moments (12-string guitar, flute) or liturgical ones (organ, choir) and sudden Bach-like bursts from the organ with electric guitar backing. Overall, the mellotron is still used with moderation (I particularly love the trembling intro/outro of "White Mountain") compared to the later works.
  • templare
    9 dec 13
    I thought that the Mellotron was introduced by Banks only during the rehearsals for Nursery Cryme (which, by the way, was purchased from King Crimson). I’ll look into it further. Maybe I read it wrong at the time.
  • urlicht
    12 dec 13
    Trespass deserves five because there's no eight...
Gentle Giant: Gentle Giant
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
Great debut with three classics right away: Alucard with its grand crimson riff and the spectral keyboards of Minnear. Funny Ways with its gentle pace over the vocal harmonies of the Shulman, featuring a rock interlude punctuated by the brass. Nothing At All, which starts from the folk of Steeleye Span and reaches the free jazz of Cecil Taylor, passing through Liszt in just a few minutes. Useless, instead, is the blues rock arrangement of the English anthem later copied by Queen.
Gentle Giant: Three Friends
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Successful Concept that also has the rare virtue of compactness. There's no need to ramble on about the technical level but especially about the musical culture of the group, with references ranging from medieval polyphony to jazz, and an almost obsessive attention to detail. In short, you can't go wrong with GG.
With a less elaborate production than the Spectorian one, Harrison here reflects on the difficulty of experiencing transcendence in the "material" world, balancing between the torrid funk of the title track and the meditative interludes of sitar, tabla, and flute. And while the sarcastic Sue Me, Sue You Blues references the legal disputes among the Beatles, the core of the album consists of a series of ballads on religious and/or romantic themes, like Give Me Love, a typical joyful Harrisonian prayer, and the catchy Don't Let Me Wait.
Buried for years in an old trunk, these tapes (recorded surprisingly well by Peter Giles) document the embryonic state of KC (still without Lake), creators at this stage of a volatile folk rock/jazz blend reminiscent of Pentangle (and in some tracks, sung by Judy Dyble, former Fairport Convention). Included are two versions of Drop in (the future The Letters), here transformed into corrosive blues rock, two finger-picked I talk to the wind, and the melodic Under the Sky, which later appeared on Sinfield's first LP.
Herbie Hancock: Gershwin's World
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
An impressive tribute by Hancock to the world of Gershwin (and while he was at it, a bit to Ravel) with his usual eclecticism taken to the nth degree, thanks also to a parade of in-form allstars including Jonie Mitchell, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, and Stevie Wonder. The range spans from post-bop (Cottontail) to funky blues (St. Louis Blues), from electronic nu-jazz (Here Come De Honey Man) to world (Overture) to classical revisited (Lullaby, Prelude, and Adagio) with the Orpheus Ensemble.
Bachian Rock with great impact from ROVESCIO DELLA MEDAGLIA, a band that, to be honest, had a harder rock background. CONTAMINAZIONE, which features collaboration with maestro Bacalov (closing an ideal trilogy composed of NT's "CONCERTO GROSSO" and Osanna's "Milano Calibro 9").
Jeff Beck: Truth
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Essential for hard rock like the first of the Zep but not as celebrated. Why?
Jeff Beck: Blow by Blow
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
One of the best albums by the guitarist from Wallington, a fantastic melting pot of different styles, produced, among others, by such a George Martin (!). Grandiose covers of She's a Woman and Cause we've ended as Lovers.
From an aborted musical about a middle-aged rocker, it's the most mainstream album (up to that point) by the Tull (but the musical wouldn't have dealt with medieval mysteries) yet not lacking some subtleties (like the Beethoven quotation in the last track). The lyrics still bear Anderson's sharp style. Besides the acoustic Salamander, I enjoy From a Dead Beat to an Old Greaser, the title track, Crazed Institution, and The Chequered Flag.
