Anteater

Album Title: Arbeit macht frei
Artiste: Area
Nationality: Italian
Year: 1973
Subgenre: Rock Progressivo Italiano with a free jazz flavor
Player(s): Demetrio Stratos (Vocals, Organ, Steel Drum), Giampaolo Tofani (Guitars, Synth), Patrick Djivas (Bass)Guilio Capiozzo (Drums), Eddie Busnello (Sax), Patrizio Faraselli (Piano)
Familiarity: A smidgen. I've heard Caution Radiation Area before.
Favourite track(s): Probably 'Consapevolezza'
Why? It has some nice keyboards here and there, plus a really nice sax solo.
Least favourite track(s): None in particular
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? None really. Troll didn't like it, which told me there was probably a lot of horns and some Rock In Opposition-style craziness here and there.
Factoids you'd like to share? Nothing really.
End impression: Interesting, but doesn't hold a candle to guys like Pharaoh Sanders or the big players in the Canterbury Scene as far as jazz goes.
Comments: While it is true that I do in fact love jazz in every form (particularly jazz fusion and the contemporary "smooth" stuff), a byproduct of this appreciation is that I'm also very, very VERY picky when it comes to what I revisit or add to my collection. Area are one of those early prog/jazz crossover bands that have a pretty good sound in studio, but they're nowhere near Magma, Return To Forever, Soft Machine, etc. compositionally. Still, 37 minutes is relatively brief for an album in this vein so I give it serious points for remaining pretty fun for atleast half that time. I dunno why horns and stuff give you the heebie jeebies so much Trolly ol' chum, but that dissonance is part of the charm on any "super serious" jazz release. If this album turned you off, I dunno how you'd handle anything from Sun Ra, Coltrane or their ilk.

Rating: 3.5 As I said, pretty solid stuff but not sure why its regarded as a classic of its era.

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Trollheart

I honestly can't say why I hate overuse of horns so much. I mean, I like a sax solo as much as the next guy, and I can listen to trumpet or trombone music for a while, but when the brass goes all high and squeaky and sounds like it's screaming I just run for the door. Maybe it's like dogs, y'know, where certain sounds are outside human hearing but drive them mad? I don't hate horns per se, I just hate it when they go all wild and unfettered, it just drives me mad.

This is probably why a lot of jazz doesn't/won't appeal to me, and yet as I said a few days ago my first experience of Miles Davis was very pleasant, surprisingly so. Of course I know nothing much of jazz so he could be the exception, or an example of a subgenre or division within jazz...

Anyway, to get back to Area, yeah I don't see why it's regarded as a classic either, nor Ian Anderson's, but remember this is not official: it's just one guy's personal favourites list so maybe it's not really a classic in the truest sense of the word. It's definitely not for me, but as US points out, it's probably the most polarising album so far and has generated the most debate of any we've reviewed here.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Unknown Soldier

So here's hoping for some more polarising albums from the list.

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