Guide

Someone won’t be too keen about David Jackson again guesting in a “new prog” context, a couple of years after the Tangent album (The Music that Died Alone, published by Inside Out in the year 2003) and the Pagliuca/Jackson Re-Collage collaboration. According to me, it’s good news to learn that an outstanding artist as Jackson, who in the 80s and 90s had a chance to play only on the Hammill solo stuff, is at last able to share his talent with different musical realities… and we do know that everywhere David is going to play, every album he’s going to guest on, he’ll always be able to carry a little bit of the Generator’s energy with him.

Anyway, it would be unfair to talk about this Lycanthrope, second album by Italian band Mangalavallis, only in a Jackson point of view: the album is really a good one, though clearly and by the band’s own acknowledgement well tight to the seventies sound; the recording is top quality and the group approach is heartfelt and professional. Lycanthrope is a concept album, as progressive rock album often use to be, featuring some interesting English lyrics by singer and artist Bernardo Lanzetti (who in the middle of the 70s was a member of the Italian prog band Premiata Forneria Marconi – PFM) that can remind the semantic tension Hammill’s lyrics often have.

Going back to Jackson’s contribution, unfortunately David is playing only on two of the eight album tracks: The Boy that Howls at the Moon and The Mask. The latter is the one where we can hear better Jackson’s contribution, as in the middle section of the song he’s bursting out playing nearly every wind instrument available (”When he came to our studio he had a flight case full of strange instruments” told us Mangalavallis’ drummer Gigi Cavalli Cocchi, who recently had a chance to share the stage with Judge Smith and John Ellis in Guastalla) then focusing on some acrobatic flute. The closing section of the song is majestic: Jaxonsax is full blown and we also get some very VDGG-like high pitch notes right at the end… that really sends some shivers down our spine.

So, to sum it up, Lycanthrope is an album that will not disappoint the progressive rock lovers, especially the ones who like melodic prog prog rock (Genesis, Pink Floyd), odd time signatures, nice guitar solos and loads of Mellotron and Hammond stuff.