Last year the Italian threesome STANDARTE attracted my attention with their self-titled debut as being the sole heirs to the Atomic Rooster heritage. On 'Curses And Invocations' they have left behind that self-evidence although it's not easy if you still put that Hammond in the firing line !
It's still the same trio as on their debut but this time bass player Stefanio Gabbani has flanked himself with Mellotron and Moog which gives the compositions a fuller sound. Those sounds are all over the album but in the right measure so you don't really get a keyboard album. In 'Cities Of Towers' the 'rocky' sound is broken by means of the mellotron followed by the harpsichord resulting in a sort of sixties song. As a matter of fact this 'poppy' approach goes one further in 'Ordeal' where I detect some influences trom the Brian Auger and Trinity era.
Very experimental is the intro to 'Arrival Of The Traveller' illustrating its title perfectly. Their 'piece de resistance' on this album surely is the almost 12 minute long Mooning 'Round The Mill Hill' which consists of three parts including the uptempo 'Wise Lane Revenant, the lame stumbling 'Paddington Bury' and the instrumental majestic sound of 'Moon In Cancer' where Hammond and Mellotron blend into one.
The space in between the individual songs is so scarce that you sometimes think that the entire album consists of just one composition ! In 'N.T.F.B.Y.' I am personally charmed by the heavy drumming which almost sound like warplanes bombing hostile territory/
STANDARTE continues to offer us music which can easily be loved by fans of the progressive as well as fans of psychedelic music. Flirtation with the influencial sixties is constantly woven throughout the music and now and then you might think you just heard a new version of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
