Italian Symphonic Rock - Is This What Heaven Sounds Like?

Also there's one track on the Balletto di Bronzo album that is so *epic*, I wish I could remember the track title. I'm not so into the rest of the album, but the one track.....

to your list, see also Il Balletto di Bronzo (Ys is an Italian prog classic), Picchio Dal Pozzo (pretty out band, also Canterburyish), Pierrot Lunaire (another great avant band)

(and also, the first il balletto di bronzo kills but isn't really prog.)

Also I'd strongly reccommend the 2nd Pierrot Lunaire over the first album

My other favorites are Area, Eugenio Finardi, and Alberto Camerini. Great mix of pop/rock with proggish elements. And the bassist of Area plays on their best albums. Ivan Cattaneo's 'Primo Secondo e Frutta' (1977) is another bizarre favorite. Much more unique than his later new wave stuff.

Well, I remember hearing or reading something along the lines of "If 70's Germany was filled with bad versions of Deep Purple, 70's Italy was filled with bad versions of Jethro Tull" and laughing. I wouldn't say it's exactly true, but if you hear enough of the groups you might appreciate that. Which English groups do you like?

I think if you like really nice melodies (maybe a little like Genesis (though not too much*), you could not go too wrong with Locanda Delle Fate's (I spelled their name wrong up there - sorry) "Forse le Lucciole Non si Amano Piu". To me, the charm of that album has not diminished at all after many, many listens. "Ys" by Balletto di Bronzo is harsh, relentless and complex - it's wonderful, and many people love it, but it will depend a lot on what you like. The first Pierrot Lunaire record is very gentle and melodic (also the first album by Celeste), quite beautiful, while the second is more complex, with concrete and avant-garde elements (beautiful in a completely different way). With either of the first two PFM records you can't go so wrong, though people seem to disagree more often about the albums after those (for instance, I'd recommend Jet Lag if you like fusion). Le Orme's "Felona e Sorona" or "L'Uomo di Pezza" are popular albums of theirs - that group is largely bass+vocals/drums/keyboards like ELP (but different). Their first album and 2nd (compilation) are in a beat-pop style - those ones seem to be the easiest to find on CD in North America. Banco del Mutuo Soccorso are an extremely good group, with complex and prominent keyboards and powerful singing - I think you might do well to hear "Io Sono Nato Libero" or one of the first 2 albums to see if you would like them. I like "Capolinea" a lot, but it's a later live one from 1980 where they play old songs in a disco-fusion-y way and I think many people don't like that so much. Sensations Fix began with not so many vocals, and a unique, riffy, raw and "spacy" style, becoming more and more of a power-pop group (still pretty raw and riffy) with vocals as they went on. New Trolls are a really diverse-sounding group, with many records sounding completely different from the others. They had ridiculously great harmonized vocals. They're a bit hard to recommend a first album by, because no one record is that accurate a starting reference, but their most popular one might be "Concerto Grosso", which was done with the Argentinian composer Luis Bacalov.

Banco, Le Orme and PFM seem to be the most popular bands, in the way that Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, ELP and maybe Jethro Tull are popular English groups.

*if you want something that IS too much like Genesis, you might want to hear Sensitiva Immagine, though I wouldn't recommend their music so much otherwise. They're fine, but only if you really want something like that.

Le Orme - 'Storia O Leggenda' (1978) is one of my favorite albums ever. It's more song-oriented than their earlier stuff.

I like that one also - I hadn't realized how disliked it seemed to be, though I know a lot of progressive-fans dislike those records where groups sound more like pop bands in the later 70's and 80's, but it doesn't mean that there aren't still great songs (like PFM's "Come ti va..."). I do like "Florian" and "Piccola Rapsodia dell'Ape" better than "Storia O Leggenda", but that's no slight. Le Orme is such a great band. I'm not a fan of the song "Collage" (I also dislike ELP a lot, and that song does remind me of them, so it's not surprising), and there are parts of "Smogmagica" that don't do so much for me, but I'm right there for the rest of it. Alberto Camerini is completely unknown to me and someone I will look out for.

bit of a stretch to call Sensations Fix "symphonic," innit?
-- Ghost Bear Junior High Attendance Party (doodlehu...), July 27th, 2006.

I didn't mean to - it's all just "progressive rock" to me.

Also there's one track on the Balletto di Bronzo album that is so *epic*, I wish I could remember the track title. I'm not so into the rest of the album, but the one track.....

-- Chris Bee (noaddres...), July 27th, 2006.

The first or second album? It's got to be "Missione Sirio 2222" if it's the first - maybe "Epilogo" from the 2nd?

Probably in the order of Yes, VDGG, Genesis and King Crimson. Thanks very much for your helpful hints - I'll definitely be coming back to this thread.

http://www.woebot.com/2006/09/italian_prog.html

i've not heard any of these bands.

i remember reading an article in mojo once about van der graaf generator and apparently they were SUPER popular in italy...like when they showed up to shows people mobbed them like beatlemania or something...played arenas, etc....was wondering if that maybe figured into some of these bands....

i'm thinking that he played you devil doll. did the lead singer speak-sing in a wholly demented manner?

Also the Riot at the John Cage concert in Milan was epocal. the concert is recorded and issued as a double CD called Empty Word 3. It's a shocking document of the "movimento".

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Hey Marco, were people upset or just could not contain their joy and so went crazy?
-- mcd (srmcd...), September 28th, 2006.

Battiato said that to make concert in the '70 was very dangerous. People were crazy from politics ("music should be free" "avangarde is against the proletarian!" and many others misinterpretation of what a rock concert should be), or from frustation (of not being a rockstar?), or from drugs, or from stupidity. Actually by all four.
Think "Woodstock 2001".

yes, the description sounds like Devil Doll - but they're not really Italian, the singer and mastermind is from Slovenia even if their albums have been recorded in Venice. Great stuff though.

Completely true - Italian artists used to be processed by a self-proclaimed "proletarian jury" directly on stage...see also the cover art of Zappa's "Man from Utopia" for a good impression of what a nightmarish experience an Italian concert could be.