Kate Bush: Hounds Of Love
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Kate Bush seeks and finds a miraculous synthesis between the electronic (synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines) and the acoustic (piano soliloquies, tempestuous strings, Irish jigs, and messianic choirs), crafting songs that feel like cinematic narratives poised between wakefulness and dream, with vertiginous temporal flashbacks to childhood (Cloudbusting, The Big Sky). The long suite The Ninth Wave (a metaphorical journey from the abyssal dark to the misty light of morning) remains her masterpiece.
Kate Bush: Aerial
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
I return everything to the family (with brother, husband, and son) after 12 years. It's, like Hounds of Love, divided between a 1st CD of songs (highlighted by the reggae-like King of the Mountain dedicated to Elvis, the Renaissance ode to son Bertie, the atmospheric trip-hop Joanni, which evokes Joan of Arc, and the piano solo A Coral Room on the elaboration of grief) and a 2nd with a pastoral suite that, through the Latin jazz of Sunset, culminates in the vital pulse of Aerial complete with distorted funk guitar.
First and finest solo album by Emerson, who uses for the soundtrack of Argento's film some themes intended for a second Piano Concerto. The leitmotif is a melancholic and unsettling melody in minor, which is then revisited, varied, and developed by an orchestra with accents that are sometimes romantic, sometimes expressionistic. Our Verdi is referenced in the tight jazz rock Taxy Ride (Nabucco) and in the choral Mater Tenebrarum (Requiem). Aside from this, we are closer to Komeda than to Goblin.
Khan: Space Shanty
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
One of a Kind by Steve Hillage's group. Deadly Hammond-Guitar riffs (a bit like Atomic Rooster) in sometimes grandiloquent tracks. However, the instrumental skill, especially of Stewart and Hillage, is undeniable.
King Crimson: Earthbound
CD Audio I have it ★★
Compilato by Fripp with poorly edited snippets from the jam sessions of the American tour of Islands, it's a bootleg that sounds bad even in the "restored" edition. Free rein is given to the torrential (yet sometimes excessive) verve of Mel Collins and the delirious solos of Ian Wallace, while Fripp ventures into blues rock meanderings like a fish out of water, and Burrell attempts embarrassing scat singing. Nonetheless, the fierce version of 21st Century is worth a listen.
King Crimson: Discipline
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
Farewell to the British romanticism of the past and welcome to the wild young blood of the Yankees Levin and Belew. Thus are born the new KC new wave musicians who look to the minimalism of Reich and Balinese Gamelan. They enchant with the dazzling mathematical precision of the title track and Frame by Frame, the hypnotic exoticism of The Sheltering Sky, the roaring onomatopoeia of Elephant Talk, the urban funk of Tela Hun Ginjeet, and the chaotic fury of Indiscipline. More "normal" is the country ballad Matte Kudasai.
King Crimson: Red
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Red has grandly closed a chapter in the band's history: the clocks mark distortion and the sky is always dark, but Starless remains an extraordinary farewell with its brilliant crescendo built on a single repeated guitar note and those anarchoid incursions of Bruford's metallic percussion. When the tension then resolves in McDonald's fierce sax solo and the final recapitulation, it's pure delight.
  • madcat
    10 feb 16
    probably their peak, for me followed by Lark's and Lizard, at least for now
King Crimson: Islands
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
The nebula on the cover aptly represents this brief hypothesis of Crimson. The Mediterranean sensuality of Formentera Lady (inspired by the Odyssey) resolves into the anguished Sailor’s Tale (featuring Fripp's sensational "electric banjo"). In contrast, the title track is a serene watercolor in which a few strokes of diluted color outline the metaphor of man as an island. The Letters and Prelude rework old pieces. Ladies of the Road is a perverse blues with Beatles-esque vocal harmonies.
