What Colossus (the Finnish progressive rock association, not the band) is doing in collaboration with the French progressive rock label Musea borders upon pure genius. Their concept of themed collaborative projects may not be reinventing the wheel, but it has brought a gust of fresh air to the prog rock scene, simply because it approaches the compilation album from an original angle and attempts to bring a new golden age for the "concept album." Following the already impressive Kalevala set (a three-CD compilation based on the Finnish epic tale),
The Spaghetti Epic features six bands from Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, and the U.K. Each band had to choose a character from Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West and write an original progressive rock suite of at least 20 minutes, in the vintage Italian style of the '70s. No digital keyboards or drum programming were allowed and singers could sing in their mother tongue if they so desired. The result is a highly coherent and gripping double album of very fine and highly focused prog. The project is concerned solely with Leone's storyline and cinematography, not with
Ennio Morricone's score, so please don't approach
The Spaghetti Epic as a
Morricone tribute or you will be in for bitter disappointment. That being said,
Haikara's song about "The West" (rightly considered here as a character in itself) acknowledges the composer's role in the movie. It is mysterious, soft-spoken, dust-filled, and simply gorgeous in its moods, scope, and melodic contents. Tilion's "Cheyenne" and La Voce del Vento's "Harmonica" also stand out. The latter is not an Italian group, but Parallel or 90 Degrees and
the Tangent members Andy Tillison and Guy Manning working as a two-man unit for this project only. There is not a single weak piece on this album and, as happened on its companion release, The Colossus of Rhodes (another Sergio Leone-related Colossus project following the same guidelines), each band involved has pulled out all the stops to deliver some of its best work (the other groups involved are
Randone,
Taproban, and Trion). One must also mention the generous booklet, which includes a presentation of the project, an analysis of the movie, a synopsis, a comic book, and lyrics (with English translations where applicable) to all songs. Highly recommended, especially to supporters of old-school progressive rock. ~ François Couture