Search - Il Balletto Di Bronzo :: Ys

Dissonant, Dark, Frenzied, Weird, Trippy

Chris Gerbig | Ontario, Canada | 10/15/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is quite rightly rated as one of THE masterpieces of Italian progressive rock. There is some nice mellotron between the more furious passages of distorted keyboards, guitar and jazzy percussion. It easily recalls the darkness, chaos and atmospheric power of early King Crimson. It runs the gamut from heavy prog, to hard rock, to symphonic. Every aspect of 70's prog rock can be found on this superb album. It does tend to be more "trippy" and mind-bending than the other famed, classically-influenced Italian progs. I personally prefer Museo Rosenbach or early PFM, but this work is full of invention, great instrumental excursions and constant surprises. The contrasts between the sombre, mellow, hypnotic sections and the powerful explosions are top notch! Plus there's some very spooky passages!!! If you can live with Italian vocals, this is a progressive CLASSIC. Get it."

Intense Italian prog

BENJAMIN MILER | Veneta, Oregon | 09/22/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Well, I actually want to give it a three and a half star rating, but I'm not given that option. Well, there are some people that regard this as one of the greatest prog albums ever made. I wouldn't go that far, but the album is so intense it just simply blows me away. Listen to this, and you'll be comparing King Crimson and Van der Graaf Generator with Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, The Carpenters, Air Supply, trust me, this music is totally insane with killer guitar work with tones of Emerson-like keyboard work (particularly in the Hammond organ department) and some Mellotron. Not to mention insane drumming and powerful vocals. Then why on Earth am I not giving it the full five stars? Well near the end, the band really slacked off and starts becoming rather repetitive and tedious. I can actually forgive that as the band sounded like they simply ran out of breath and needed to slow down. Still, despite the flaw of this album it's a wonderful album, but I don't buy in to the hype that this is the greatest prog album ever. Still, if your idea of prog rock are the bands that play it safe (Moody Blues, Barclay James Harvest, Locanda Delle Fate, Renaissance, etc.) then this probably isn't for you, but if you like the more hard-edge side of ELP, King Crimson, and Van der Graaf Generator as well as Italian bands like Osanna, Biglietto Per L'Inferno, Semiramis, and Museo Rosenbach (but even harsher), you're sure to love this. By the way the CD reissue I have has a 1973 bonus cut, "La Tua Casa Comada" (apparently originally released as a single). This one is truly much more sophisticated, more symphonic, almost reminding me a bit of the New Trolls Atomic System album (but with no flute). Had Il Balletto followed Ys with a full-length LP, they might have pulled off another great album, even if that song was any indication where they were headed.



The group did release a previous album (with a different lineup) in 1970 on RCA called Sirio 2222, but that one's said to be of little interest to prog rock rock fans, as it's supposedly a more hard rock/psych offering (it took a little longer for prog rock to get underway in Italy, that is not until 1971/'72). It's with Ys that the prog rock community associates these guys with.



BTW, I discovered what Ys meant. Ys was a part of Celtic folk legend, a town in Armorica (Brittany) where the city drowned due to the sins of the townsfolk. Basically, a Celtic version of Atlantis, more or less. But of course, there's completely nothing even remotely Celtic-sounding about Il Balletto di Bronzo's Ys, sticking squarely in the prog rock (with hard rock elements) vein. Whether the lyrics were about Ys, I cannot say, as it's all in Italian."

Classic Italian Scene Progressive Masterpiece

BENJAMIN MILER | 05/28/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"On their second album, Il balletto di Bronzo switched over from their more hard-rock style of "Sirio 2222" and charged fully ahead into the incredible epic that is "Ys." The full effect is most definately throttling to all parts of the psyche. In many ways it is an operettic symphonic theater piece(the entire album consists of one work in four parts). A delicate balance exists betwixt the vocal and jam sections. The beginning is dreamily seductive with echoplexed female voices waving in and out of phase with eachother, then the jam-heavy scoring kicks in and glues you to your seat. Lyrics give you a respite(although only a slight one!) as the sheer monstrosity that is it's musicality whomps back in and morphs you into a jellylike form. Recurring themes make this a self-referential, absorbing, truly mind-altering experience. Listen to this one in the dark and put you goggles on because the panning effects can and will induce the euphoric feeling of flight."