Cervello's Il Canto del Capro is a truly amazing piece of music. The deranged falcetto of the vocalist, combined with out of tune guitars, saxes and flute create an otherworldly impression.
Cervello's Il Canto del Capro is a truly amazing piece of music. The deranged falcetto of the vocalist, combined with out of tune guitars, saxes and flute create an otherworldly impression.
No pitchforks from me. I don't totally agree with you, but I respect where you're coming from. Never been such a huge fan of "Is My Face On Straight" either, or the chorale intro to L'ilosa. I just think you might be throwing the baby out with the bathwater a bit with PFM. They're not my top RPI band, but they have a ton of good material, and very little of it has more that a passing similarity to ELP. But hey, whatever. If you don't dig it, that's fine. I don't personally think any of the bands you mention save Area achieved a fraction of what PFM, Banco and Le Orme did, but if you like them better, more power to you.
Bill
I realize that Premiata Forneria Marconi might not be everyone's cup of tea, but to pigeonhole them as nothing more than an ELP knockoff? C'mon, man, there's no need for that.
ELP is one of my favorite bands, but I don't believe they ever made anything nearly as beautiful as Per un Amico.
Considering the era, are any of these bands really that bad?(PFM, Le Orme, Banco, etc.), they hardly had time to become derivatives of anything, let alone the bands you are comparing them to.
The list of Cervello/Semiramis/Picchio Dal Pozzo/Celeste/Area are great bands, not having Arti e Mestieri, Etna, Bella Band, Nova, and some of the Goblin, Il Baricentro, Cherry Five, is a bit of an oversight, depends on what you like.
Just to be neutral, I have a hard time understanding the "absolutes" with which people love or hate music, having my own preferences, by no means allows me the right to diminish what others are experiencing through their listening.
That's really the beauty in music isn't it? It plays on the senses, which are integrated with the brain. Neo Prog is a hard one for me, being old and everything, but I get why some people are exuberant about it. And that's their preference.
Il Paese Dei Balocchi! YES! YES!
A simply beautiful album, with a real haunting feeling through it all. I don't mean haunting as in "spooky"; it's more of an atmospheric moodiness. I've always felt this album has kind of a holy quality to it.
Quella Vecchio Locanda is also a good album, but I've never felt it's as special as Il Paese Dei Balocchi. I think QVL's 2nd album, Il Tempo della Gioia, gets closer, though.
"I tah dah nur!" - Ike
Jumbo/Perigeo/Picchio Dal Pozzo/Celeste/Area
Subtop: QVL, Etna/Flea
Yup, DEM is indeed in the direct line of Area in my heart too.
Giorno is one of the closer-sounding album to Harmonium, IMHO
They're in my second tier, for sure
One of the reason why RPI is always frightening to me... You never know when (or if) an Italian musician feels like going lyrical and go overboard.
Last edited by Trane; 08-11-2018 at 05:49 AM.
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
I was playing Cervello's album, Melos, this morning for the first time in many years. Surfing the web, I found (as someone upthread has already mentioned) that a CD+DVD recording from their 2017 one-off concert in Tokyo is to be released soon. It's listed on Amazon as a 10 February release. I found a snippet on YouTube which looks very promising. Based on this clip, I pre-ordered the release.
I have Melos. One of the best Italian prog albums
Area is one of my favorite bands regardless of country.
PFM has been inspired by many bands and genres. In the beginning I hear mostly Genesis & KC, but I love them more when they include balkan-folk and jazz elements.
I received Cervello's Live in Tokyo 2017 CD+DVD package from Amazon much earlier than expected. I agree with TheH; this is an excellent concert. The sound is very faithful to the original 1973 album, but still sounds fresh and exciting. The weird, out-of-tune saxophone sound is something that I really love about this group, very notable on Melos and Euterpe. The current line-up features 3 of the original members of the band. The original vocalist, Gianluigi Di Franco, passed away in 2005 according to the italianprog.com website. The new singer, Virginio Simonelli, has a wonderful voice and his performance is very respectful of the original sound.
I haven't watched a lot of the DVD, but the production looks good. My only disappointment is that it's a DVD, rather than bluray. The snippet posted on YouTube is at 1080p resolution, so I suspect that the concert was recorded in high-def. I assume that production costs must have prevented releasing a bluray. This new re-release of the 2017 recording is released by Corrado Rustici, apparently without major label support. It's a cardboard, gate-fold package, which is nicely done.
Has anyone heard this mini LP box ? Curiousys.jpg
Now, I look closer, and you're maybe right. I just saw something about a 6 disc set, and didn't see the VA bit.......
http://www.minilps.net/various-artis...onzo-du-box062
Yeah, that open end is the dead giveaway. Thing is, they usually want more than $100 for the empty boxes on ebay. I've never understood that at all.
Area, Picchio dal Pozzo, Franco Battiato, Cervello, Stormy Six, Jumbo, Il Balletto di Bronzo, Banco del Muto Soccorso, Pierrot Lunaire, Premiata Forneria Marconi.
They were my 10 Italian faves.
Followed by Roberto Colombo, Canzionere del Lazio, Museo Rosenbach, Opus Avantra, Arti e Mestieri, Osage Tribe, Napoli Centrale and Raccomandata Ricevuta Ritorno. And Semiramis, And Osanna.
And so on.
Cervello's Melos stands out from the "average" Italian 70s "symphonic" rock endeavour on so many levels, but the inimitable combination of manic aggression and densely textured arrangements is the main faccet. They also worked in more unusual harmonics than others of their ilk around, and they infused an atmosphere of controlled chaos and melancholia which was even more darkly intense than that found on IBdB's Ys - which I also love, btw.
Hell, I've written so much about all of these artists and pieces over the years. I'm getting old and tired. But my fave five Italian progressive records were Abbiamo by Picchio dP, Vietato by Jumbo, Maccheronica by SSix (arguably the single bravest rock album I ever heard), Arbeit Macht Frei by Area and Melos by Cervello.
Here's a previous thread on the topic: http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...cervello+melos
The two older gems I'm really looking for nowadays are the debut Mamma Non Piangere and the sole Gramigna album. I've got those 200+ others.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Cool! I have the CD, but it's cool to see the live-images as well (just as was done with Corrado's trio-album). I've ordered it directly from him: http://www.corradorustici.com/cervello/cd.html
^ And where else but in Tokyo could you hope to perform something like Melos to a reasonable crowd of listeners?
I mean, it's so - uhm - "obscure".
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Thanks for turning me on to Corrado's Trio. I hadn't followed any of Rustici's post-Cervello work. He's an impressive guitarist and writer.
I also did some research on the guest singer for the Cervello concert. His name is Virginio Simonelli (aka Virginio). If Wikipedia is to be believed, he's pretty well known on the Italian pop scene as a singer/songwriter. I was very impressed with his singing of the old Cervello pieces. And, Rustici had produced at least one of his pop albums.
And, yes, it's a bit weird how Tokyo has served as a venue for these obscure bands. PFM played there in the early 2000s (yielding a CD and DVD) and there have been other prog rock events and mini-festivals over the past 20 years. I wish that there were other venues besides Tokyo that could support these one-off (probably never to be repeated) concerts. Sadly, Wilmington, Delaware (Farfest) wasn't able to pull it off.
Canzionere del Lazio - Spirito Bono will be out this month for the first time on CD. PROG Italy is behind the release (obviously Fone Records backed out).
http://www.musicalnews.com/articolo....WFNXsfwj8Nx9WM
Fo the first two Mamma Non Piangere and the sole Gramigna album one can only hope...
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