favourite 70s underground italian prog

What would you recommend from this list? I only know Picchio dal Pozzo and Dedalus and although I hold PdP dear, I wouldn't want to vote until I'd heard at least half of these groups.

I have about 40 RPI albums from the seventies, but NONE of these!  ...no voting for me.

laplace wrote: What would you recommend from this list? I only know Picchio dal Pozzo and Dedalus and although I hold PdP dear, I wouldn't want to vote until I'd heard at least half of these groups.

Ditto for me (though I've heard samples of various bands in the list, I only have Dedalus' debut and all of the PdP albums).  I absolutely love Picchio dal Pozzo, but don't want to vote since I don't know enough of the choices.

As for "other": Some of my favourites that are not the typical biggest names in 70's Italian Prog are: Stormy Six (though a core band in RiO), Pierrot Lunaire, and Carnascialia.  Amongst the big names, Area and Banco del Mutuo Soccorso are probably my favourites.

I haven't heard a lot of these, but among the ones I have I'd choose Alan Sorrenti - who, unfortunately, has a very bad reputation in Italy due to his later affiliation with disco. However, his first three albums are superb, and his voice quite unique (he was called the Italian Tim Buckley). I'd also recommend Saint Just, a band featuring Alan's sister Jenny, who released two albums in the early Seventies.

For those who are not familiar, these bands / artists are into chamber prog, spacey jazz (Dedalus , Pichhio dal Pozzo), prog synth electronica (Sanguiliano, Albergo Intergallatico spaziale, Futuro Antico...) epic spaced out rockin' hypnosis (Sensations Fix...), colorful theatrical folk (Saint Just) and classic prog with avant garde tendencies (Franco Leprino, Francesco Bucherri...)

PdP is an interesting bunch...

Though extremely outdated by today's pristine standards, Fragments of Light, Portable Madness and Finest Finger are a trio of deliciously ardent electro-prog albums that defy cloning, very decadent and frankly, way before the trend (Ultravox, John Foxx etc...). Guitarist/keysman Franco Falsini was very creative during this period, taking the Fripp sound into interstellar overdrive. From this list, my favorite. But Il Volo's debut is very special to me....the song Il Calore Umano in particular.

Walker wrote: I have about 40 RPI albums from the seventies, but NONE of these!  ...no voting for me.

Edited by NotAProghead - January 20 2008 at 18:56

A bit TOO underground for me :P I don't recognize anything!

Got albums by six of these: voted for Dedalus.

Liked them all to some extent. Wouldn't say Sensation's Fix (first two only) sound that dated. They're style is much more up to date and fasionable than all this RPI ruined by operasinger-with-a-serious-constipation-vocals. New band Zombi sounds like a mix between them and Heldon.

I'd like to reccomend you all to check out Art Fleury. Brilliant experimental stuff! If I wasn't for my lazyness they would have been included here long ago.