Gianni E I Suoi Solisti (Gianni Mazza & Various) - Sensazioni D' Estate - SMAG 06 Magma

This one is by the same composers as SMAG 05 led by Gianni Mazza.  Only 4 of these songs contain drums, the rest is beautiful laid back melodic synth jams featuring harmonica.  Lets talk about the drum songs, cause that's the exciting stuff right,haha.  A2 "Elba" is definitely the dopest track here and the reason most people would buy this record.  It is just perfect laid back grooves to blaze one to, haha, incredible fluting and brass.  "Gargano" is melodic prog jam led by piano and harmonica, very beautiful.  "Neon" is another highlight which takes a while to build up but eventually blossoms into a great funky flute groove, I only included the end of that song in my soundclip to give you an idea if you need to seek this one out.  As Always Trades accepted and enjoy the clips.  Chris

Gianni E I Suoi Solisti (Gianni Mazza)-Musica Del Mare-SMAG 05 Magma 197? Another Magma Grail!

   This one translates to Music of The Sea, which in some ways is very true of the overall sound of the record but don't mix it up there are still some very heavy funk prog jams to be had here.  All the songs are by Gianni Mazza, V. De Scalzi, L.Lagorio, & M.Catalano.  The First two jams are beautiful soaring piano & synth songs with no drums but are still very awesome indeed.  Then comes "Riding" which is funk prog all the way, heavy & funky first part and beautiful prog chords on second part.  This is immediately followed by my personal favorite, "Volo E Vela" man just so heavy when that synth shredding comes in, ouch!  Some chill beats on,"Giardini" & "Ritorno" Also to note is the dark prog beats of, "Liguria" with its amazing  chorus vocals throughout.   Another amazing record in the Magma SMAG catalog and insanely rare!  Check the 2 songs and Trades excepted. Chris

Gianni E I Suoi Solisti (Gianni Mazza & Friends) -"Musiche Di Immagini"-SMAG 04-Magma Holy Grail Italo Prog, Disco Library!

   One of the most mythical and obsure italian labels you can find, Magma SMAG series.  You can read more about the label here.  Apparently they released these 7 records with a library appeal accompanied by a generic cover.  Funny enough the writer for that website writes off these releases as lightweight instrumental pop, not to hate on ones taste but a very misguided critique I think, haha.  I was lucky enough to pick up 3 of these records, where I will shed some light and sound for other collectors out there as when I was searching, yeah, there was minimal.
  First off is this one, which I consider my favorite of the three.  I guess these records are directed or curated by Gianni Mazza, who I consider just a god damn genius having killed it on the Fly and Roman Record Company records, which are also some of the rarest and mythical italian librarys out there.  check his discography here.   All songs on side A are credited to Zauli/Tierrit except "Drums Explosion" which is credited to Flavio Scogna.  Zauli I'm guessing is Franco Zauli who is part of the King Zerand awesomeness.  Interesting enough my buddy Spaziale turned me on to the fact that "Drums Explosion" was also released as a very sought after Cosmic Disco 7 in  and "Popsy" & "EOE" also here.  EOE is a very islandy happy driving song with vocals chanting EOE.  The next two songs are where it's at, "Ritratto Di Un Viso" with its unbelievable cosmic porno groove, I love everything about this song.  "Drums Explosion" is incredible with its dry build and then layering all the cosmic synth and percussion as it goes.  "Carillon" has a slow piano groove with oohs and ahs vocals, very nice.  "Popsy" is similar to EOE in its sound but with some added synth.  Then comes the 24 minute epic prog, funk disco epic, " Pavana" by G.Biso which occupies the entire side B.  I personally broke the jam up into 9 parts because it helps me just focus on the parts I like.  The recording is very 70's prog perfection with drums changing beats and tempo all the time, soaring synths and organ solos galore.  My favorite being when the beat slows down to an epic cosmic acid trip on what I call Parts 6 & 8.
  The exact number of copies of these SMAG series records are unknown to me but I would guess between 100 & 200 maybe less considering I've seen so few come up for sale.  Enjoy these 3 jams ripped from my personal collection and as always rip trades accepted, here TRADES Chris Tillotson