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Cinema
Sometimes albums fall out of the sky - completely unexpected. I first heard mention of Regna from Scot Lade's The Prog Corner youtube review. He was spooging over the album. He had me curious. Next thing I know customers are emailing me asking if we'll stock it. Now I had to hear it. I found the album online and I was totally blown away and I think you will be too.
Regna is a sextet that hails from Barcelona. If your expectation is that the band expresses latin flavors I think you'll be disappointed. I had no expectations at all. The best way I could describe this band is its the musical lovechild of Norwegian and Italian prog bands. I actually hear quite a bit of Scandinavian flavors in their sound. I'm reminded quite a bit of Landberk but with the prog quotient turned up. Add a bit of Wobbler for good measure. Interesting to me is that in Scot Lade's review he tended to focus on the two guitarists. For me I'm zeroing in on the keyboards of Miquel González. There is a strong emphasis on Hammond organ. You'll hear other keys at play here including Mellotron. Definite Keith Emerson and Ken Hensley influence. Sure the two guitarists are a strong feature of the band but to my ears its the keyboards that stand out lending a bit of a retro vibe. Vocalist Marc Illa has improved considerably the band's Meridian debut EP (also sold here). The whole album is rock solid and it delivers the money shot with the 20 minute "Accolade" closer. If this had been in my hands in December 2023 it would have easily been way up there on my "best of" list. You don't want to miss this album. I think its special. BUY OR DIE!!
"Born from the honesty of approaches and the extensive evolution of the group, Regna offers us, as a timeless gift, a result with an aftertaste of classic progressive rock that drinks from the delicious and emotive universal sources of the seventies. The technical mastery is at the service of the passion and interpretive warmth that makes its way from the first note. And all this with the intention of directing us through an elaborate labyrinth of sensations and soundscapes that draws a huge canvas full of captivating strokes and details that make up a wonderful space where the listener can recreate and delight himself from beginning to end. The band sounds coherent and full of confidence to develop a work of complex arrangements that include everything from dreamy acoustic delicacies to furious instrumental moments that consecrate the character of the musicians that make up this enormous work that is Cinema. Although it is not a purely conceptual work, there are moments in one theme or another, which recover ideas exposed at different times in their audition. That's why I say that they sound coherent because they try, and succeed, to convey a musical message in an organized and well-divided way. And this is rarely achieved because it takes a lot of work, when composing a work, to give fluidity to the themes to create a flowing river to a climax of supreme beauty. Remarkable themes well led by Mellotron and varied keyboards spilling over rhythmic bases of intricate pulse and electric guitars stretched beyond the realm of possibility, play with wonderful acoustic interludes and snatched solos from Moogs of devilish charm. The voice, as if it were a minstrel, recreates stories with authority and charm. And everything flows; everything oozes with huge, poetic aromas. Regna, ultimately, creates a crucible whose fruit rounds off a work without edges and, in full ecstasy, says goodbye with a monumental suite that serves, as an epilogue, to close a perfect circle, a grandiose and soft vibration, which summarizes the intentions of this masterpiece that is Cinema: splendour, energy, soul and firmness." - ProgArchives