This is an excerpt from the radio show Xymphonia bradcasted Sunday 29/09/2013. Xymphonia is a wonderful dutch radio show entirely based on Prog Rock music from all around the world.
omroepalmelo.nl/radio/programmas/xymphonia


Sunday 29 September 2013 Show No. 1061

NIEUW
De Angelis Marco
Afkomstig van "The River - Both Sides Of The Story" (eigen beheer, 2013)

Hoe zou een album klinken dat ergens eind jaren 80 gemaakt zou zijn door Mike Rutherford en David Gilmour gezamenlijk, met als nieuwe frisse ontdekking Steve Hogarth op zang? Dat zijn de referenties die opdrongen bij het beluisteren van het album “The River” van de Italiaanse gitarist/bassist/toetsenist/producer Marco De Angelis. Het is een album met twee gezichten: een kant wordt gevormd door de uptempo songs a la Mike + The Mechanics, de andere kant door sfeervolle songs die regelmatig refereren aan en zelfs soms heel kort en sneaky letterlijk quoten uit het oeuvre van Pink Floyd. Maar dan wel opvallend genoeg “The Final Cut” en “The Division Bell”. De Angelis echter weet deze twee kanten mooi te verenigen op een album dat zeker meer bekendheid verdient. Het is in zijn geheel hier te beluisteren op

So this is how an cooperative album would sound made somewhere at the end of the 80s by Mike Rutherford and David Gilmour with a then relatively unknown STeve Hogarth on vocals. That's what I kept thinking of when I listened the album The River - Both Sides Of The Story by Italian guitarist / bassplayer / keyboardist / producer Marco De Anglis. It is an album with two pretty distinct faces: on one side you have uptempo songs who are clearly influenced by Mike + The Mechanics. On the other side you have atmospheric songs which keep me thinking of and at times even literally quoting from the oeuvre of Pink Floyd although interestingly it mostly seems to go towards the direction of The Final Cut and The Division Bell. De Angelis however manages to unite these two disparate faces into a cohesive whole and has created an album that deserves to be much more widely known.

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Danny Suriano via Il Caveau Musicale

2 hours ago ·

• Interessante........... Grazie Massimo

  

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  The River Track n.10 - "Fly High" Marco De Angelis: Guitars, Bass, Stick, Keyboards, Piano, Rhythmic programming, Back Vocals, Lyrics. Marcello Catalano: Voc...

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    Massimo Mascellani Ringraziamo Martin Hutchinson, sua la scoperta, io ho solo...riferito

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    Martin Hutchinson Grazie Mass!

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    Massimo Mascellani My pleasure Martin

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    Danny Suriano Grazie Martin

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    Martin Hutchinson Wonderful album, streaming in full here http://www.progstreaming.com/_wb/pages/play-album.php... - Marco De Angelis - The River (Both Sides Of The Story)

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    Martin Hutchinson Marco De Angelis is a genius

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    Danny Suriano

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Martin Hutchinson

Brilliant album form Marco De Angelis, a nice surprise handed to me by The Boss, Nem Nol, watch out for the review coming soon!! In the meantime, listen at progstreaming.com

A nice interview of me talking about "The River" on SpireFocus.
Thanks to Matt Schrader:

http://www.spirefocus.com/#!the-river/c1isc

Artist - Marco De Angelis

New album  The River - Both Sides Of The Story

Spirefocus - What spawned your idea of writing a concept album?

Marco - I always love to tell stories, something that is not just a snapshot: a three minute pop song is not the way I'm comfortable with. I mean, there are bright diamonds in the pop music, nowadays as well as in the past decades (The Beatles were incredible in doing that), but I prefer to bring my listener (and when driven, myself) on a more complex path.

SF - I'm feeling some prog 80s/90's Pink Floyd-esque sounds in there. Did you draw on these kind of influences for the album?

Marco - When I grew up and started to play guitar I was listening to the UK's Rock /Prog bands in the '70s (Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, but also Led zeppelin and Deep Purple on the hard side of the rock). Its been a sort of musical imprinting, so it's natural for me to use that kind of style in my writing process. I don't feel it's something to be ashamed about. I don't try to hide it.... It's me!

SF - Where does The River sit in your thirty years of musical experience?

Marco - It's not my first release. I've had some titles out there in the past, but this album is what I can refer to as "my beloved one". It has something personal in it... but I won't tell you what…..haha.

It was hard to put it together because of the large amount of songs I had - some are very old and some were written during the last year of work. So I had to leave some of them behind. It's always an unpleasant process to judge your own work. 

SF - Did the album come from planned writing sessions or did it form during the recording process?

Marco - Yeah probably both situations I guess.

SF - Did you audition the players or did you have the specific players in mind when writing the parts?

Marco - Well it was pretty simple. I played all the instruments on the album but the drums, so I just had to make a phone call to my friend Cristiano Micalizzi, (a well known drummer in Italy) and make him part of the project.

Some years ago I recorded in my own studio a great female gospel vocal ensemble called Vocintransito, so when the moment came to track down all the backing vocals I had written for The River, I called them back into my studio and... you can listen to the wonderful vocal works that they put on throughout The River.

Lead vocalist Marcello Catalano is probably one of my best friends ever - I call him my brother. He is such an incredible vocalist. I was fortunate to work with him many years ago when both of us were involved in Jesus Christ Superstar the musical - I was the sound engineer and Marcello played Hannas. In the same cast we had the one and only Carl Anderson, God bless him. So it didn't take me more than a second to choose Marcello as lead vocal.

SF - Did the performers play their parts exactly how you wanted it or did they move around and elaborate?

Marco - All the parts were already written, but of course they put a bit of their own personality into them. And I liked it a lot.

SF - As a self-producer, were there other people you trusted on for extra ears?

Marco - Yes, a couple of long time friends and colleagues. Having some extra ears is very important. As I told you before, it's very, very hard to be objective when you keep working on a project for a long time. You could hear something that is just in your mind but not in the music you are listening to. You loose the ability to keep your mind focused.

SF - Is the concept album idea something you would revisit again in the future?

Marco - Don't know. For sure I won't put together songs too far from each other, but I don't know yet.

SF - Are you planning on performing the album live?

Marco - For sure. It should be next year!

Hi everybody out there, The River is featured on Progstreming.com Check it out and please hit "Like". Spread the word!!!

Visit The River on Progstreaming.com