King Crimson: In The Wake Of Poseidon
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
It was supposed to be a double (with McDonald's Birdman suite). As it stands, it inevitably faces comparison with the debut, especially in the initial sequence, but Pictures is more jazz, Cadence more pop, and the title track (in which the 12 archetypes of the cover are listed) more solemn. Now a producer with Sinfield, Fripp employs a more dramatic use of the mellotron, especially in The Devil’s Triangle, drawn from Holst's The Planets. Tippet's dada piano shines on Cat Food, an anti-consumerism satire.
  • che!?
    23 jun 12
    Why do I have the feeling that this description sounds familiar to me? (but I won't spoil anything, because I know that the inevitable classic response with hindsight will be that it was a provocation and that I was the only one who fell for it...)
  • Marco Salzano
    23 jun 12
    Why provocation?
King Crimson: Lizard
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
Manically crafted medieval fantasy by Fripp and Sinfield just a step away from masterpiece status, if it weren't for the confusing satirical jests of Indoor Games and Happy Family (a venomous anti-Beatles nursery rhyme). On the other hand, the opener Cirkus (the delirious TV circus) is good, featuring a blazing gitana guitar and mellotron, and the ethereal Lady of the Dancing is lovely… and the suite is superb, a monumental tapestry woven from the chromatic blends of the brass. After a piercing solo by Fripp, it all concludes with a sinister little organ.
King Crimson: A Scarcity Of Miracles
CD Audio I have it ★★★
Meditative and shadowy project, signed by Jakszyk Fripp & Collins, built on the volatile breath of Fripp's soundscapes, on the discreet and elegant rhythms of Levin and Harrison, on the fluid, reverberated fingerpicking of Jakszyk, and on the sublime ripples of Collins' ethereal sax, which often and willingly shake the music from its lethargic torpor. Best tracks: Scarcity, The Price We Pay, The Other Man, The Light of Day.
Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Hutter and Schneider play with the polysemy of the title and the 1930s decor of the cover to highlight the influence of two modern molochs: the great generator - servant and master - and the mega radiant antenna. Between the robotic voice of the former and the radio waves emitted by the latter, two prototypes of synthetic pop songs (Radio Activity and Airwaves). It concludes, with a bittersweet note, Ohm Sweet Ohm, a radioactive mantra for mellotron and vocoder. Caution Radiation Kraftwerk.
Kraftwerk: Radioactivity
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Hutter and Schneider play with the polysemy of the title and the 1930s décor of the cover to highlight the influence of the two modern molochs: the great generator - servant and master - and the mega radiant antenna. Between the robotic voice of the former and the radio impulses emitted by the latter, two prototypes of synthetic pop songs (Radio Activity and Airwaves). It concludes, with a bittersweet note, Ohm Sweet Ohm, a radioactive mantra for mellotron and vocoder. Caution Radiation Kraftwerk.
KTU: 8 Armed Monkey
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
First and best album by KTU, an alchemical fusion of the dynamic duo Gunn - Mastellotto (TU) with the Finns Kluster (Pohjonen and Kosminen) born from the further fractalization of a crimsonian Project. Long, vibrant echoes from the deep, driven by the most extreme improvisation. States of tribal trance induced by Pohjonen's shamanic vocalizations and his protean accordion weaving through the industrial soundscapes of Mastellotto and Gunn (warr guitar in Absinthe).
Le Orme: Felona E Sorona
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Two opposing worlds, distant yet close, the joyful Felona and the melancholic Sorona. The attempt to balance them will lead to their destruction. A science fiction parable that is a cornerstone of our local prog. Despite its brevity, it features a continuous alternation of dramatic climaxes and meditative interludes culminating in the orphic MoogFest finale. Fantastic are the space rock keyboards of Pagliuca that in All’infuori del tempo foreshadow the theme of Star Wars: but did the good John Williams know them?
  • Psychopathia
    1 aug 12
    Although I have owned the record for only a year, I believe that Felona e Sorona is one of the most beautiful things I have ever listened to... the cover is exceptional too.
