Sangiuliano - Take Off. 1978 Italy

A very unusual electronic rock album, especially for Italy, Sangiuliano has an arsenal of keyboards at his disposal to help create his unique musical vision. He relies heavily on the mellotron (especially the choral tapes), as well as his ARP 2600, to achieve the brassy sounds he seems to espouse. Real drums add a rock flair, and in this way, recall Wolfgang Bock’s Cycles or even some of Vangelis’ mid 70s work. There’s more majesty found here in the compositions than your typical Berlin School sequencer fests, and some of Rusticelli and Bordini’s instrumental work was brought to mind as well. An excellent album.

CD: 1993 Si-Wan (Korea)
LP: 1987 RCA (Japan)

The original is a single sleeve issue that features our main protagonist on the cover, with his - as my old friend Zary Smith / Record Vault used to say - really long hair (that was a selling point for him). I started with the Japanese LP and moved it out not long after the Si-Wan CD came out in 1993.

Last listen: May 28, 2018