RACCOMANDATA CON RICEVUTA DI RITORNO (often shortened to RRR) formed in Rome, making their live debut in 1972. Like so many progressive bands in Italy in the seventies, they released one album and split up until an unexpected reformation in 2010. Vocalist/guitarist, Luciano Regoli had played with IL RITRATTO DI DORIAN GRAY, and drummer Francesco "Froggio" Francica and flute/sax player Damaso Grassi spent some time in PANNA FREDDA. Their live debut was at the Villa Pamphili pop festival, and they became regulars on the festival circuit between 1972 and 73 until splitting up due to little interest in their album, "Per... Un Mondo Di Cristallo." Regoli and guitarist Nanni Civitenga then helped form SAMADHI. Francica, Grassi and keyboardist Stefano Piermarioli--without bassist Manlio Zacchia--recruited additional players (Roberto Gardin on guitar, Gianni Colaiacono on bass, Massimo Balla on sax and Mandrake playing percussion) and continued a while longer using the band name in a more jazz orientated direction. Unfortunately there is no recorded output of this line up. Francica would also play on "Fiaba," the second album from PROCESSION and later with KALEIDON. Regoli was later to drop out of music and became an artist."Per... Un Mondo Di Cristallo" was released in 1972 and like many great RPI albums drew its sound from many contrasting styles. This includes hard rock, jazz, classical, melodic pastoral and even eastern influences. There is a generous usage of flute, sax, keyboard (especially organ), and acoustic and electric guitar. Both the music and the subject matter (an astronaut who returns after a long voyage, discouraged by the horrible earthly scenes he observes from a cliff) call to mind the more adventurous RPI bands such as OSANNA, SEMIRAMIS and IL BALLETTO DI BRONZO, although not quite to their level in either quality or edginess. Line-up / Musicians Luciano Regoli/vocals,guitar Nanni Civitenga/guitar Stefano Piermarioli/keyboards Francesco Froggio Francica/drums Manlio Zacchia/bass Damaso Grassi/saxophone,flute Discography(Album)
Per... Un Mondo Di Cristallo 1972
1.Nulla 2.Su Una Rupe 3.Il Mondo Cade 4.Nel Mio Quartiere 5.L'Ombra 6.Un Palco Di Marionette 7.Sogni Di Cristallo
Opera Prima is a fairly obscure Italian symphonic prog album from the duo of keyboard player Paulo Rustichelli and drummer Carlo Bordini. Sadly this album released in 1973 remains their only collaborative effort. Bordini is perhaps better known to RPI fans for playing in the pre- Goblin outfit Cherry Five. Rustichelli following in his father Carlo's footsteps has gone on to compose Italian film scores amongst his achievements. This is a keyboard dominated record; in fact the duo are the only musicians to play on the album. The music ranges from sublime passages of restrained piano to more bombastic Hammond fuelled moments, the sound palette widened with the use of synths and often reminiscent of ELP. The standard of playing is not surprisingly excellent as in the main are the compositions, surprisingly mature considering the young age of Rustichelli, the only downside being some decidedly rough vocals. Line-up / Musicians Paolo Rustichelli/organ,pianos,mellotron,vocals Carlo Bordini/drums,percussion Discography(Album)
Opera Prima 1973
1.Nativita 2.Icaro 3.Dolce sorella 4.Un cane 5.E svegliarsi in un giorno 6.Cammellandia
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) 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 opening track "L'Ultima Spiasggia" (13:15) is really wonderful with its jaz-rock orientated style maximizing the talented musicians to perform their own instruments from alto sax, baritone sax, clarino, electric guitar, flute, "Fender" bass, trombone, and drums. Not in typical any band where each musician focuses only on one instruments with its similar instrument - this band, like Gentle Giant, plays multi instruments. The primary lead, in addition to sax, is guitar and there are a lot of moments where the themes are doubled by both in a manner also similar to that of OSANNA's early period. The music even has room to jam and give the chance for some solos over the top, including also flute. However, these instrumental segments don't last for long before another full ensemble or vocal segment takes their place. Some critic see in their method of stringing together disparate segments of music some references to PHOLAS DACTYLUS.Rocky's Filj really deserved more consideration, but, unfortunately one of the members was jailed, and the band reappeared only in 1979 with a commercial single recorded with help of ACQUA FRAGILE former member Pier Emilio Canavera. Rocky Rossi sadly died in 1985 in a car accident. Line-up / Musicians Rocky Rossi/sax,clarino,vocals Roby Glabrovitz/guitar,flute Luigi Ventura/bass,trombone Rubino Colasante/drums,bass Discography(Album)