  • Mr. Money87
    1 aug 12
    It is undoubtedly a fantastic album! I love the description, I'm really into it!
  • hackerhacked
    2 aug 12
    There’s no point in asking if you also have the collage, I suppose..
  • Marco Salzano
    2 aug 12
    Sure.
Love: Forever Changes
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
A beautiful example of sunny and imaginative psychedelia, but penalized by a terrible orchestral accompaniment that seems taken from a Crosby record (Bing, not David).
  • bluesboy94
    10 feb 16
    Terrible orchestral accompaniment????????
  • madcat
    10 feb 16
    Terrible orchestral accompaniment??????? (2)
  • bluesboy94
    10 feb 16
    *accompaniment, 'co giuda!
  • madcat
    10 feb 16
    no no, my point was for the terrible, not for the "accompanied"
  • bluesboy94
    10 feb 16
    The fact is that a huge bullshit has been shot here; the orchestra is the added value that sublimates certain immortal pop pieces... ah, and this is the classic album that truly deserves more listens, because the first listen can be misleading... I hope the good Marco Salzano gives it another listen for his own good and reconsiders his evaluations, because his judgment is a bit harsh on a wonderful album.
  • bluesboy94
    10 feb 16
    *well
  • luludia
    10 feb 16
    sublime orchestral accompaniment...
  • madcat
    10 feb 16
    Ah ah, no sorry bluesboy, it must be the time (and the wine), but I thought the one who replied to me was the author of the definition and that he had mistakenly written "accompagnato."
  • bluesboy94
    10 feb 16
    Luludia adjusts her aim, that's right! For example, the initial "Alone Or Again" without the trumpet solo (how much it excites me...) and the interventions of the orchestra wouldn't be the perfect pop song it is. Let's say that the orchestra and brass on this album (already beautiful in itself) enrich the palette of colors, and that's the essence, and that's why I consider the definition unfair.
  • luludia
    10 feb 16
    In general, orchestrations give me hives, but here, here, my God... this is an album that I will review one day... a day, however, when words come to me... here the sound truly transports you elsewhere...
  • imasoulman
    11 feb 16
    It would be enough to quote Totò in "Totò, Fabrizi e i giovani d'oggi": "Modestly, mine is nicknamed the 'Sophia Loren of doves!' [...] She doesn't like Sophia Loren? Free to do so..."
  • Marco Salzano
    11 feb 16
    @imasoulman: it seems to me that Fabrizi was about to stay a little longer after eating that dove ;-P Anyway, I preferred Lollo. What can I say, those orchestral inserts (by David Angel) don't seem that essential to me; I didn't say they ruin the album (like those in "Time and a Word" by Yes) but they do detract from it, that's all.
  • Kism
    11 feb 16
    Come on... perfect disco! Arthur Lee's vocal performance in "Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale" is spine-chilling...
Lucio Battisti: Anima Latina
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Fantastic Tropicalista album by Battisti. Beyond the song, beyond the prog, just beyond. This album is so beautiful that it even makes me appreciate Mogol's lyrics.
  • hjhhjij
    8 jan 15
    I also share the commas.
  • macaco
    9 jan 15
    I am wondering why the attribute tropicalista?
  • Marco Salzano
    12 mar 15
    @macaco
    In Brazil, Battisti stocked up on records. Listen to Lilia by Milton Nascimento.
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Meeting Of The Spirits
File Audio I have it ★★★★★
The formation of phenomena recruited by the brilliant guitarist John McLaughlin with the blessing of Miles Davis and the Indian guru Sri Chinmoy: their first two albums represent for me the best of a genre (Jazz Rock/Fusion) that can sometimes lean too much towards sterile virtuosity.
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Inner Mounting Flame
CD Audio I have it ★★★★★
Formation of phenomena recruited by the brilliant guitarist John McLaughlin with the blessing of Miles Davis and the Indian guru Sri Chinmoy: their first two albums represent for me the best of a genre (Jazz Rock/Fusion) that is sometimes too prone to sterile virtuosity. This debut, which opens with the spiritual possession of “Meeting of The Spirits,” is pure spectacle!
