Friday, February 18, 2011

The Day After The Sabbath 37: Fellas Buona [Italy pt.1]

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TDATS Volume 37 Features Italian bands. Italy took a liking to English prog rock early in the 70s, at the time some UK bands such as Van der Graaf Generator and Gentle Giant became better-known to the Italian public than the English. Hard Rock was never as well represented as symphonic prog, which is the sound that Italy made it's own. On this comp I have searched for heavier rock as much as I can, and some classic symphonic prog has made it in.

01. Tritons - Drifter (1973)
02. Ibis - L'Amico Della Porta Accanto (1973)
03. Moby Dick - Two timing girl (1970)
04. Osanna - Animale Senza Respiro [edit] (1972)
05. New Trolls - C'è Troppa Guerra (1972)
06. Le Orme - Ritorno Al Nulla (1973)
07. Il Rovescio Della Medaglia - La Creazione (1971)
08. Biglietto Per L'inferno - Confessione (1974)
09. Osage Tribe - Arrow Head (1971)
10. Raminghi - La Nostra Verita (1971)
11. Crystals - Wrought Iron / Sad Story (1974)

The opening Tritons track is a B-side of a strange Stones' 'Satisfaction' cover. Ibis is the heavier reincarnation of New Trolls, who formed in 1967. Both of these bands have great tracks on here. The fourth track is taken from Osanna's 2nd album, which made a great departure from their first and plays as one long concept piece, which I have taken an edit from. Le Orme were a long-running prog band that played with such bands as the aforementioned Van der Graaf Generator, their track here is a welcome half-time piece of spooky electronica which reminds me a lot of Goblin's soundtrack work, an Italian band which I included on volume 30. Il Rovescio Della Medaglia's song "La Creazione", is taken from LP "La Bibbia", which is their concept work based on the early parts of the Bible.

 Biglietto per Inferno's name literally means 'ticket to hell', it perfectly mixes symphonic prog interludes with hard rock verses. Osage Tribe offer up some excellent technically-played hard prog and Crystals is a band I have used once before. I really wanted to use them again as they have some great Zeppish tracks on their one-off s/t album, and they end the compilation on the lugubrious 'Sad Story'.

* The cover art for this is theatrical masks of tragedy and comedy in refined Roman mosaic, found at the Villa Adriana in Tivoli, Italy.

Ciao!
Rich

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12 comments:

  1. Well, a double "thank you" for this great selection is due from me, as a rock lover and as Italian ...
    Grazie mille e ciao! \m/

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  2. Thanks Mari, my pleasure! How many of those bands do you already know>? I'm not sure how obscure they are in Italy itself but except for Crystals they were all new to me while researching it.

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  3. Well, I know/remember Osanna, New Trolls, Le Orme, Il Rovescio della Medaglia, Osage Tribe because I heard them when I was an early teen or so on the radio, and even saw them at the TV!
    Actually during the 70's the Italian TV broadcast was much more culturally advanced, open-minded and careful towards new things in art and music than now. Now it's real shit, a nothingness that acts like censorship, unfortunately.
    However I guess now all these bands, maybe except for New Trolls and Le Orme, are fairly obscure for most of the people, i.e. people not going beyond mainstream stuff. But there's definitely much interest for old prog in the underground, and some cool books have been written and published recently here in Italy as well about international and Italian prog and their relationships. Journalist Donato Zoppo is an authority about prog.

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  4. Awesome work, frankly I'm saying, just added your blog to my blog's list.

    http://ariwilson14.blogspot.com/

    Cheers,
    Holy Grail From Hell,
    Ari Wilson.

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  5. A double dose of thanx, Rich! As an italian and prog/HR lover I'm very proud of this comp. I know/have all these bands/albums but a couple of them are indeed more than obscure.
    I RAMINGHI is an ultrarare album reissued on CD in 2005 plus an unreleased 1975 live disc.
    CRYSTALS was intended for release on Cramps label in 1973 but it never appeared and has only been released on CD the 1st time in 1992 by Mellow and again in 2003 by Akarma label.
    They were a sort of supergroup composed by experienced musicians, former members of name bands like PFM (bass player Giorgo Piazza), BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO (guitarist Marcello Todaro), RRR and SAMADHI (guitarist Civitenga), and under the guidance of Paolo Tofani, guitarist from AREA.
    The track "C'è troppa guerra" from NEW TROLLS is one of my fav italian HR tracks but this group from Genova began to play in the late 60's doing heavy psyk a là VANILLA FUDGE and with an hendrix-like edge (gtr. Nico di Palo), beat, italian melody ("Una miniera" - 1969), baroque concerts, prog, HR and gregorian chants, too ("Searching for a land" - 1972 double album)!!! But they also cut some commercial songs and had fights and legal troubles (still existing) between the members. Definitely worth investigating and among the 10 best italian groups along with PFM, BMS, ORME, AREA, OSANNA.
    Grazie ancora.
    Ciao.

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  6. Dear rich

    Thank you for all compilations that you share, tons of good music for all lovers of seventies rock like me. I'm very happy that, sometimes, you post some Italian Progressive Rock as here. I'm italian and this genre of music is my personal trip. I add your Blog in my Blogroll at http://verso-la-stratosfera.blogspot.com/ devoted to Classic Italian Prog Rock. If you want make a visit, you are wellcome and, if you like what you see, can you please add my blog to your Blogroll?

    Thank you and best regards

    Roby

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  7. It's not a blog, it's a goldmine ! Thanx for sharing your collection with us ! Where else could I listen to this kind of bands ? Keep on sharing !

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  8. You're the Man!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEn6wnneJl4

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpNtudxK0Kw (between Jex Thoth, Witchcraft and Soundgarden)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0jV12GJKjo

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQvsiP_kwDw


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    Replies
    1. All these sound very good, thanks Lorenzo!
      All new to me except I TOREMI
      Rich

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  9. Top 20 70s Italian Heavy Doom Hard Rock Bands...amazing!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LguDrCy1yss

    ReplyDelete