Franco Battiato, as is well known, was an Italian pop singer who for a
span in the 70s made a string of very experimental albums that fit very
roughly in the vein of groups such as Opus Avantra or Pierrot Lunaire.
Battiato on all of these titles (and beyond) set out to create completely
new musical forms, and evolved from strange pop and rock realms to systemic
and minamalist music before returning to pop music. This chronicles the
first four of the eight Battiato titles originally reissued on the Artis
label
Fetus (Artis ARCD 025) was his first and arguably not as
impressive as his later titles. There are a lot of influences here, Italian
popular music, folk, electronic experiments and tape collage all swirled
into an unusual tapestry of music. I would say his folk/pop influences show
through the strongest here, and with the albums short duration there's not a
lot you can sink your teeth into.
Pollution (Artis ARCD 026), however, is a much more successful
outing, with the disparate styles blending into a much more cohesive whole.
Battiato's music can jump from neo classical to Italian
progressive rock (somewhere between Sensations Fix and Le Orme) to
space rock like Gong and on to bizarre tape collages with narration. It all
adds up to a fascinating and innovative album with more humanity than you'd
expect from this type of experimentation.
Sulle Corde Di Aries (Artis ARCD 036) was Battiato's third
release and showed his fascination for electronic, minimalist and systemic
musics. As such, it is quite similar to "Pollution" except much more
electronic based and with a more definitive style. There are also a
lot of modern classical strains coming through here and a great spacey feel
again reminding me of Sensations Fix or Gong at times. A simply fascinating
album.
Clic (Artis ARCD 037) is the Italian version and not the version
that was on Island records. It too moves in a far more electronic direction,
sounding like an avant garde Klaus Schulze with lots of systemic
patterns and neo classical vocals. This is often quoted as his best album,
and certainly deserves a listen. The latter three titles, if not all four,
all deserve the attention of those into experimental or avant garde rock
albums.
(originally reviewed as part of Artis/Cramps Label: Dedicated to the
exploration...., Exposé #7, p. 10, Edited for Gnosis 8/6/01)
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