DFA
Work In Progress Live (Moonjune Records)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

---

DFA is an Italian quartet mining the rock end of the jazz-rock fusion spectrum, and the result is some high quality musical ore. Work In Progress Live is their US recording debut, and appropriately enough it was recorded at their US concert debut during NEARfest 2000. It's a solid hour of exceptional music that will have prog-rock fans digging through the import bins in search of the two Italian releases that the tunes are drawn from.

Yeah, I said prog-rock and tunes in the same sentence. That opportunity presents itself somewhat rarely, since most progressive and fusion bands seem to emphasize chops over songs. While the members of DFA (Alberto De Grandis, drums/vocals; Alberto Bonomi, keyboards/vocals; Silvio Minella, guitar; Luca Badassari, bass) have chops to spare, the real strength of the band is in composition (by De Grandis and Bonomi) and tight ensemble play. Four excellent musicians don't necessarily add up to one exceptional band. In fact, most often they don't, but here they do. This lineup has been solidified since 1996 and the time they've spent together on European stages prepared them well for a stellar stateside debut. Which way did you say the import section was?

Track List:

Escher * Caleidoscopio * Trip On Metro * La Via * Pantera * Ragno

© 2002 - Shaun Dale