LA CONVENZIONE (WITH JURI CAMISCSCA AND OSAGE TRIBE)

Oh this was a treat to find. A CD of singles, out-takes, and of a long lost prog album that I have been dying to find for some time. As a review of sorts of the man and the legend. Battiato is an artist who was an musical artist in the truest sense.. never content to rest on his laurels and always exploring and taking on new musical directions. I have reviewed all of his 70's albums and I do highly recommend him to those who like their prog.. challenging and very.. .VERY eclectic.. who value prog for more than it's base elements but see it for what it was... merging art, music, and exploration.

As far as the music itself. We have the two singles that Battiato released between Fetus and Pollution. Another single recorded in the mid 70's. Large portions of Battiato's collaboration with friend Juri Camiscsca on an album that I have searched long and far for. An outake from the Osage Tribe sessions and to finish the album off, a new version of La Convienzione recorded some 25 years later.

The album kicks off to a raucous start with Battiato sounding like he just flew in to Milano to record after a all-nighter at London's UFO or Berlin's Zodiac clubs. La Convienzione is pure T early 70's Krautrock/S-R/electronic fusion.. with a driving rock beat, and cosmic swirls of the mighty VCS-3. Pure bliss... As is the B-side of that single Paranoia continues in the very spacey comic vein... yet without the strong rock back-beat. In fact... I swear I hear the genesis of Pollution's 'Beta' on that. Stranizza D'Ammuri is another single.. this one from 1975 right as he was leaving all pretenses of traditional music behind for a period. If this was his farewell for the next 4 years. Nothing partciularly prog about it, nor adventurous but like all of Battiato's work it seems.... even when not overtly progressive... music bedrocked by his distinctive vocals and a strong.. strong sense of melody. Next up is the real gem for me.. 3 of the 7 tracks of the long out of print Juri Camiscsca album 'La finestra dentro' and the A and B sides of a single Camisasca released before dropping off the face of the earth. Supposedly to a monastery ... very prog indeed hahahha. The singles are rather nice pop fare. The album tracks though are far more interesting though. Spare instrumentation.. Battiato's VCS-3 is well in evidence but the star of these tracks are Camisasca's vocals. I had read on Italianprog.com that they are similar to Sorrenti's use on Aria.. and hearing them.. I couldn't agree more. That album needs to be released so all the RPI prog'heads' can dig it. Next up is a out-take from the Osage Tribe's seminal album Arrowhead. An early version of Soffici bianchi veli called Crazy Horse. Wow... enough said. If that doesn't say enough.. you need to get a copy of Arrowhead first. The album closes with a update for the late 90's of La Convenzione. Ehhhh.. nice... but lacks the power of the 1972 version. More punchy than spacey and where is the VCS-3 Franco hahhha.

Rating the album? ... always hard to justisfy giving a Battiato album 5 stars for the site. And won't here. This is an album for fans of the man... and for fans of Italian prog for the Camissasca bits are definitely worth hearing. For the site 4 stars... for me 5 stars.. I love this album

Michael (aka The Big Ick)