General Music Discussions - Franco Battiato

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Franco Battiato

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Topic: Franco Battiato

Posted By: Winterfamily
Subject: Franco Battiato
Date Posted: July 21 2005 at 16:07

   Is anybody here into Battiato's early stuff? He's really far away from Italian Prog, but in the seventies he made a good bunch of electronic progressive records, that even predate Brian Eno's ambient works for a couple of years... Here are my picks:

     - "Fetus" (1st. Lp, really zappaesque at times, and with Neil Armstrong's "sampled" voice in a song)

     - "Sulle corde di Aries" (one of my favorite records: "Aria di Rivoluzione" always puts me on the verge of crying)

     - "Clic!" (electronic prog with lots of sequences and found sounds, but also a string quartet...)

Some of his later (and poppier) stuff like "L' arca di Noè" or "L' era del Cingialle Bianco" are also really enjoyable, bot doesn't sound prog at all...

Replies:

Posted By: Paco Fox
Date Posted: July 22 2005 at 03:47

Hi:

I'm a great Battiato fan. In fact, the first record I ever bought was his.

First, I'd like to aks why has this post been moved to non-prog discussions. Evidently his first 3/4 albums ARE prog. That's more albums than many other italian groups. (And, by the way, I must say that I really dislike the new form of the forums from some months ago: everything is too separated. I used to visit almost every section, but now there are just too many, and some of them somehow nonsensical (prog non-music? what for?). But back to Battiato:

My favourite from the first years is 'Pollution', an album with managed to be experimental as well as featuring some memorable melodies. From 'Aries' I like 'Aria di Rivoluzione', but I found the record a bit boring.

His next period is almost unlisteneable. Some people like 'Clic', but I find it just too experimental. And his minimalistic output is... I don't know who to talk about a record consisting of two songs with just one chord each!

I recommend you listen to his latest record, 'Dieci Stratagemmi'. It's a mixture of his very good pop moments (I specially like 'L'imboscata') with some songs that can remind us the Fetus-Pollution style, like the single (!!!) 'Ermenutica'.

Posted By: abyssyinfinity
Date Posted: July 22 2005 at 07:40

Buy Pollution, totally freak-out...

If you understand lyrics MORE than freak-out and he made it without knowing the music (a sort of Italian keyboard wizard Jimi Hendrix...)

Posted By: Winterfamily
Date Posted: July 22 2005 at 12:02

Paco Fox wrote:

Hi:

I'm a great Battiato fan. In fact, the first record I ever bought was his.

Absolutely agreed. The matter that Battiato's records doesn't sound like PFM or Banco doesn't mean at all they aren't progressive. Please, include them at the Archives!

"Areknames", from Pollution, is one of my favorite songs of all time, but the record sounds to me a little "unfinished" as a whole opus. "Fetus" is a nice patchwork of sounds, but "P." tries to take that concept to a larger scale (better studio, better equipment et al.) and fails a little. (I's just an opinion

!) And "Clic!" is a nice electronic nightmare.

It seems amazing to me that such peaceful music like some italian prog (Area, Battiato, Picchio) was created in the midst of the turmoil of the "lead years" of mid - seventies, too.