Equipe 84 - ID (Reissue) (1970)

Equipe 84 is a famous Italian beat band from Modena who made a brief but pleasurable drift into the RPI realm late in their career. They began in the mid 1960s as something of a local version of the Beatles, ultimately releasing three albums in that decade and becoming very popular in Italy along with others like BATTISTI, who briefly collaborated with EQUIPE 84. The core line-up began with Maurizio Vandelli (vocals, guitar), Franco Ceccarelli (guitar, vocals), Victor Sogliani (bass, vocals), and Alfio Cantarella (drums, vocals). There would be a few different keyboardists and drummers over the years, and for a brief stint the drummer's stool was filled by none other than PFM's Franz Di Cioccio and Nuova Idea's Paolo Siani.

The early 70s saw them continuing with melodic pop but like so many bands they began to be influenced by the progressive scene around them. The albums from 1970s Id through 1973's Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were basically pop/rock albums with only minimal nods to anything progressive. This changed on 1974's Sacrificio when the band finally took the plunge and made a stronger stab at a prog album. While still only partially convincing the album certainly blends enough prog with the melodic Italian songs to be worth investigation. With this album, EQUIPE 84 joins other beat bands like DIK DIK, RAMINGHI, and GIGANTI as having dabbled outside their main career focus into brief RPI experiments. They split around 1977 initially but reformed partially to release one more album in the late 1980s.

It must be stressed from the outset that Equipe 84 is a very borderline addition to ProgArchives. The team members debated their addition for a long time and they barely squeaked in, but at the end of the day, a majority felt that the album Sacrificio really needed to be here for RPI fans to investigate. This is the album for Italian prog fans to start with. If you don't find Sacrificio convincing from a prog standpoint, there is no need to dig any further. If you do like it you may also enjoy Id and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but be aware they are substantially less proggy than Sacrificio.~Jim Russell/Finnforest