LE ORME - SMOGMAGICA - 1975

With "Smogmagica" Le Orme tried to change slightly their sound. The album was recorded in Los Angeles and Tolo Marton, skilled musician with a solid rock-blues background, entered in the line up (on electric guitar, harmonica and vocals). The result of this effort sometimes is not completely satisfying and it represents a step back if compared to their previous masterpieces: actually, Tolo Marton never integrated with the band and he left Le Orme soon after this work to follow a solo career more "blues oriented". Anyway "Smogmagica", though not perfect, is an excellent album with some magnificent tracks.

"Los Angeles" is a quite unusual opener for Le Orme. A wild guitar solo flying on a cloudy rhythmic carpet that melts in a quiet piano section with a short vocal part. "I felt a void inside myself / And a sensation of fear / While the darkness of the clouds / Was still around me / Then, suddenly underneath me / An ocean of lights / So many at the same time / I had never seen before": lyrics describe the feelings of a passenger on a plane landing in L.A., the "magical polluted" (difficult to translate the word "Smogmagica"!). then the rhythm goes up again in a "crescendo" with a good interaction between the guitar and the other instruments. A great track!

"Amico di ieri" (Yesterday's friend) is one of the best known Le Orme's song. It's a melancholic acoustic ballad. A delicate melody drives you in a dreamy mood. Lyrics are about the autumn wind that blows from his cradle in the desert to Los Angeles, bringing with him the souvenir of "the ancient pioneers" leaded to sea and to a new reality by their dreams of freedom. "Autumn wind / Yesterday's friend / Today nobody cares of you / Your rising voice / Takes away the sleep from resting people / Just soils the city". Lyrics here are also a way to tell about the contrast between past and present, dream and reality in a poetical way. Remarkable the harmonica solo. This song has always been one of my favourites.

"Ora o mai più" (Now or nevermore) is a kind of "prog'n'roll" with lyrics about a man that drives like hell "collecting red lights" just to get in time to a meeting with his girlfriend. the song ends with the noise of a car crash! Good idea, but the result is not completely convincing.

"Laserium Floyd" is a quiet instrumental that ends with a good guitar solo. good but not outstanding, with some "Pink Floyd's echoes".

"Primi passi" is a nice pop rock song but it fails to captivate me, while the following delicate and melancholic acoustic ballad "Immensa distesa" is definitely better... "You would like to follow me and go far away / But then you prefer the shelter of dreams.". Remarkable the dreamy vocals and the peculiar finale with a fine drum work under the melody played by the acoustic guitar.

"Amanti di città", notwithstanding the good guitar work, is not a great song and in my opinion this is the worst track of the album, especially because of the strange and unpleasant vocals (lyrics are absolutely nothing special, just an ironic dialog between two "city lovers").

"L'uomo del pianino" is an interesting experimental track, a kind of "country-prog" song with a beautiful "almost ragtime" section. "Distant fogs of my hometown / Make safer the old way. How many strange things I have enclosed in me.". A good effort to cross the styles.

"Laurel Canyon" is another effort to blend the rock-blues influences of the guitarist with the prog vein of the other members of the band. Though not outstanding, not bad at all.

In the whole "Smogmagica" is not a masterpiece but it is a good album and. In my opinion, after all, the wonderful album cover designed by Paul Whitehead would deserve a special place in any progressive rock collection.
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