Area

Temporary nicer price * 500 copies, numbered edition. Clear Splatter Vinyl * Area's second album takes its cues from the most serious side of early-'70s British progressive rock, particularly Soft Machine and King Crimson. There's a high-voltage, at times furious energy to the quasi-jazz-rock fusion, with keyboards showing some influence from Miles Davis fusion records, and the guitars wheeling off lines with a busy anxiety. Despite some sinister progressions and overlays of electronic squiggles (the closing "Lobotomia" consists almost entirely of disquieting electronic effects) and white noise percussion, there's a shortage of memorable riffs. That approach, combined with the impenetrability of the Italian-sung lyrics to the English-speaking audience that comprised much of the art rock audience, confined their international audience to a small cult one.