Raminghi were a proto-prog band from Bergamo Italy near Milano. The group was led by bassist and vocalist Franco Mussita. Mussita apparently began his pop career in the early 60s as the CD booklet has great photos of his early band I Nomadi. According to the bio he is "a blend between visionary and stubborn genius combined with a little bit of madness." It is said he arrived on the music scene when the stars of the Italian progressive movement were little more than children. After many years of playing live and paying dues, Nomadi became Raminghi and found a record deal with the Bentler label. Mussita was smitten with the likes of Deep Purple, Vanilla Fudge, Blue Cheer and Uriah Heep and wanted to record music in this vein. They did a couple singles for Bentler before recording Il Lungo Cammino dei Raminghi which translates to "The Long Way of the Rovers." They ended up rather unhappy with Bentler, because the label delayed for too long, insisted they soften their energetic sound a bit, and of course did little to provide promotion.The bands sound varies from quite unique in places to typical in other places. Certainly some sections sound incredibly dated and very 60s, imagine listening to the Italian version of Quicksilver Messenger Service. Some of their music sounds like the theme song to a 60s spy tv show while others sound like bands from the early Haight scene in San Francisco. Swirly organs in the background, thin acid-drenched electric leads, lots of psych moodiness, and some bluesy hard rock influence too. Mussita wails a bit like the singer in the Spanish band Ibio with a big dramatic bellow at times. The drummer is quite good with an understated style. The guitar playing is raw in rhythm mode with a real scrunch to it. Raminghi are not any more "prog" than The Doors are but it is interesting to hear the changes happening right in front of you from the Italian perspective instead of through the California lens of Doors, Airplane, Grateful Dead. Line-up / Musicians Franco Mussita/bass,vocals Angelo Sartori/keyboards Angelo Serighelli/guitar Romeo Cattaneo/drums Discography(Album) Il lungo cammino dei Raminghi 1971
1.Donna Hai Ragione Tu 2.La Nostra Verita 3.Cose Supperate 4.Partire 5.Every day Jesus 6.Non Moriremo Mai 7.Buio Mondo Nero E Giallo 8.Guarda tuo Padre
RICORDI D'INFANZIA is a real mystery group of the seventies Italian scene. The line-up is unknown but all tracks in the album liner notes are credited to Sica and Budano. Supposedly all members of the group were studio session men. Musically they were rather similar to better-known groups such as METAMORFOSI and L'UOVO DI COLOMBO.The only album "Io Uomo" was released in the pinnacle phase of Italian progressive in 1973. It is a very good album in the heavy progressive style. The music is hard rock with great keyboard (Hammond and piano) work on top of that. The production quality is also very good. After the album the group released a single "Latte e Rhum" with two non-album tracks but after that it was sadly over. Line-up / Musicians Emilio Mondelli/vocals Tino Fontanella/bass Antonio Sartori/drums,percussion Franco Cassina/guitar,vocals Maurizio Vergani/keyboards,vocals Gianni Bari/saxophone Discography(Album) Io Uomo 1973
1.Caos 2.Creazione 3.L'Eden 4.2000 Anni Prima 5.Pregheria 6.Morire O Non Morire 7.2000 Anni Dopo 8.Uomo Mangia Uomo
