Quella Vecchia Locanda - 2 very different but great albums

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

I've been going through my LPs alphabetically to put them on CDR and coming upon Q I did Quiet Sun (nice to find 35 minutes of unreleased stuff) and this Italian Symph band

I remember really loving this band 25 years ago when I put both LPs on a cassette and played them over and over in my car, but I did not know where the first LP ended and the second started (I may even have put them on the cassette in reverse order!)

but now, going through each song on each album meticulously to make them sound absolutely stunning for my digital archive I'm realizing how very different the 2 albums are! Not that either of them are inferior... just very different in composition style.

I used to like the one I though was the second album slightly better but now I'm finding the first album has the more intricate compositions. What are your opinions on these 2 albums?

[mellotron storm]

Man I don't know if I could pick one over the other. I gave them both 4.5 stars so i'm a big fan.
Some meaningless stats from Prog Archives shows the debut getting rated by 243 people at an average of 4.07 and the followup is rated by 241 people for an average rating of 4.08, so yeah they could not be any closer.
I found the debut to be edgier almost bluesy at times while the second seemed more complex to me with some jazzy and classical moments with that edgier vibe gone. It's been a long time since I spun these though so I could be mistaken. I'm looking forward to other people's opinions here.

[mellotron storm]

Love the album art as well for both.

[helicase]

Overall I prefer the second album, but the standout track for me is Realtà from the first.

[moecurlythanu]

Love them both. If pressed, I'd say I like the s/t better, but I've never listened to them back-to-back. Might have to do that sometimes.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

The first album is a great Symph album with a couple of more rockin tunes

The second is composed quite differently, with most of the pieces starting soft and building to a dramatic crescendo

I just don't feel that the second album engages me as much as the first, but they're both great

[ItalProgRules]

The first album is a stone-cold classic of the RPI scene. I love the way all those short songs form into a cohesive whole.

The second is good, but nowhere near as classic as the first, IMHO. The difference, I think, was in the violinist. The American guy on the debut had that folksy, "barely under control" feel. His replacement was a much more "normal" violinist in a PFM kind of way. He was technically a better player, but a lot of the band's unique charm was lost.

Aside from the music, I like that they both have very different but excellent and arresting cover art.

[Supersonic Scientist]

The first album is a stone-cold classic of the RPI scene. I love the way all those short songs form into a cohesive whole.

The second is good, but nowhere near as classic as the first, IMHO. The difference, I think, was in the violinist. The American guy on the debut had that folksy, "barely under control" feel. His replacement was a much more "normal" violinist in a PFM kind of way. He was technically a better player, but a lot of the band's unique charm was lost.

Aside from the music, I like that they both have very different but excellent and arresting cover art.

+1 to everything IPR just said...

[Sputnik]

I just spun both back to back after not hearing either for a while. I like both of them to an extent, but neither are favorites of mine.

On this spin, my nod goes toward the second one overall, but they both have their moments. For me, the first one seems to have one foot stuck in 1968. It has a naive charm, but the playing and the compositions just seem "dated" to me. The violinist is often out of tune, as are the flutes occasionally. There are some good songwriting moments, but overall this one feels very much "of its time."

The second one has a more mysterious vibe, particularly after you get past the second track. They still weave in the classical motifs, but the execution seems better to me, and the ideas are more "original." The playing is a lot better to my ears as well. To me, this one fits better with what bands like Banco, PFM, Le Orme and other were doing on their classic material in pushing the envelope and really integrating classical ideas in a rock context.

I'm glad I have them both, but I think I'll revisit the second one more frequently. Too bad they didn't do another one, but you can say that for a ton of great Italian bands.

Bill

[Scrotum Scissor]

The difference, I think, was in the violinist. The American guy on the debut had that folksy, "barely under control" feel. His replacement was a much more "normal" violinist in a PFM kind of way. He was technically a better player, but a lot of the band's unique charm was lost.

I agree. There's something uniquely charming about that apparent "clumsiness" at display on much of their debut album; like a garage-version of early PFM. I still think the greatest thing they did was the closing track from their second album, though - that's one eerie and deeply melancholy manner by which to finish a recording career.

A cute little anecdote concerning QVL and my own experience; they took their name from a local tavern in the former (rather small) Jewish quarter in Rome, and I stumbled upon a place with this name when I visited that city on my honeymoon back in '97. AFAIK, the band used to have their rehearsal space in the cellar of that place, and the waiter confirmed that there were no other establishments by that name around anywhere close by, and that he'd actually heard stories about several rock bands rehearsing in the basement "[...] many, many years ago". It sort of made me look on the QVL with even more of a friendly face. Good food that evening, too!

[ItalProgRules]

A cute little anecdote concerning QVL and my own experience;


Cool story, SS!

[Trane]

I'm not big on Italian symph bands (which are generally for symph-weenie types, par excellence), but in that given genre, QVL is definitely my fave with Celeste and PFM's SduMinuto

Man I don't know if I could pick one over the other. I gave them both 4.5 stars so i'm a big fan.
Some meaningless stats from Prog Archives shows the debut getting rated by 243 people at an average of 4.07 and the followup is rated by 241 people for an average rating of 4.08, so yeah they could not be any closer.
I found the debut to be edgier almost bluesy at times while the second seemed more complex to me with some jazzy and classical moments with that edgier vibe gone. It's been a long time since I spun these though so I could be mistaken. I'm looking forward to other people's opinions here.

very difficult to name one over the other, indeed.

