Customer Reviews

Atomic System (Mlps)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great progressive rock record, even if I have a few quibbles. Most tracks are really intense and densely textured, adventurous musical fusions of rock and jazz. Lots of subtle shifts in rhythms and dynamic angles in the music. The first track is mindblowing in its range, and it's only 6'46" long!

My other favourites are tracks 5 and 6. Really well thought out arrangements full of beauty and power. The adaptation of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain (track 4) is placed in the middle of the original record - I find this somewhat irritating and would have preferred it to have been at the end. The last song, Butterfly, is in English and has a much fluffier attitude than the quite tough, uncompromising experimental one on the rest of the LP.

Otherwise it's smashing - two keyboard players (including Vittorio De Scalzi, the band leader and principal composer, who also plays guitar and flute), a saxophone player/ flautist, a bassist, a drummer and an Indian(?)percussionist. Oh, and a female vocalist complements what De Scalzi does with his own lyrics. It makes for a really interesting mix of sounds.

You can't go wrong here, despite its shortcomings, as there are some phenomenal and memorable moments on this disc.

In 1973, the original New Trolls broke up. At the end of 1972, they released UT, which caused the band to break up, because there was part of the band that favored hard rock (Nico Di Palo, who helped form Ibis), and the other half that preferred prog rock (that included Vittorio De Scalzi). Because of legal problems of the use of the New Trolls name, the faction that featured De Scalzi would be called N.T. Atomic System. At this time, De Scalzi would start a new label called Magma, in which albums from Alphataurus, Latte e Miele, Pholas Dactylus and of course New Trolls/Atomic System were released. The original LP came with a triple gatefold, and an insert. First handful of copies featured a sticker that said "New Trolls Atomic System", but because of legal reasons, they had to stop manufacturing copies with the sticker. The sticker was to cover up the "N.T. Atomic System" title as Vittorio De Scalzi still wanted to continue on as New Trolls. New members now included bassist Giorgio D'Adamo (from an earlier New Trolls lineup, the one that recorded Concerto Grosso Per 1 and the pop-oriented Senza Orario Senza Bandiera), keyboardist Renato Rosset, flautist/saxist Giorgio Baiocco, drummer Tullio D'Espiscopo, percussionist Ramasandiran Somusundaran (that name is Malayalam, from the Palakkad District of India, so I assume he's from that area), and two female backup vocalist Anna and Giulietta (no last names given. I wonder if that attractive young girl in the gatefold is one of the two backup singers?). This happens to be N.T. Atomic System's first album from 1973, and many people simply call this one of the greatest Italian prog albums there ever was. I feel that's taking it a bit far (that's the same feeling I had for Locanda Delle Fate's Forse Le Lucciole Non Si Amano Piu). There are two simply amazing songs, "La Nuova Predica di Padre O'Brein" and "Ibernazione", these are simply two of the greatest Italian prog songs I have ever heard. I can see the hype of the album can be justified by these two simply amazing songs. Of course none of the rest of the album is bad. "Ho Visto Poi" features some nice, mellow vocal passages that make me think of PFM. "Tornare a Credere" starts off rather poppy sounding, but suddenly the cut features some great twists and turns, with Eminent and synths. "Butterfly" seems really out of place on this album. It's sung in English for one thing, and there's a much stronger West Coast feel to it. It's not exactly prog on this piece, with a bit of that hippie folk rock feel, which seems pretty weird to be doing in 1973. But why on earth did they need to tag this song with such a pointless drum solo at the end? It had no relevance to the song at all. It should have been filled with another song, or a more lengthy and proggy composition in place of "Butterfly". It's not In-a-Gadda-da-Vida (a song, in my opinion that totally justifies the drum solo), that's for sure. Si-Wan of Korea had reissued it on vinyl (as well as CD), placed the killer bonus track on it (as I'll mention), and removed the ending drum solo on "Butterfly" (at least the LP reissue). The bonus cut, "Una Notte Sul Monte Calvo" is a totally killer version of Mussorgsky's "A Night on Bare Mountain", which totally puts the version Fireballet did to shame.

After this, the band released Tempi Dispari, but I warn you: it's completely different from this album, the band going full-on fusion on that album, and it's a totally killer album, as far as I'm concerned, but I can see why fans of the first N.T. Atomic System album might be put off by Tempi Dispari.

I have the Si-Wan LP (no gatefold) and the original Italian Magma pressing (without the sticker), but if you buy from Vinyl Magic, you're getting the original Italian tracklisting and likely that tedious drum solo that's tagged on "Butterfly".

Anyway, New Trolls' Atomic System does get hyped, for me, it doesn't quite live up to the hype, as the album sounds a little uneven in places to me, but it's still worth getting, but first get a few other Italian prog albums to get yourself familiar with the scene before you come to this one.