Ralf Nowy was a flute and saxophone player who died in 2007. Due to his classical education and proficiency he got jobs as a musical director and production manager already at an early age. And later he had a very successful career as a music producer for several popular acts. Obviously impressed and influenced by the creative spirit of the music scene in Germany around the transition from the 60s to the 70s he also began to produce music under his own moniker. 'Lucifer's Dream' was his first effort in 1973 where he gathered a bunch of musicians from the current Munich scene to realize his ideas. The result is an interesting jazz rock/pop/ethno mixture which is off the beaten path here and there. Besides the dominant jazz rock behavior we have a charming interlude here with acoustic guitar, flute and piano. Dramatic string arrangements are added. An extraordinary track! Ralf Nowy doesn't push himself into the foreground with his instruments. Line-up / Musicians Gary Unwin/bass Lothar Meid/bass Sylvester Levay/piano Don Anderson/piano,vocals Paul Vincent Gunia/guitar Andy Marx/guitar Keith Forsey/drums Bernie Prock/percussion Ralf Nowy/flutes,saxophone,oboe Al Gromer/sitar Liz van Neyenhoff/sitar Sankar Chatterjel/tablas Joy Fleming/vocals Rainer Pietsch/vocals Vilko Zanki/vocals Discography(Album) Lucifer's Dream 1973
1.Breadhead 2.Lucifer's Dream 3.Something's Happened On The Chicken Farm 4.Hear Me Calling 5.Soul Tango 6.Ashes To Ashes 7.Shiwa's Dance 8.Tschad
Roland Kovac came from a Viennese musical family. Kovac established himself as a modern jazz player. He had begun piano lessons at six, clarinet at 13. From 1935 through 1938 he was a member of the Vienna Boys' Choir and remains one of the few instrumentalists listed in international jazz reference works who can make such a claim. During the war he played for an audience that included Jews on the run, soldiers on official as well as unofficial leave from their units, and locals with their eyes cocked for secret police. Among the military swingers was saxophonist Hans Koller, a follower not of the Third Reich but of Lee Konitz. Kovac and Koller began working together, their impulses toward playing pure forms of jazz at odds with the sway of public taste once life in Vienna began getting back to normal. Kovac followed Koller out of the country looking for appropriate gigs. The MPS label, associated with one of the largest tape manufacturers in the world, had plenty of resources with which to document the eventual turn toward progressive jazz stylings, most notably the electric jazz and fusion of the '60s and '70s. Trip to the Mars from 1964 is without a doubt this artist's most unique venture, credited to the Orchester Roland Kovac and featuring a style some have described as "science-fiction jazz." The Roland Kovac New Set came along in the early '70s, basically a collaboration between Kovac and guitarist Siegfried "Sigi" Schwab. The latter used his fuzzbox in an eventually shortfall attempt to drown out first drummer Charly Antolini, then Keith Fisher. Keyboardist Brian Auger, no slouch, joined in on the second of this group's efforts. In 1981 Kovac recorded Piano Symphony -Selected Sound 92 for the Deutsche Austrophon imprint. Line-up / Musicians Roland Kovac/keyboards Siegfried Schwab/guitar Charly Antolini/drums Franz Loffler/bass Brian Auger/organ Peter Trunk/bass Keith Forsey/drums Discography(Album) The Master Said 1972
1.The Master Said 2.Birth of a Saint 3.Eternal Dimension 4.David's Dance
Out of the ashes of Tomorrow's Gift, came Release Music Orchestra (RMO for short), who consisted of TG's remaining nucleus plus wind instrument player Jacobsen. Their first album, Life (74) included live recordings of their first concert, and sounded like a jazzier TG due to Rurup's electric piano and the sax. Their jazz-rock resembles much what was then done in Germany, such as Passport, Thirsty Moon, Kraan, Aera, etc.RMO was never a stable group and many line-up changes occurred with keyboardist Rurup remaining the sole original member throughout their 5 album career, even recording one album (their third Get The Ball) without wind instruments, but reinstating them by the next album, Beyond the Limit. Their sound grew, as was often the case in those days, more commercial and streamlined with each new album, sounding more and more like US jazz-fusion of the late 70's. Line-up / Musicians Manfred Rurup/keyboards Gunther Reger/saxophone Frank Fischer/bass Tommy Goldschmidt/percussion Wolfgang Thierfeldt/drums Norbert Jacobsen/saxophone,clarinet Bernd Kiefer/bass Holger Dunkel/bass,guitar Wolfgang "Zabba" Lindner/drums,vibraphone Margit Maya Haberland/vocals,percussion,guitar Discography(Album) Dirt Box 1972
