About 6 years ago I spoke of Colombo's second album Botte da Orbi. The debut is similar in its approach, that of densely written compositions, and that are clearly charted for the participants at hand. Of which there are twelve musicians on this outing. Once again, Frank Zappa must be front and center in this discussion, as is other Italian contemporaries such as Franco Battiato and Tullio de Piscopo. Since it's a debut effort, Sfogatevi Bestie is much more rough around the edges, and there's more room for letting the hair fly. The album is more jazz than chamber influenced that is to say, though clearly it still belongs to progressive rock. Though not the classic Italian style that we're more familiar with. Side 2 also shows Battiato's influence with some free improvisation bits, without ever going too far to the point of annoyance. Sfogatevi Bestie definitely fits in that weird grouping of "unclassifiable" late 70s Italian albums - a record that has improved with age, to my ears anyway.
Ownership: LP: 1976 Ultima Spiaggia. Recent online acquisition. Single sleeve. According to my database, I first purchased this on vinyl in 1993 - likely from Jeff Baker. When the BMG CD came out in 2004, I decided to replace it, as this album fit my model for LPs that could be let go. But when a NM copy was floated by me at a fetching price, I couldn't resist. Now in looking at the CD, it doesn't offer anything new at all, except a mini-LP replica of the cover, which is one of the reasons I allowed the LP to go in the first place. Might as well just keep the LP then, no need for both.
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