Over the course of five studio albums, Italian quartet Mr Bison has been honing their distinctive sound, melding progressive rock and heavy psychedelic into captivating long-form compositions. The band strikes a fine balance between progressive and psychedelic, never tipping too far in either direction. Their latest studio release, Echos From The Universe, topped my Top 10 Albums For the February 2024 Doom Charts list, and is my February Album of the Month. Guitarist Matteo Barsacchi sent over an eclectic list of albums that have helped define the band’s sound and approach to music. I don’t know about you, but I’m about to dig into each of these albums, before giving Echos From The Universe yet another spin.
In the Court of the Crimson King
King Crimson
It’s the most complete progressive album: in this album the music goes beyond the boundaries of traditional rock and draws heavily on jazz and classical music. It’s the first band that manages to build the perfect bridge between many different genres. This album is a music school for all rock musicians.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash
This album is the first source of influence for our vocal harmonizations. Surely the more acoustic parts that we insert into our compositions have been influenced by them.
Captain Beyond
Captain Beyond
Super band composed of members of Iron Butterfly, Deep Purple, Johnny Winter…, this album influenced us a lot, it was the key to changing from our stoner albums to progressive. This album surgically combines Jimi Hendrix-style blues riffs with progressive rides.
The Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd
It’s the perfect rock album, the perfection of everything, The concept, the sound, the composition, the dynamics and the musical progression.
You
Gong
Gong’s most spacey album, with long ethereal passages that inspired future generations of space rock musicians and of course my song writing. This album was born from a week of acid and jams in a cottage in England. The band improvises for a whole week and then chooses the most interesting parts. We also jam and choose the parts we like most and then made the songs
Matteo Barsacchi
Behind the Sun
Motorpsycho
This album was a source of inspiration in all its parts, especially for the vocal lines and harmonizations. Obviously I cannot fail to mention the triology “The Tower”, “The Crucible”, “The all is One”. This band is a strong influence and we see ourselves a lot in them, they set no limits, ranging across many different genres.