★The Saifam Group srl
Storie di uomini e non
300 copies, numbered edition. This italian band from Parma (Rocky's Filj is from their leader Rocky Rossi's name) gained a contract with Ricordi label after a tour with Banco del Mutuo Soccorso.Their only album, Storie di Uomini e Non (1973) - included in the infamous Nurse with Wound list - is jazz-rock oriented with original vocals and very well made instrumental parts, symphonic touches and sax in evidence, sometimes a la King Crimson. The primary lead, in addition to sax, is guitar and there…
Vocazione
CD Edition. A beatiful reissue of Enzo Carella's first album released in Italy in 1977, whose original edition usually sells for crazy prices on the second-hand market. This undervalued piece of work was perhaps too avantgarde during the time of release to get the full attention it deserves.Carella was an Italian singer-songwriter who is best remembered for his 1979 major hit Barbara, which is the opening track on Barbara e altri Carella, his second album. All songs on this release are written b…
Pollution
* 500 copies. White vinyl, 180 grams, Gatefold cover * Pollution from 1972 is the captivating follow-up to Fetus. Like its predecessor, the album features Baroque textures, motorik rhythms, weird tape effects and Franco Battiato’s perfectly oblique vocals, with a minimalist sound mainly based on the use of a VCS3 synth, unusual lyrics, complex arrangements: upon hearing Pollution, Frank Zappa joyfully proclaimed it “genius.” While Battiato’s core group of collaborators remains largely the same a…
Fetus
* Ltd. ed. Transparent vinyl, 180 grams, Gatefold cover * Franco Battiato's Fetus, housed in a outrageous cover (reproducing a foetus) was definitely a prog album, but a very original one, with a minimalist sound mainly based on the use of a VCS3 synth, unusual lyrics, complex arrangements. Deluxe remastered issue, gatefold cover. "Fetus is an album beyond all definition. It's a masterpiece of daring and wild risks that work every single time. Battiato takes us through eight uniquely super-detai…
Utopie
Giusto Pio is mainly remembered for his collaboration with Battiato, with whom he co-arranged and wrote many of his unquestionable pop masterpieces, in which Giusto's fairy violin soared from classical virtuosities overflowing with melody and flashes of pure minimalism: but Giusto Pio, of course, was not just that. The long collaboration with Battiato was one of the most prolific and interesting during the '80s and '90s in Italy; this partnership took Pio to new heights in the fields of commerci…
Il Grande Mare Che Avremmo Traversato
* 300 copies, 180 gr black vinyl * Among the many ones who left their band to pursue a solo career in the '70s we find Ivano Fossati. In 1972 his group Delirium had become very popular, thanks to 'Jesahel,' the song they presented at the Sanremo Festival in February: it became a real chart-hit 45 RPM, a very unusual thing for a progressive rock band. But commercial success didn't stop Fossati from leaving Delirium and releasing in 1973 his debut album, under the name of Alberto Ivano Fossati - I…