Back to Carlos Franzetti with New York Toccata (1985)

 

How could I have known to fully clear out and complete his works?   For the fourth time perhaps, I return to this remarkable Argentinian composer Carlos Franzetti.

New York info here.  It opens with the astonishing Arabesque, picking up right where Galaxy Dust left off:

Note that Joe Beck (posted on this blog a few months ago) plays guitar, and Paquito D'Rivera is on alto sax.

Then if you're not sufficiently blown away by the high level of composition, comes Imagenes Antes del Amenecer (Images before dawn):

Like, wow.  I still don't know how some can so perfectly blend together classical, jazz, and everything else musical humans have devised.  This to me is utter heaven, about as far away as you could get from Taylor Swift, and her "swifties" swiftly.  As with its predecessors, there are vocal tracks sung (quite proficiently, with a mild crooning vibrato) by baritone Carlos.

As You Like It - Ages Come and Ages Go, recorded 1973-1975

 

Album info here:

Recorded in England 1973-75.

British band playing genuine Progressive Rock a la Gentle Giant, Yes, England (Garden Shed), Fantasy, Spring, Genesis. Formed by ex members of Tales of Justine and The Syndicate. RCA offered them a contract which fell through, otherwise they could have been issued on RCA Neon. Their earliest surviving studio sessions date from 1973-1975 and reveal a superbly polished band playing pastoral prog rock dominated by Hammond Organ, a lost treasure for fans of Gentle Giant and Fantasy.

I think perhaps they are overstating the case, to me it sounds a bit more protoprog along the lines of Brits Fantasy (as in Beyond the Beyond) not to be confused with Fantasia, the marvelous Finnish band posted earlier here, which anyways is spelled differently at the end.  

For ex. the chord progressions on the compositions sometimes are a little derivative, I note the "Stairway to Heaven" descending A minor pattern that I mention so often appears in one of the song.

Some representative tracks, September Song:

And Together:

So is it AI or was it a real band from back in the day 50 years ago?  Who knows anymore?

Ritchie DeCarlo's Week by request, 2013

 

You can see on his discography here, he played a lot with Scott McGill who was previously posted back here.  The latter however is not playing on this work, which came out in 2013.

The awkwardly named title track, Week not Weak:

Not just crazy wham-bam electric guitar nuttiness, like the heretofore posted sets from the McGill Manring Stevens combo, this does show some delicatesse here and there and even some mellotron sounds.  I don't think there's much acoustic guitar, though I haven't listened through that carefully so far.  Synths played by Ritchie too.  So note the following keyboard track with synths + mellotron (presumably a digital or computer keyboard imitation) on the lovely complex modern classical composition called November Requiem for George:

Of course nowadays, AI / ChatGPT can do more than just replicate the mellotron sound and make it even more mellotronish, it can also replicate the whole album, making it a concept album to boot, the mood of that of the listener, his euphoria at hearing it, and even what he says to his wife upon hearing she hates the track! He can even make a new wife for the lucky guy!!  Presumably one day he will be able to create a while new personality for him too!  Isn't our future danged amazing?

Colored Music, from 1981 Japan

 

They made one new wavy, digitalish, electronic album back in 1981 then returned and made another one more recently, as you can see here.  But the music is not simple, it has a lot to interest us, of course it's not going to be at the same level some of the best already posted for ex. from Germany, but still worth hearing.  Consider, Anticipation:

And their Love Hallucination:

Forgas Band Phenomena Part 2, L'axe du fou 2009, Acte V 2012, L'oreille electrique 2018

 

That last album cover from 2018, I'm not gonna lie as my kids say, is just atrocious.  In theory it's almost as bad as the creations of AI? 

But title track from that one, L'oreille electrique, is for sure, musically remarkable:

Loin D'Issy, from 2012's Acte V, is notable for the way it changes dynamics, sound, directions several times over a relatively short (for this guy) 7 minute track:

Shockingly, it seems this gentleman is a late bloomer, for his last few albums are more interesting, at least to my (electric) ears, than the earliest ones, they show maturity and a kind of even-handedness to the progressive creative that is really heartily welcome.  Of course the style is very much our old beloved prog fusion with the classic arrangements, the typical instrumentation, but the ideas and melodies are not just original but very professionally played and thought out with none of the semi-formed ideas that characterized his first Cocktail album, with the exception of the sidelong work My Trip.  So in this case and it might be the first time for this blog (for Pepe Maina it was my impression the music became a bit boring and similar towards the end) I can honestly say it, I would look forward to any new releases from Patrick Forgas.