| # | Artist | Song (click to play) | Album | Year | CD label |
| 1 | Ricordi D'Infanzia | Io Uomo | Io Uomo | 1973 | Fonit Cetra |
| Heavy keyboards and guitars with a Deep Purple sound. A bit more progressive than DP, though. Sound a little gothic. This band probably attracted the head-banger crowd in their day. | |||||
| 2 | Reale Accademia di Musica | Lavoro in Citta' | Reale Accademia di Musica | 1972 | SiWan |
| Beautiful melodic symphonic with piano and mellow, quiet vocals. The third track seems to be perhaps influenced by Paul McCartney's Wings with vocals that sound as those they are being sung through a megaphone, along with honky tonk piano. The beginning of another track is highly reminiscent of Procol Harum's "Simple Sister". This album sounds a bit more typical of British progressive rock than it's Italian counterparts of the time. I can see myself liking this album more with subsequent listens. It has some great atmospherics at times. The last song has kind of a dark dramatic feeling. | |||||
| 3 | Abissi Infiniti | Tunnel | Tunnel | 1981 | Mellow Records |
| Light pop/prog. Fairly unadventurous. Singing throughout with very little instrumental development. But, hey, it has a very cool album cover! One catalog says about this "Great obscurity from early 80's. Certainly one of the best from that period." But, seeing as how the 80's almost totally suck, it's not saying much. | |||||
| 4 | Dedalus | Brilla | Dedalus | 1973 | Vinyl Magic |
| This is very much in the vein of late 60's and early 70's Miles Davis, especially _In a Silent Way_. Most other references say that this album sounds Soft Machine inspired. But, to my ears, it is pure Miles. There is John McLaughlin styled guitar playing. The band often goes off into space/jazz/rock excursions akin to _In a Silent Way_. If you like that period of Miles Davis, then you will certainly like this album. I do! | |||||
| 5 | Picchio dal Pozzo | Cocomelastico | Picchio dal Pozzo | 1976 | Crime/King Records & SiWan |
| This is very high caliber stuff with influences from Canterbury, ala _Hatfield and the North_, and RIO (Henry Cow, perhaps), and a healthy dose of Frank Zappa type compositions, sans the lyrics about bodily functions, of course. Highly recommended if you like Rock-In-Opposition styled prog or quirky Canterbury. | |||||
| 6 | Sensitiva Immagine | Storia di... | E Tutto Comincio Cosi... | 1973 | Kaliphonia |
| This is a supposed classic Italian progressive rock. Up until recently this has only been available on CD from Japan, which has been OOP for a long time. It is now re-released on CD from Kaliphonia. The album has a Genesis sound in the same manner as "Kyrie Eleison". It is light symphonic prog that reminds somewhat of FM. | |||||
| 7 | Le Orme | La Porta Chiusa | Uomo Di Pezza | 1972 | Philips |
| This is the second of the 4 keyboard trio albums, the first being _Collage_. Hey, I picked out a song with some vocals this time! What you have here is one of the Italian bands that helped to shape the progressive rock scene in their country. | |||||