Palepoli and El Tor

[chalkpie]

I'm hitting some winners right now. Palepoli has always been one of the strangest and most original albums I have ever heard, although I swear they rip off Wes Montgomery on Full House. El Tor is basically an Osanna album, correct? Maybe poppier than Osanna, but just great. Love these two, especially Palepoli

[Scrotum Scissor]

Palepoli is very good, but to my ears somewhat uneven still. Those start/stop fragmentary passages are at times intriguing, although one suspects after a while that they were slapping parts together as they went on and made them, but it doesn't always stick as a whole when I listen to the album. However, I always dug Osanna for their politically charged lyrics and the sheer aggression of some of their music. Landscape of Life and that very last release they did after reuniting in the latter half of the 70s are both mediocre, though.

I love El Tor, and yes - about half of the staff from Osanna are there. Apparently most of the material was already finished by the time the original Citta Frontale broke up in 1970/71 to give way for Osanna, explaining the more relaxed, semi-folky and/or hippian nature of the music here. I still think the title track, "La Casa del Mercante 'Sun'", "Equilibrio Divino?" and especially "Duro Lavoro" are as good as anything Osanna ever did. Obviously, the chorus of "Milioni di Persone" turned out in a slightly abbreviated form as the chorus of another tune on Landscape of Life (one of only two worthy tracks on that one, IMHO). But it sits way better in the context of Citta Frontale.

[Brian Griffin]

Landscape of Life (one of only two worthy tracks on that one

I was totally with ya until this : )

Landscape is a personal favorite, and IMO one of the more under rated 70's RPI discs

Interested to hear your issues with it, as I often seem to agree with your posts relative to RPI

Huge Ossana fan here

BG

[ashratom]

Worth noting that not only did Citta Frontale provide the root system for Osanna, but they also had one Gianni Leone in their ranks, who split for Il Balletto di Bronzo, and subsequently changed that band's sound. The original Citta Frontale was quite a talented bunch!