Mururoa - "Planets"
(self-released 2001, CDR)
Mururoa - "Planets"
(self-released 2001, CDR)
From Aural Innovations #17 (September 2001)
Mururoa are Alessandro Alviti: Guitar & Vocals, Maurizio Alviti: Keyboards, Manuelo Leonoro: Drums & Percussion, and Sandro Viani: Bass. They are based in Norma Italy and they play sort of middle of the road Progrock with a European flavour. I am not quite sure if this is an album or a demo CD. It is all a bit confusing for the info I received is a bit arse backwards. What I do know is that the CD is called Planets and it is a Concept album that contains 5 passages. The passages are as follows: 'Sun', 'Mercury', 'Venus', 'Moon', and 'Uranus'.
The first starts with a nice mellow Synth that offers a good entrance for a picked Guitar. The Bass marks its arrival by sliding to its desired notes, creating an atmosphere that absorbs into the Guitar as it makes its way purposefully onward. Once it has progressed inside the patterns of the piece I hear signals that send out a Eurovision song contest entrant feel, especially when the Vocals begin. It also has its moments where there is some good Guitar work over a laid back rhythm. It is 7.43 and the track is more instrumental than it is Vocal, thankfully.
The rest follow on in a very similar fashion to the sound of the first piece. The music is well played and together this band creates, as I said above, sort of Progrock to a certain extent. The good thing is I find it hard to put my finger on who they sound like. There are some alright sounding parts to this album musically, but to be truthful I really do not like the vocals at all! I must admit though that I liked 'Moon' a lot. It is a pleasant little track at 5.52 in length and is definitely the best passage of the album. It is very mellow and is totally instrumental. That is probably why I like it. It glides with a great vibe to it and I would rather hear this type of instrumental stuff because Mururoa do it well. Very laid back stoned stuff.
It does mention on the info that accompanies the CD that Mururoa like to indulge in very long improvised structures, and I would like to hear this material because I know that these four people are capable of producing good music, 'Moon' proves that. But the Vocals let them down in my opinion.
For more information you can visit the Mururoa web site at: http://www.mururoa.f2s.com.
Hear sound files at: http://stage.vitaminic.it/mururoa/.
Email Mururoa at muro@inwind.it or alessandro.alviti@libero.it.
Contact via snail mail c/o Alessandro Alviti; Via Pass.ta S. Giovanni, 130; 04010 Norma (LT); Italy.
Reviewed by Albert Pollard