Elp Elp

Opera Prima by Italian duo Rustichelli & Bordini is an excellent keyboard-dominated symphonic album from 1973. The simplest way to describe the music here is to imagine ELP with the addition of a Mellotron and a gravel-throated Italian vocalist. This album is almost up there alongside Tarkus and Trilogy, and wipes the floor with just about everything else ELP did. The main issue with Opera Prima seems to be the vocals, which are something of an acquired taste. To be blunt keyboards player Paolo Rustichelli has a particularly gruff, ugly singing voice. However if you can get over the vocals you'll be rewarded with some of the richest keyboard textures in the RPI canon.

Robert Berry’s latest effort through Magna Carta Records is a compilation of his contributions on several tribute albums that the record label had done in the past. This compilation is appropriately titled "Prime Cuts", showcasing his talents of reworking some classic works of Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Rush and ELP. This is a fantastic compilation for fans of Robert Berry, who may not want to have the full albums from which these tracks are from.

After the heavily distorted bass and doomsday church organ of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's debut album, the exhilarating prog rock of epic proportions on Tarkus, and the violent removal of the sacred aura of classical tunes on Pictures at an Exhibition, Trilogy, ELP's fourth album, features the trio settling down in more crowd-pleasing pastures…

Essential: a masterpiece of Progressive Rock music
Dutch keyboard-wizard Rick got worldwide recognition with the ‘classic-rock formula’ from EKSEPTION but he wanted his own band to work out his own ideas.

Essential: A masterpiece of progressive rock music.
What an awesome album this is! When one reflects on the considerable popularity of ELP and Yes among progressive rock fans, it's really surprising how many people fail to make the correct extrapolations to arrive at this particular masterpiece …

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive-rock music.
ONE OF THOSE HIDDEN PROG GEMS!!
I sometimes wonder how would sound the music of classical masters such as BACH or BEETHOVEN would they be living nowadays with our modern technology! I think TRIUMVIRAT would be the closest thing BACH for example would come up with.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music
Are we going to a symphonic-rock gem? and to this day I move to Germany with the legendary "Triumvirat".

Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection
WOW! This record is just a bit less good than Spartacus: mostly, it sounds very similar to Spartacus.

Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection.
This record is just a bit less good than Spartacus: mostly, it sounds very similar to Spartacus.