The Trip
Caronte

Among the pioneers of the early Italian progressive scene, one cannot overlook the legendary The Trip by Joe Vescovi. A musician of great caliber, endowed with excellent technique and great taste, he would distinguish himself on numerous occasions even beyond national borders, "risking" even joining Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow as a keyboardist during one of the many lineup changes. Born in Albion and originally Riki Maiocchi of Camaleonti's backing group, the four returned permanently to our country at the end of the Sixties, where, as was customary at the time, they began the usual slog through various pop festivals of the period.

If the name betrays more than a reference to various lysergic experiences and psychedelia, the musical offering is no less. Influenced, like many other Italian bands of the period, by the compositions of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Trip, after a first eponymous album that did not draw particular attention, reached with the second album one of the most interesting chapters of Italian progressive, with an album, "Caronte" indeed, that would really make history in the genre.

Under Vescovi's guidance, in just over half an hour, they were able to channel all the acquired experience up to that moment, delivering, on their second long-distance effort, an interesting and mature work. Introduced by the splendid cover, which on vinyl would really look good, embedding some of the most evocative Gustave Doré illustrations of the Divine Comedy in a psychedelic-floral context, the album opens with the splendid "Caronte I," a track that almost seems like a declaration of intent and which immediately lays out our musical proposal clearly. Acidic keyboards, sustained rhythms, and a guitar owing much to the late Jimi Hendrix introduce the listener to a dark and sulfurous world, effectively writing the soundtrack of the final journey of the damned of the Earth, ferried to the Inferno by a Demon named Charon. As was customary of the time, literary references reveal much more than a hint of a connection with the burning current events of those years, and Dante's damned therefore become all those rejected by society, the marginalized, those who have not aligned with the bourgeois value system. And given the musical influences of the four, how could they not pay homage to some greats of rock like Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, who had just passed away and unwillingly joined the infamous "27 Club"? If "Two Brothers" recalls the contemporary Deep Purple, with Vescovi and bassist Arvid Andersen alternating on vocals throughout the record, "Little Janie," a sweet pop ballad, is the heartfelt tribute to one of rock's high priestesses. "L'ultima Ora e Ode a Jimi Hendrix" has a hushed beginning but soon changes track, with Vescovi's organ giving way to William Gray's guitar, completely absorbed in his "ode." The concluding "Caronte II" revisits the discourse begun by the first part, putting an endpoint to one of the best Italian albums of the period.

Great technique serving high-level compositions which, even if they betray English influences, nonetheless ooze Italianity from every pore. Moreover, credit must be given to The Trip for being among the first, in Italy and beyond, to have such a complex sound, with the intricate keyboard parts alternating with almost Sabbathian-style guitars, in addition to having anticipated by some time that whole esoteric-sulfurous current which, later, with the likes of Metamorfosi, Balletto di Bronzo, and Biglietto per l'Inferno, would come to characterize a particular Italian prog. A masterpiece to own.