Review Summary: Another great album from Area. It’s more funky, experimental and avant-garde than “Crac!
“Maledetti” is the fourth studio album of Area that was released in 1976. The line up on the album is Demetrio Stratos, Ares Tavolazzi, Giampaolo Tofani, Patrizio Fariselli and Giulio Capiozzo. The album had also the participation of an amount of other musicians.
Area began their musical adventure at the end of 1972, bringing together musicians from different backgrounds, that ranges from pop, free jazz, electronic and contemporary experimentation, with the common point to overcome the individual artistic experiences to arrive at a “total music”, from jazz to progressive rock music through the vanguard. With all their works, Area proved to be among the bravest and original bands of the Italian progressive rock scene. But, to turn their mark complete was also, and above all, the incredible and unique voice of their singer, Demetrio Stratos.
Due to the dead of Stratos, Area had a relatively short career. In 1973 they released their debut “Arbeit Macht Frei” that is widely considered to be one of the masterpieces of Italian progressive rock scene. It’s probably their best work too. In 1974, Area released their sophomore album “Caution Radiation Area”, where the total experimentation predominates, producing paranoid songs on the verge of chaos and resistance. It’s their most experimental work. In 1975 they released “Crac!”, a more conventional and melodic work expressing better their music expression, the fusion between pop and avant-garde music. In 1976 they released “Maledetti”, an album in the same vein of their previous works.
So, the forth studio album of Area “Maledetti” released in 1976 can be considered a kind of a conceptual album. The story occurs during the XX century, where an imaginary bank loses data from the XV century, causing people forgetting how to govern the world (“Evaporazione”). Some new hypothesis are formulated such as power to old people (“Gerontocrazia”), power to women (“Scum”) and power to children (“Giro, Giro, Tondo”). So, this is Area, indeed.
“Maledetti” is a progressive album where the band bridges many genres, including jazz and avant-garde. The free jazz influences of this recording is made clearly evident by the appearance of two of the genre’s most powerful practitioners, Steve Lacy and Paul Lytton (two of the guest musicians invited by the band), whose contributions put this album in more of an experimental/avant-garde mode than the previous ones. So, the stylistic direction of the album is a mix of complex avant-prog, jazz-rock fusion and some wicked experimentation, in the special and unique style of Area.
“Maledetti” has seven tracks. “Evaporazione” is short and where we can hear someone running, whistling and talking. It’s an introduction where Stratos tells there’s something important to communicate. “Diforisma Urbano” is a fantastic upbeat funk jazz/fusion track. Here we have a great example of a song where Stratos “plays” with his voice as an instrument. It adds a nice, strange and special touch. “Gerontocrazia” starts with a cradle song in ancient Greek. During it we can hear a txalaparta, a Basque percussion instrument. It demonstrates their interest in the ethnical music. Here we can see the influence of Gentle Giant’s music. “Gerontocrazia” and “Diforisma Urbano” are the masterpieces of the album. “Scum” takes a free jazz/fusion direction where Fariselli’s piano takes the front with a strange tonal style. It has some electronic effects and Stratos does some speech about the women rights. This is the most jazz oriented piece on the album. “Il Massacro Di Brandeburgo Numero Tre In Sol Maggiore” is a fragment of the classical piece for a string quartet from Bach’s “Brandenburg Concert number 3 in G major”. It’s a deconstruction to symbolize the demolition of the music corporatism. It doesn’t sounds out of place and doesn’t erase the charm of Bach’s music. “Giro, Giro, Tondo” is an experimental track and represents a return to a more familiar Area’s territory. It’s an avant-garde jazz/fusion track with emotional vocals dominated by the piano performance with a peculiar ending. It has also Gentle Giant’s influence. “Caos (Parte Seconda)” is an avant-garde track. It’s the lengthiest track and it’s strange and chaotic, with electronic sounds, noises, voices and it’s full of experimentations. It’s one of the strangest and difficult pieces I’ve ever heard.
Conclusion: “Maledetti” is much more experimental than their previous album “Crac!”. Its music is equally chaotic and we can hear on it several musical influences like traditional Greek music, Arabian music, avant-garde music, free jazz, jazz rock/fusion, funk, Mediterranean music and even classical music. Despite “Maledetti” isn’t as good as “Arbeit Macht Frei” or “Crac!”, I think it’s better than “Caution Radiation Area”. It’s more balanced and is less dark, more modern, and especially, it has two of their greatest masterpieces “Diforisma Urbano” and “Gerontocrazia”. This is one of their finest musical works that put Area, probably, as the most creative of all Italian progressive bands and one of the most original and innovative prog band’s from the 70’s. If you are ready for a totally different adventure, this is for you.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
