OSANNA - LU'OMO - 1971

This was the very last OSANNA album I bought. The person I used to know from Eugene, Oregon who introduced me to OSANNA, well, I had lost contact with him for a few years up to the point I bought "L'Uomo" as a CD reissue in August 1999. Back in 1994, he warned me the album was rather raw and basic (he even said a bit too basic at times), as he played this album that he copied on to blank tape on his pickup truck's tape deck.

Here's my take on the album and the Italian prog scene at that time. In 1971, the Italian prog rock scene was just in its infancy. PFM just released their first single and has yet to release any full length albums. BANCO had yet to release any albums. Le ORME decided to ditch that psychedelic pop sound of "Ad Gloriam" (as they figured it was pretty much a dead-end), and ditch that old prehistoric Car Juke-Box label, signed to Philips, and released Collage which was their first real progressive offering, although the album has always received little more than a lukewarm response. Now for OSANNA.

Here they released "L'Uomo". At this point the band wasn't exactly sure what kind of music they should play. Here you get hard rock, blues, jazz, experimental, folk, and certainly prog. The album starts off with some great acoustic guitar, organ, and synthesizer. It's pretty trippy stuff. Once the music kicks in, you hear lots of aggressive guitar and JETHRO TULL-like flutes. Even harmonica. "Mirror Train" more or less sticks in the bluesy hard rock realm, where they sing in English. Both that song and "Everybody's Gonna See You Die" is the reason why I was warned the album was raw and basic. But already the band shows their aggressive sound, but with all the styles the band explores, it obviously shows that they're in need of exploring it in a more mature and more progressive setting. The band sings in both Italian and English (as you can notice, it's when they sing in Italian that works the best, it's too bad that "Palepoli" remains their only all Italian language album). Actually this is a great album and it's full of great stuff, but you're
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