 | Terra in Bocca (1971)Genres: progressive rock |
review by thomas
This is one of the earliest Italian progressive rock albums, a concept album based on the Italian mafia. There’s just one long piece (with the obvious split in part 1 and 2). The group uses the normal instruments to great satisfaction; the keyboards (usually piano and organ; and usually simultaneous too) are splendid all the way and the acoustic guitar parts are fantastic. The singer is very good too; in both the hard and the calmer sections, in the harder parts he has this lovely rawness, a real bite, in his voice. The drumming is outstanding and the harmony voices are also very good.
The music constantly shifts between calmer and harder parts and they master both things very well. The construction of the work is in other words quite similar that of Jethro Tull’s “Thick as a Brick” although the finished product of music is not. I can hardly imaging something more typically Italian than this album. (In spite of the lack of a flute.)
The first ten times or so listening to “Terra in Bocca” revealed a good sounding record to me, but not much more. However, from that point on the album really began to grow and grow, just getting’ better and better. A must for the lover of the Italian scene.
