siLLy puPPy After the bleak (but brilliant) CAUTION RADIATION album, AREA return to an even more accessible sound started on their debut album. Well, accessible AREA style. Still not the easiest of listening but at least they have a template of musical scales that you can get into including the signature Macedonian scales and even some progressive funk on “L'elefante Bianco.”

This album is more about crafting cohesive songs and less about lurking into the free-jazz-fusion experimentation although some of the experiments from CAUTION are incorporated. This album is another winner for me. It's as tight as ever and Demetrio Stratos' vocal skills are still incredible (which we get more of this time.)

This is the album that made them popular in Italy and this is also the album that extended their music into France. This was also the first part of their existence where they benefited from a stable lineup (considered the classic period) that allowed them to tour. This is by far their easiest album to like on the first spin so if you are totally new to this band, CRAC! may be a better entry to this band's discography than even the impressive debut album.

Warthur Area's Crac! finds the band integrating the experimental approach of some tracks on Caution Radiation Area with their established fusion style, creating an interesting clash with Patrizio Fariselli's synths intruding on the band's fusion workouts. The result is a more compelling and successful blend than the preceding album, where the experimental tracks and the fusion tracks were carefully partitioned off from each other and the avant-garde experiments were significantly less listenable. Fast, furious, and with a hint of funk on the side, Crac! is definitely not a typical RPI album so you may want to tread carefully if you're expecting pastoral prog in the style of PFM or Banco, but fusion fans will find a lot to like here.

Sean Trane Do not be afraid of the title under their name where they describe themselves as "International POPular group", they meant this in a leftist view. Area could not be further away from pop music. This second effort is in the line of the debut masterpiece and is just as influential! We are still talking in a strange mix of jazz-rock-fusion laced with Canterbury influences and slightly RIO although this will be much more evident in the following Caution Radiation Area album. Traces of Gentle Giant influences are also evident. Elephante Bianco reminds me of a cross between Mahavishnu and Soft Machine, while the second and third tracks are more in the line of funky jazz-rock much because of the bass lines. IMHO the most interesting track is Nervi Scoperti that plays with the boundaries of dissonant music between harmony and dissonance like a tightrope walker (much the way John Coltrane did with Meditations and First Meditations albums).

A short but very joyfull and very vocal track before Implosion (my fave on this album) and an excursion into RIO-free jazz round-up an other well-worth-seeking-for album!

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