DAAL - Dances of the Drastic Navels CD Digipack

Occupying a particularly dark corner of the Italian Prog scene, DAAL, a duo comprised of Alfio Costa (with an army of vintage and modern keyboards) and Davide Guidoni (an assortment of acoustic and electronic drums/percussion), couldn't be further away from traditional RPI sounds. Instead, they favour a varied mix of very modern sounding dark electronics, classical sophistication and avant-garde sophistication in their music, and their fifth release since 2009 offers their heaviest, most gothic flavoured work to date. Predominantly instrumental, the bafflingly titled `Dances of the Drastic Navels' (a reference to several pieces from their previous albums) confirms that the band and their music keep growing in stature and maturity with each release, delivering more intricate and lavish music each time, trying to balance gloomy darkness with reassuring light, and it's one of the standout progressive releases, Italian or otherwise, of 2015.