Every few days or so I go to the ProgArchives.com site and check out new material and reviews. The most recent visit was rewarded with the discovery of the Italian neo-prog band, Profusion, who recently released their second album, “RewoToweR”. The band’s site offers this description:

There are many languages ​​that lead the climb: rock, metal, fusion, pop, acoustic-tango. Each floor is a different dimension from the previous, but never isolated. Just as you can look at the title letters in both directions, the tower is also an ascent and descent together, until it gets to be a maze. The “RewoToweR” building is not like a “Babel of different languages” but the attempt to speak, through experimentation, a new and modern language.

Yes, that’s a bit cutesy and a tad hyperbolic, but the music is quite good, even outstanding, with assured playing, tasteful arrangements, and hook-heavy songwriting that is at turns playful, ambitious, mythical, and, on occasion, a little corny (see “Treasure Island”, a song about pirating).

The song “Chuta Chani” is a perfect example of what the band has to offer. Melodic violin solo intro? Check. Crunchy, tasty riff? Yep. Great bass line? Of course. Guitar with a hint of Middle Eastern spice? Indeed. Clean, strong semi-exotic vocals? In spades. Catchy bridge and chorus? Oh yeah. Breakneck keyboard solo with classical motifs? And how! Short chorale section to conclude? Why not? The singer, Luca Latini (described on the ProgArchives.com page as a “pop-soul singer”) has personality to spare. Normally, I’m not too taken with English lyrics sung with a strong accent, but Latini makes it work (at least for me) because he has fabulous tone and range, and he does inject so much enthusiasm and energy into the proceedings. And, despite the accent, he reminds me quite often of the criminally underrated Ted Leonard of Enchant (and other projects), which is high praise. Here is the band’s video for “Chuta Chani”: