Blocco Mentale Italian PROG 1973 LP PiOA

$

366

Blocco Mentale Italian PROG 1973 LP Pioa

 POA

A very obscure and needless to say rare album from Italian rock music scene of the 70's. Blocco Mentale PiOA. This album takes on ecology as its theme and sings of the evil of polluting the planet. Terrific basic progressive music from a great quartet of musicians. Creative sleeve with window to flower. Green peace indeed! In near mint condition.

Blocco Mentale were a quintet, consisting of Aldo Angeletti (who wrote the music) on vocals and bass, Michele Arena on drums and vocals, Gigi "Roso" Bianchi on guitar and vocals, Filippo Lazzari on keyboards, harmonica and vocals, and Dino Finocchi on vocals, sax and flute. Paolo Barotto, in THE RETURN OF ITALIAN POP, describes them as "another very little known group," who "did release an album and a single ... in 1973 for the unknown Titania label. It was recorded on an eight track studio recorder. Musically Blocco Mentale is characterised by a progressive style with some personal touches. The best intruments are the horns and the keyboards.

The album opens with angular staccato sax riffs and then slides into a lush melody somewhat reminiscent of PFM ( Premiata Forneria Marconi ) in their early (and best) days. There are rich vocal harmonies blended with organ and flute, and once again a Meditteranean sensibility which distinguishes much of the best Italian progressive rock. (The opening lines of that opening track, "Capita," are recapitulated in the closing lines of the sixth track, "Ritorno," but the album still has one track to go at that point, oddly enough.) Swelling Mellotrons blend into vocal harmonies, and give way to a cascading piano line. The music moves around a lot in the course of the album. The fourth track, "Io E Me," is an amazing Meditteranean blues, with a wailing harmonica taking the lead. One has the sense that the group was striving to produce a well-rounded album, rather than stamping out each track with the same stylistic cookie cutter. (This was an approach much more common in sixties and early seventies rock than it is today.)

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