Marillion: Script for a Jester's Tear
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
A good dose of Gabriellian chameleonism, a handful of Hammilian claustrophobia, and a few drops of Watersian misanthropy—this is the recipe for this LP, where the emotional intensity of the pains of young Fish reaches absolute levels in the intricate title track (between elegiac whispers over Kelly’s piano arpeggios and furious screams on Rothery’s electric guitar) and in the virulent Forgotten Sons, a heartfelt remembrance of the victims of the Northern Irish fratricidal conflict.
  • BARRACUDA BLUE
    26 jul 12
    And to think that among those "cover" covers is also the one for Do You Dream in Colour by Bill Nelson. Gourmets, the Marillion!...
Marillion: Sugar Mice
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
A typical "Saloon Song" like those sung by Sinatra (who is indeed referenced by the "teetotaler" Fish). And what can I say about the beauty of the arpeggio and the incredibly precise "Gilmour-esque" solo by Rothery?
Mazzy Star: So Tonight That I Might See
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
A classic of '90s Californian psych-pop. Fade Into You is one of those tracks that I don't really want to "analyze" but rather let it loop and it’s sweet to be lost in this sea.
McDonald And Giles: McDonald And Giles
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
McDonald & Giles, the innocent souls of the early Crimson, recorded a sunny low-profile album in '70 with some naive ingenuities (e.g., the lyrics of Suite in C). Giles proves to be an exquisitely refined sculptor of the snare drum (fantastic in Tomorrow's People), and McDonald makes the most of his talent as a multi-instrumentalist and arranger (e.g., in the suite Birdman, the dream of a new Icarus, written with Sinfield). Flight of the Ibis is the original melody of Cadence... Winwood as a guest.
Medeski Martin and Wood: Combustication
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
A dazzling debut at Blue Note for the eclectic and imaginative New York trio. The spectacular combustion ignites immediately with the funky groove of Sugar Craft (supported by the trance arpeggios of the organ and the subversive inserts of DJ Logic), continues with the Hancockian Hey-Hee-Hi-Ho and Coconut Boogaloo, and culminates in the blazing Latin Shuffle. More fragmented are the atmospheric Nocturne (featuring prepared piano and percussion) and Whatever… with the recital by Steve Cannon.
Mike Oldfield: Man on the Rocks
CD Audio I have it ★★★
A pop album with a nostalgic tone towards late '70s American AOR and '80s British pop, not exactly the triumphant comeback I was hoping for, but at least it's a notch above EARTH MOVING. Mostly power ballads with monotonous arrangements (but with honest supporting musicians that were chosen...), here and there catchy (Sailing), but above all, Oldfield as a guitarist is still present and fighting alongside us with at least a couple of well-crafted solos in Dreaming in the Wind and the title track.
  • hjhhjij
    8 jan 15
    It must have disgusted me so much that I don’t even remember listening to it. Earth Moving, on the other hand, is so bad that you can’t forget it. After all, everyone has a slip-up here and there; the desire was at 0, then in the '90s it didn’t recover badly at all with at least two very beautiful albums.
  • Marco Salzano
    8 jan 15
    Yes hjhhjij, in fact I was hoping for an album more similar to those works from the 90s or even to Music of the Spheres, which I really liked.
Mike Oldfield: Incantations
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
Perhaps Oldfield's most ambitious suite, inspired by the music of Native Americans with the rigor of minimalist Glass. The title comes from the magical formulas of spells, from which the repetition of the same motif is performed by various instruments in all possible keys, much like in nursery rhymes. With David Bedford leading the strings and choir, Maddy Prior singing a poem by Longfellow over the percussion of Jabula and the hypnotic vibraphone of Pierre Moerlen.
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