Progresive Italia Gli Anni '70 boxes

[GuitarGeek]

OK, so I finally threw down the money to buy one of the Progressive Italia boxsets. For those who haven't seen these, it's a series of boxes, I guess each has six classic 70's era Italian progressive albums. The only hitch is that each album in each set is from a different band. In my case, most of the groups I'm not that familiar with, but this seems to be the only way to get most of the Sensation's Fix albums on CD. Hence, I started with the Vol. 2 set, because that's the one that has Finest Finger, which I have on vinyl.

So has anyone heard the other sets? Anyone have any thoughts on the other stuff besides Sensation's Fix that are in the various sets?

[zeprogmeister]

Don't have them, but has been reported by many that these are some of the worst mastered things ever.

[dnieper]

I have them all. Volume 1 has the best music, by far, so unless you already have most of the albums in that one, that'd be the best one to buy first. Five of the six albums in Volume 1 are "classics." By the time of Volumes 7 and 8, not only are few of the albums "prog" but few are even any good at all.

Among the pleasant surprises for me were the Stradaperta album in Volume 2, the Tritons and Sensations Fix in Volume 3, Madrugada in Volume 5, Pangaea in Volume 6, and Gens in Volume 8. But most proggers probably wouldn't like Stradaperta (it's breezy mediterranean pop rock), Tritons (blues/hard rock with a hint of library music IIRC), or Gens (croony orchestral pop, though there is some mellotron).

Here are all the albums included in the first 6, plus their scores on RateYourMusic. I couldn't find the contents of Volumes 7 and 8, but they're not even worth considering based on what I remember. Based on this, it looks like volumes 1, 4, and 2 are the best, in that order.

Volume 1 RYM rating # ratings
Il Balletto di Bronzo - Ys 3.82 830
De De Lind - Io Non So da Dove… 3.75 249
Jumbo - Vietato ai Minori di 18 anni? 3.87 216
Sensations' Fix - Portable Madness 3.75 108
Latte e Miele - Passio Secundum Mattheum 3.45 181
Mauro Pelosi - Al Mercato… 3.40 61

Volume 2
Locanda delle Fate - Forse le Lucciole... 3.81 587
Ibis- s/t 3.19 65
Sensations Fix- Finest Finger 3.67 58
Roberto Cacciapaglia - Sei Note in Logica 3.62 172
Carnascialia - Carnascialia 3.53 81
Stradaperta - Maida Vale 3.16 22

Volume 3
Jumbo- s/t 3.19 64
Billy Gray- Feeling Gray 2.98 17
Sensations Fix- Boxes Paradise 3.52 36
Tritons- Satisfaction 2.89 26
Tony Esposito - La Banda del Sole 2.79 13
Mauro Pelosi- s/t 2.94 24

Volume 4
Ibis - Sun Supreme 3.60 136
Jumbo - "DNA" 3.64 171
Madrugada - Madrugada 3.16 34
Sensations' Fix - Fragments of Light 3.69 170
Mauro Pelosi - La Stagione per Morire 3.29 46
Latte e Miele - Papillon 3.65 163

Volume 5
Claudio Pascoli- Naifunk 3.60 12
Maurizio Arcieri- Trasparenze 2.48 11
Sesnations Fix- Flying Tapes 3.62 18
Claudio Dentes- Pantarei 3.28 18
Mauro Pelosi- Il Signore dei Gatti 3.02 21
Madrugada- Incastro 3.38 48

Volume 6
Franco Falsini- Cold Nose 3.60 99
Maurizio Fabrizio- Movimenti Nel Cielo 3.39 19
Pangea- Invasori 3.51 63
Carlo Silliotto- Ondina 3.36 13
Pueblo 2.06 7
Sensations Fix- s/t 3.39 17

[GuitarGeek]

Volume 1 RYM rating # ratings
Il Balletto di Bronzo - Ys 3.82 830

Did they manage to the get the track indexing on this one correct, or does it still have the same incorrect track divisions the old Polydor CD had?

[GuitarGeek]

Well, I've listened to the Locanda Delle Fate album. Very good, very melodic music. And from what I can find online, this version has two bonus tracks, whereas the mid 90's reissue had only one bonus track. The mastering doesn't sound all that bad. I don't hear any distortion and it doesn't have that "no dynamics" vibe you get with some remasters, and it's not overly muffled sounding the way some remasters are (paging, Hugh Davies!). Hopefully, the rest of the discs stay true to this.

I guess I'm listening to Ibis next.

[Calabasas_Trafalgar]

These are all, or almost all, either Polydor or Philips titles. Based on Dan's list, I would get Volumes 1,4 and 6(Maurizio Fabrizio is an undiscovered gem and Sensations Fix-s/t is rare as rocking-horse shit) . Volume 2 - meh. Locanda delle Fate is vastly overrated IMO. The only real interesting item in this batch is Sensations Fix-Finest Finger.

[GuitarGeek]

Listening to Finest Finger right now. Just as good as I remember it being. And the Ibis album was pretty good too.

I'll probably end up getting all of the first six boxes, since each one has a Sensation's Fix album in it.

[ashratom]

I bought #1 for Portable Madness
# 2 for Finest Finger & Carnascalia
#6 for the Falsini, Pangaea, Farbrizio, and the first Sensations' Fix (as Jim notes it's rare as .... well, yea, it's rare)

This is the only way to get these Sensations' Fix albums on CD (the original albums that is) - and Fragments of Light was reissued already. I should state I don't care that much about Boxes Paradise and beyond, even if I have some of them on LP still. Carnascalia is a nice little folk rock obscurity, a little towards the avant garde but not overly so.

Most of these (at least the progressive titles) have been reissued multiple times and I already had them on CD (or even as original LPs in many cases).

As such, I didn't even bother to hear them to check on the sound quality. But I had no problems with the Sensations' Fix material. It sounded great to me. Mind you these are not sonic wonders on LP either.

[GuitarGeek]

Roberto Cacciapaglia - Sei Note in Logica kinda reminds me a bit of Steve Reich, but with the addition of some synth playing. Probably one of the few times that a digital synth (in this case an IBM computer) sounded good.