Latte E Miele's "Papillon"
Jeremy Pilarski | Naples, FL United States | 01/24/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"An Italian progressive rock band's second album is usually the best. Sequel albums like "Per Un Amico," "Ys," and "Darwin" arguably show musical improvement over the original albums. Latte e Miele makes a follow up to their wonderful Passio Secundum Mattheum entitled, Papillon.
Latte's first album suffers from short songs. A lot of the musical ideas in Passio... are superb. But extra minutes might have helped songs like "Il Giorno Degli Azzimi," "Ultima Cena," "Il Processo;" these three riveting songs barely go over two minutes. The longer songs of the album are sometimes boring and lack the excitement of the shorter songs.
The first song is a multi-part, twenty-minute suite; it opens with Lacagina playing some grungy organ chords. Vitanza makes a crash on his drums and there is a brief pause. The organ comes back along with some fuzzy notes from the Moog synthesizer, while Casa throbs along with a bass guitar. A huge Mellotron chord blasts through the song; all three of the musicians are playing at the same time now. The music slows down in tempo and introduces the children's chorus. Sweet violin sounds lead the pleasant voices; the children imitate the violin notes creating a vocal atmosphere similar to Ennio Morricone's work.
People having trouble getting into harder-edged bands like Il Battelio Di Bronzo, Jumbo, and Museo Rosenbach will like this album. It has a more enjoyable sound, retaining all the musical qualities commonly heard in symphonic rock. The vocals are gentle and easy to like.
Papillon has been released three times in Japan. Edison releases the first edition (ERC-32003) in 1989. This CD has four tracks. Polydor of Japan releases the CD again in the late 90s; this CD is divided into 14 tracks. The mini-LP is the best release of this album. The sound quality is terrific and the packaging is magnificent. Inside the foldout cover is a nice booklet featuring pictures of the band and lyrics. Collectors will be more than happy to add this treasure to their wealth of great music."
Latte e Miele's best. Strongly recommended.
Y. Choe | San Francisco | 12/01/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is my favorite L e M album. I even like this better than their excellent debut album. Recording is better and music as a whole flows better. I also love the jazz rock feel. Even though they were young, it seems they are really talented, well trained musicians. Start with this one and then try their debut album.
One of my favorite italian pro music."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1