Rumblin' Orchestra

Symphonic progressive outfit with family members playing a plethoria of instruments from Oboes, Flutes, Cellos, Violins, Pianos, etc ... Choirs are sometimes included. Ella B?la (their leader, keyboardist) is classically oriented with his compositions. Many folks have complained that his keyboard playing sounds very cold because he plays digital keys. Nevertheless, their two albums are some of the best symphonic albums from the 1990's.

He plays the keyboards with ferver despite playing digital keys. This is not neo progressive. In-fact, if the keys were replaced with cozy 70's sounding Hammond/moog synths, folks from the world over would be talking more about Rumblin' Orchestra. Not to be confused with After Crying, this band's music is much more upbeat. If you have an open mind and do not mind the digital keyboard sound (the same sound you'd hear on more modern albums as well as all of the East albums), then you should check this band out. They're quite good and you get a lot of music. On some of their tracks, there are no keys but rather Bela's piano style.

There's no official website of RUMBLIN ORCHESTRA, so what we can find about their history is very little, they were formed in Hungary in the late 90's by the keyboardist Bela Ella, but the curios thing is that almost all the official members are part of his family, including Beatrix Ella in the flute, Kitty Ella (Cello), Attila Ella (Trombone), D?niel Ella (Oboe), Mikl?s Ella (Violin) and being that obviously the family Ella members had formation only in Orchestral instruments, they had to include Justin Szab? in bass, drums and vocals plus a few guests.

Their first album ?Spartacus? released in 1998 has an obvious influence (Even in the name) from TRIUMVIRAT and of course from ELP, despite has a lot Orchestral non Prog moments the climax of the album is reached in ?Victory Or Death? where the vocals (With strong accent) in English, the strong Percussion and bombastic keyboard justify their inclusion, most of the final part of the album could be described as Neo Classical more than Prog.

Their second album ?The King's New Garment? is much more balanced than the previous, they include some references to ALAN PARSONS PROJECT debut album to the already well known, but the main problem is that the opening track (The King's New Garment) is the only epic and has absolutely no relation with Progressive Rock, again ore in the vein of Neo Classical.

RUMBLIN ORCHESTRA is recommended to Symphonic fans with open mind who are not expecting a 100% Prog album, but something is sure, the music is outstanding and the performances of the Ella family and guests are all outstanding so it's worth to get a copy of any of the two albums and if you like it (As I did), go for the other one.