Although they were almost the kings of the Prog trio, Italian giants Le Orme proved they can give a mighty push towards their music and definitely get away with it. That and their 2-CD reissue released on the Black Widow label, Live Orme sees the band giving a thunderous live performance in different parts of Italy recorded between 1975 and 1977 at the time they were promoting Smogmagica, Verita Nascoste, and Storia O Leggenda.They were completely ahead of their time and were sort of the dark-like material and following in the footsteps of Van Der Graaf Generator and of course, King Crimson in which they really pay tribute to the prog heroes and show how obscure, mind-blowing, evil, and sinister they can really go for that makes these rare live recordings very special and very humble. If they had donee a film score to one of Giallo films for the Horror genre of the late ‘70s, it would be something like this.
From the dazzling title track opener to the mass hysteria 11-minute thumping heart beat rocker of futuristic post-apocalyptic worlds on Truck of Fire and the spookiness with Preludio A Frutto Acerbo in which they pay a huge resemblance of ELP, the band are one on fire when you hear them. You can hear the crowd spell-bounded and jaw dropped when they would see the band create an experiment by mixing some sneering keyboard sounds, time changing signatures that would fly off the wall, and road-running bass lines that Aldo would do to give the crowd the royal approval they deserved.
Throughout the double CD set, the band go through three centerpieces that worth the ticket price and worth your money to listen to. The heartfelt flourish turned hard rock counterpoint of Regina Al Troubador filled with guitarist Germano Serafin’s sizzling guitar work with a mighty cry, Michi Dei Rossi’s jazz representation on the drums, Antonio Pagliuca’s pastoral and vicious keyboard touches, and Aldo’s romantic turned rockin’ voice will make the harmonic and melodic cultures combine into one that is straight out of a science-fiction short story.
More dramatic is the four-part melody of Cermento, Armato, Era Inverno, La Porta Chiusa, and Collage as it features Antonio Pagliuca’s moment to shine on the keyboards as he goes into full throttle on them as it goes through experimentations, church-like mourning, and then into a vicious attack mode before going into the fanfare fourth melodic finale which has become a fan favorite among the crowd as it pays tribute to ELP’s first album. The band decided that it was time to give him the torch to the Olympics as he goes to give the audience a mind-blowing experience they’ll never forget.
Yet the most dangerous and one of the best momentum’s of Live Orme is the 28-minute suite of the Sci-Fi Rock Opera excerpt of Felona E Sorona. Yet with a tension-like momentum that gives the band a chance to improvise their instruments to pieces that would have the audiences jaw dropping with a lot of gasoline to go blazing, it’s one of those moments that you would take your breath away and probably clap the rhythm and tap your toes to the beat.
Not to mention Michi’s thunderous drum solo on I Due Pianeti. The sound quality is very raw and energetic, but with a grade to give it a B+, which you could hear tape hisses in the live album, it makes this a perfect opportunity to know that they were the band that reminded us there’s a far more gratitude than Lewis Carroll. The best of Italian Prog is that you never know what might happen and give you a lot of tons of steel to roar and shout out for joy.
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