Been in a real Italian prog playing mood recently and have been going through the catalogues of the big three bands deciding what is really good to one of the prog musical taste.
This is what I, (IMHO), have come up with as
a guide to buying and listening to these great bands.
I'm not including collections or live recordings or re-recordings but look at the original studio recordings.
Banco
everything up till Canto Di Primavera ('79) and then a return to the genre with the new Transiberiana('19) there are some re-recordings and live stuff that is good but the studio stuff is pop between 1980 and this year.
PFM
Storia Di Un Minuto('72) through to Jet Lag('77) is great, with the next two Passpartù('78) and Suonare Suonare('80) being kind of weak but with some decent tracks. Then they go pop up until Ulisse('97) which is pretty good. Serendipity ('00) Dracula ('05) Stati Di Immaginazione ('06) A.D. 2010 - La buona novella ('10) all are pretty good with
Da Mozart A Celebration ('13) being the weakest of the lot. If you like Emotional Tattoos ('17), then you should be happy with any of these 21st century recordings.
Le Orme
Ad Gloriam('69) is psych/pop so you may want to skip, depending on your taste, start otherwise with Collage('71) and enjoy everything right up to and including Piccola Rapsodia Dell'Ape('80)
two forgettable recordings Venerdi('82) and Orme('90) should be avoided but the band find their way again with Il Fiume('96) Elementi('01), L'Infinito('04) and La Via Della Seta('11). Sadly, the remainder of their studio recordings (and there are a few) are recordings of older material including their latest Sulle ali di un sogno('19)
The band seems to have lost confidence to record new material.
Hope this helps anyone new to the Italian scene,
cheers
Kanukisbrave
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