Stormy Six
Macchina Maccheronica

 We are in 1980. The Stormy Six, with Umberto Fiori on the pen and voice, the special presence of Georgie Born (ex-Henry Cow) on the cello, and the new entry Leonardo Schiavone on the clarinet (along with the members from the previous album, with Franco Fabbri as the deus ex machina), give birth to the album "Macchina Maccheronica", the last work in which the group's folk musical tendencies remain present, accompanied, however, by a more pronounced electronic component and hybrid sounds, which will evolve into the complete adoption of that aforementioned electronic component in the subsequent "Al volo" of 1982.

 Having given a bit of history, let's talk about the album. The distinctly political lyrics were already abandoned in the previous "L'apprendista" of 1977, and the full writing of the lyrics by Umberto Fiori reveals a new use of words compared to previous works, becoming sometimes cryptic, symbolic, and enigmatic, sometimes clear, pure, and evocative. Musically, there is already a mention of a combination of typically folkloric instruments with others more electronically utilized; the sound experimentation already begun in the previous work finds in this album truly well-executed songs, although some are mostly exercises in style (the variations on the theme of "Madonina", the choral "Enzo", but also the penultimate "Sommario", in which the people involved in the album are listed as a sort of acknowledgment).

 The album is really well played, although the mixing, while not prohibiting listenability, does not seem perfect. Furthermore, the album expresses a creative intermediate phase that then culminates in what some consider the Stormy Six's best work (we are talking about "Al Volo"), but it should be noted that "Macchina Maccheronica" is a work that falters only in those mentioned exercises in style,  and for the rest, although different stylistically, it can be said that it is not inferior to the subsequent album (perhaps only the lyrics reach full maturity in "Al Volo").

 Awarded by music critics as the best rock album of the year (even ahead of the Police, eh!), the album finds greater fortune in Germany, while in Italy it becomes a niche choice;  the public festivals were not inclined to tolerate long chamber compositions like "Le Lucciole" and "Verbale" (as Franco Fabbri himself writes on his website); it even makes it to the radio in America and enjoys a decent following in England, but the group will dissolve following the release of "Al Volo", with several reunions in the '90s and also '00s. 

 If anyone had doubts about the actual originality of the Italian progressive scene (often indebted to British rock), with the Stormy Six we can safely talk about pure creativity.