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Il Rumore Bianco

Mediocrazia

Review by Gary Hill

This short release (four tracks, roughly half an hour) is quite strong. It should definitely appeal to fans of classic Italian progressive rock. I’d have to say, though that those more mainstream prog fans who don’t mind that the lyrics are in Italian will probably love this, too. The music is more mainstream than a lot of Italian prog acts. It’s very closely tied to the progressive rock of the 1970s. It’s inventive, creative and accessible. It’s also great.


This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2014  Volume 2 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Tutto Un Sogno (pt. 1)

Keyboards bring this in with a gradual build up. Before the one minute mark other instruments begin to join. Then it powers out to a high energy progressive rock jam that is purely classic. By the time the vocals join past the two minute mark it has dropped back to a mellower version of the same jam. They power it back upward for the chorus, though. The jam that follows that chorus is especially tasty. The pattern of mellower verses and more powered up choruses continues. We get a meaty guitar solo section later. This thing continues to grow and evolve and is a great piece of music. It’s an excellent way to start the set in style.

Il Vestito Buono
There’s a short distant sung bit, almost like something on a voice mail to open this. Then keyboards come in very textural and gradually rise up. It feels rather like space music as more of those vocals are heard in the distance. Then the whole thing shifts to a more dramatic sound that’s still fairly mellow to continue. It builds up and becomes another great example of Italian progressive rock that feels like it would have fit in the 1970s. There are harder rocking sections and mellower ones. There’s a cool jam mid-track that seems to combine Genesis and King Crimson to my ears. It gets pretty intense later with distorted vocals adding to the tension. It continues changing, though and then after the four minute mark drops to a particularly mellow and pretty section. Guitar lends some rather jazzy soloing over this backdrop as they move forward.
Il Primo Attore
This comes in more rocking right from the start, although there is a bit of a start and stop early. The riff that drives this after the little jazzy break in the first minute is among the coolest and hardest rocking of the set. After taking it through several shifts and changes they drop it way down later in a jazzy kind of arrangement. This keeps evolving from there. There’s even a little journey into some almost Spanish guitar based jazz later. After the five minute mark they take us to a mellow jazz section with piano and saxophone. That section serves to end the piece.
Tutto Un Sogno (pt. 2)
This comes in mellow and rather dramatic and works out gradually from there. As it works outward, it remains one of the slower moving pieces and it is more guitar dominated than the others. There is almost more of a bluesy classic rock sound here. There is a dramatic drop down to mellower, keyboard based music around the two and a half minute mark. Then the saxophone rises up and we’re taken gradually into a new jazzy jam. By around the four and a half minute mark it’s exploded out into something that makes me think of King Crimson’s Red era. They drop it down by the five minute mark to a mellower jam, but Red is still a valid reference point, perhaps with some more retro rock sound in the mix. There is a jazzy crescendo a minute later that takes it to some space keyboards. Then something akin to the Doors rises up amidst those keyboards. Those keys drop away and we’re in a mellow, proggy jam from there. After that builds out, it falls back down and some melodic guitar soloing is included in the mix. That mellower motif takes it to the closing chord.

 

 

  
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