However, I can't say I found the first "bluesier", though there is a tad of jazz in their second one.

[Brian Griffin]

I had a long ride this AM, spun through both plus the single contained on the Progressive Voyage compilation

My memory was confirmed, the S/T is a borderline classic, the second is ok, but nowhere near the quality IMO

BG

[ItalProgRules]

One nice thing about them...they're short like so many Continental albums of the era, so you can just spin 'em both!

One note on the s/t: "Immagini Sfocate" ("Blurred Images") and "Il Cieco" ("The Blind Man") seem to have been divided into 2 songs only due to the 2-sided LP format.

[ProgArtist]

A PE member shared one or both albums with me years ago. I remember being unaffected by the music but I can't remember why. I seem to remember a lot of spoken word- am I thinking of the right group?

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

A PE member shared one or both albums with me years ago. I remember being unaffected by the music but I can't remember why. I seem to remember a lot of spoken word- am I thinking of the right group?

no spoken word on these... and even better, the vocalist can really sing! not just scream like so many other Italian vocalists of that era

One nice thing about them...they're short like so many Continental albums of the era, so you can just spin 'em both!

One note on the s/t: "Immagini Sfocate" ("Blurred Images") and "Il Cieco" ("The Blind Man") seem to have been divided into 2 songs only due to the 2-sided LP format.

there's really no reason for that either since, when I reconstituted the piece and put it together with the rest of the first side, the side barely tops 20 mins. Most US artists would put over 20 and up to 25 mins per side of an album.
The good thing is that the Drum break repeats on both sides and just a little volume needed to be restored where it faded at the joint. I'll post a clip of the reconstituted version later today...

[ItalProgRules]

no spoken word on these... and even better, the vocalist can really sing! not just scream like so many other Italian vocalists of that era




there's really no reason for that either since, when I reconstituted the piece and put it together with the rest of the first side, the side barely tops 20 mins. Most US artists would put over 20 and up to 25 mins per side of an album.
The good thing is that the Drum break repeats on both sides and just a little volume needed to be restored where it faded at the joint. I'll post a clip of the reconstituted version later today...

Yep, I really like their vocalist. Probably the best pure singer from the RPI scene outside of Aldo Tagliapietra.

PFM split up "Dove...Quando" for the same reason QVL split up the 2 related pieces on their debut, I imagine. As you said, the sides were so short in those days, it seems odd nowadays to have split tracks like that.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

heh... yeah, the Italians are notorious for churning out 35 minute albums when every other artist in the world at the time were making 40+ minute albums

[Scrotum Scissor]

heh... yeah, the Italians are notorious for churning out 35 minute albums when every other artist in the world at the time were making 40+ minute albums

Some of those RPIs are actually 30-35 minutes and not counting. And I'm quite fine with it. Serge Gainsbourg's Melody Nelson was brilliant at barely 28, and he was French.

BTW; I think there were lots of great Italian rock vocalists with both timbre and relative technique in the 70s.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

BTW; I think there were lots of great Italian rock vocalists with both timbre and relative technique in the 70s.

meh... too many just yelled, which is great in Punk Rock but not appealing for Symph

[ItalProgRules]

Heh. When it comes to Popol Vuh, 35 minutes would be a LONG album!

But it's the quality that counts.

[Scrotum Scissor]

meh... too many just yelled, which is great in Punk Rock but not appealing for Symph

Most RPI was not strictly "symph", this is part of the point. Gianfranco Gaza with Procession, for instance, or that dude in Raccomandata Ricevuta Ritorno and Samadhi or the bloke in Museo Rosenbach - as with a guy like Hammill, the music's pretty unthinkable without those exact voices. And while someone like Gianni Leone may not have been very apt technically, his anguished and desperate vocals make for a completely organic part of the music's intensity itself.

I see way more problems in husky, wannabe-emotional voxes like that of the singers in Alusa Fallax, Locanda delle Fate, Odissea, Metamorfosi, Murple and so on.

[ProgArtist]

no spoken word on these... and even better, the vocalist can really sing! not just scream like so many other Italian vocalists of that era

Hmmm... I must be thinking of another group!

[Scrotum Scissor]

RPI albums with notable spoken word include Pholas Dactylus' Concierte delle Menti and the sole album by Ricordi D'Infanzia (whose singer most certainly also mostly yelled instead of singing).

[soundsweird]

After seeing this thread, I decided to give these albums another listen last night. I had bought of them (along with several other lesser-known Italian Prog albums) about ten years ago when I was looking to expand my RPI collection. I've listened to them about once a year since then. Well, this listen didn't change my opinion much; I really like the final track on the debut, but every other track is a mix of good and bad elements that make for a lukewarm recommendation. The throwback mix is a big problem, with lead instruments and even the drums almost always shoved to the far right or far left, and I hear riffs, chord progressions and melodies that are, shall we say, "overly familiar". As mentioned before, the singer is pretty good, and I have no problem with the musicianship, although the drummer does nothing out of the ordinary. I enjoyed the second album a lot more. The production/mix was cleaner and clearer, with instruments spread nicely across the stereo field. Musically, it was on about the same level as the first, but everything "worked" for the most part, except for the repetitious, slowly building instrumental.