Sean Trane Third studio album from this Verona quartet with an unchanged line-up, although their lengthy silence had us fearing the worst as it had been almost mime years since Duty Free Area. Aside from some erratic festival appearance and a Live album dating from '02, the only thing we had was their new label Moonjune re-issuing in '07 their first two album in a compilation with bonus live tracks, but it left us clueless as to their adventures. Rest assured in the spring of '08 cane out their fourth album (in all) with a rather ugly squared off artwork, but the music was anything but worrisome, because the main songwriters remain drummer De Grandis and keyboardist Bonomi. Indeed, musically DFA is still sounding quite the same as they did in their first two album, developing a symphonic jazz-rock somewhere between Canterbury (I am thinking of the US group Volaré) and Gentle Giant, and the opening Baltasaurus fits exactly that description. After the much gentler (if you'll except the crunchy riff guitar) almost 8-mins Flying Trip, Standing out a bit, the almost 7-mins Vietato Generalizzare is more in the ELP or Egg mode, even though there is plenty of guitars, but the organ fireworks is more reminiscent of early Emerson or early Dave Stewart. The obvious centrepiece' of this album is the 19 minutes Mosoq Runa, which was long in to finalize as its writing dates back from '04, but it's obvious that keyboardist Bonomi is a slow worker in these matters, but his results are outstanding. This is a piano (ac or el) gargantuan feast (as well as other KBs) with the odd flute bit that never stops dazzling and the added string arrangements (just a cello and a violin) bring it even more to notice.

The last two tracks are sung, the first by drummer De Grandis and in English, but it comes down to one verse at the start of the 10 minutes of The Mirror, so soft you don't really realize it. The track is mostly an improvisation in its second part, disappearing into a drum solo. The closing track is quite different, Ballate starting on some Hackettian guitar lines, before triple female folk & classical (polyphony) vocals and string arrangements. It is a bit "hors-propos" from the usual DFA, and I'm glad they left it out until last on this album, so it doesn't disturb the album's smooth flow of the other tracks. Well almost nine years after Duty Free Area, 4th is much in the same, probably a tad better. DFA is probably my fave Italian band from the 90's and 00's and is consistently at the top, even if there was a quiet period.

Sean Trane Second album from this unchanged quartet and released on the same Mellow Records label, its title could be what the band meant when they chose their enigmatic name. Musically speaking, this album is quite different than its GG-influenced predecessor; here we're dealing with a much jazzier feel, often ogling towards space rock, sometimes towards symphonic as well. One of the things that will surprise you (outside the relatively cheap artwork) is Minella's much softer guitar, abandoning the hard rock feel of the debut album. Quickly announcing its colour, the opening Escher pulls a very Ozric-ian soundscape, courtesy of Bonomi, but De Grandis' drumming is the star of the show. This track is such an enjoyment that its 8-min+ doesn't overstay its welcome, in spite of its repetitiveness. The following Caleidoscopio is rather different, a slow-starting affair gaining momentum and once on top, the feeling is of a space/Gong-esque ELP (plus guitar) and symphonic overtones are there, with guitarist Minella pulling some Hackettian lines. Clearly since their start DFA has been under the wings of its bigger brother Deus Ex Machina and here singer Alberto Piras has a go at the third track called GG-inspired Esperanto (the hopeful universal language that never came to be), here sung in Italian alone. Unfortunately for DFA, Piras' personality is simply over-powering, and we're having this track transformed into a DEM track.

The two instrumentals Ascendente Scorpione and Ragno) are both in the space-rock mould, sometimes between Ozric and Gong, the former being similar to the opening track, while the latter is more in line with Caleidoscopio with its symphonic intro. The closing Malia gets another guest singer in Georgia Gallo, but it's the weakest track on the otherwise excellent album.

DFA's second album is just as worthy as their first, despite the surprising different musical direction - let's face it, we're not used to have Italian groups diddling with space-rock. With just two albums under their belt, DFA has the particularity of being Italy's brightest 90's band, IMHO, of course.

Sean Trane Of the 90's Italian prog revival wave, very few groups managed to really impress me in the long run; from Finisterre & Germinale to Malibran & Nodo Giordano, they all seemed to be after the elusive quest of finding themselves a niche, their own niche. Among the more complex-music (let's say less symphonic) groups, Deus Ex Machina and DFA were more convincing, though, especially the later. The quartet recorded their debut album during the summer of 96, in their native Verona and released it on the then-unavoidable Mellow Record. Apparently their first release (from 95) is "demo" where all titles are present on this album, but reworked and an added mammoth epic La Via added on this present and official debut, released on the inevitable Mellow records, produced by DEM's singer Alberto Piras. DFA is a standard prog quartet where it seems that Drummer De Grandis and keyboardist Bonomi are the most skilled at their respective instruments, especially the latter's Hammond and mellotron use. Musically DFA hovers between Gentle Giant in most tracks and a demented guitar-included ELP (even a bit Atomic Rooster) in their more muscular riff-laden moments, due to Minella's crunchy hard rock guitar. In some ways, DFA's musical realm also hovers with the Japanese trio Ars Nova with solid guitars and good Italian vocals (no matter what David says, 4 out of 7 tracks are sung and correctly at that too) plus a very hard rock-type guitar ala Gary Moore or Pat Travers or other 70's hard rock guitar hero. Opening on a demented tempo that Bonomi holds together wit Minella's guitar, the GG-esque Work Machine is an impressive track does cool down for a 2-minute break, which is no way spacey, slowly building it back through synths and the whole shebang thereafter and returning to its normal opening state well before the end. Collage is indeed just that: a collection of musical bits glued together without much sense and appropriate chords (there is even one that's just left with blank as link), but it shows that the group had many ideas, too many too fit in so few songs. The much quieter (at first) and jazzier (in the intro anyway) Pantera is filled with mellotron and is a welcome change, especially later on in the track where Bonomi's Banks-like organ

Trip On The Metro (this was the name of their demo) is an insane and overloaded instrumental, where keyboard excesses abound and the complex guitar give it a GG feel, but it doesn't avoid some clichés and lengths. The inaptly-titled Space Ace Man is a guitar-dominated piece (the track is collectively written) that sounds like Satriani's revenge on PA, but Bonomi won't let that unpunished and his organ give a good answer. If I said inaptly-titled, it's because the supposedly spacey closing-section is not very much .. Space-like. La Via (the road) is the only track added from the band's demo, and it's the only track not really fitting with the rest of the album, the only one to sound more typically-Italian (the modern way), but it's nothing really dramatic a change either, since it's clearlu audible that the production and musicians are the same. I'd say that the songwriting makes the difference. more mature, I'd say. a good track to close a worthy debut album.

Among the dozens of modern Italian prog bands that started out quite well and in view of their first two albums, I'd say that that DFA stands out as well as early Germinale and to a lesser extent Finisterre, but it sticks certainly better a predefined musical direction (the others are hitting left right and centre without a real goal). It turns out that DFA would spend most of the next decade without a studio follow- up (only releasing an uninteresting live album in '01) to Duty Free Area, but finally end '08, their fourth album. Would it be worth the wait???