Royal Servants, the forerunners of the more widely known Eulenspygel, were formed by a couple of schoolboys from the town of Reichenbach in Swabia. Since 1964, they had been playing together as the Sounders, changing the name to Royal Servants in 1965. In the early years, they played beat like everybody else. The actual founders were Matthias "James" Thurow (8/25/1949, Tübingen) on guitar and Gerhard Schlotz (8/3/1948, died in 1997), on bass. The line-up was complete when Helmut Bescherer (9/25/1948) on drums and Klaus Schwagerick on rhythm guitar joined them. In 1967, the band bought an electronic organ, Gerhard Schlotz switched instruments and his school friend Ronald "Ronny" Libal (5/4/1948, Plochingen) replaced him on bass. The latter came from the Ambassadors, a band from a neighbouring town, which had also played beat since 1965 and was now breaking up. Gerhard Schlotz had been their guest musician for a short while in 1967. When Gerhard Schlotz, Klaus Schwagerick and Helmut Bescherer left the Royal Servants in 1968, in came drummer Wolfgang Zimmermann (2/16/1948) from the Buttons and, later that year, singer Manfred Maier from the Swallows as well as rhythm guitarist and organist Michael Scheibner, also ex-Buttons. When Wolfgang Zimmermann quit in early 1969, Alex Alecke took over the drums. It was with this line-up that, in May 1969, they recorded the single 'Burning Region'/'Help Me Please' (Juke Box JB1) at the Meilhaus studio in Munich. The lyrics were written by Ronald Libal, the music - by Matthias Thurow. The edition was 1,000 copies. Some time later, Detlev Nottrodt (1/6/1946, Stuttgart) on guitar and organ and Günther Klinger, a talented drummer joined the Royal Servants, replacing Michael Scheibner and Alex Alecke. On 4/4/1970, they recorded their single, 'Still I Belong'/'The Blues Comin' My Way' (Royal Corporation RC1003) at an excellent studio in Stuttgart. That very year saw the release of yet another single, 'Work Part II'/'Someone To Be With Me' (Royal Corporation RC1004), their third, which was again written by Detlev Nottrodt and recorded at the Jankowski studio. It even got to No.2 on Radio SWF3. The band were now busy playing gigs in the area and even went on tour of Austria. In the Summer of 1970, they decided to release an LP and won over keyboard player Reinhard Hetzinger of the Speeders as guest musician. In the middle of the recording, singer Manfred Maier announced he had to quit the band for 'work' reasons. Their new singer Rainer "Mulo" Maulbetsch, who had been with Mulo & The Misfits and the Hardships before, was not able to acquaint himself so quickly with his new task, and so Detlev Nottrodt sang most of the songs. As for the vibraphone (some sort of amplified metallic xylophone), they engaged the best musician in the Stuttgart area, Peter Mayer, who had been playing with Detlev Nottrodt on several occasions before. The tracks were recorded in October 1970, again in the tried and tested Jankowski studio, and mixed shortly afterwards. The LP was released under the title of "We" (Elite Special PLPS 30130) in an edition of probably one or two thousand copies, and has meanwhile become a quite sought-after collectors' item. It includes the two tracks from the third single. Played on the radio, their singles, "Still I Belong" and "Work Part II", made not only fans prick up their ears but also well-known record companies. On this first LP, where they had all the free reign they wished for, they offer no sterile perfection but spontaneous improvisation and sounds, 'studio live', so to speak. The arranged tracks, as well as all the lyrics, attain a level of quality one simply wouldn't have dared to think an amateur pop band was capable of. As the music of the Servants (all songs were written by Detlev Nottrodt) is so varied, this mixture of progressive and melodious will surely earn them a lot of new fans. Line-up / Musicians Detlef Nottrodt/guitars,vocals Manfred Maier/vocals Reinhard Hetzinger/organ Günter Klinger/drums,percussion Matthias James Thurow/guitars Ronald Libal/bass Peter Mayer/keyboards Cornelius Hauptmann/flute Discography We 1970
1.Work Part II 2.We 3.Someone To Be With Me 4.Latin Underground 5.Here's Where I'm Gonna Stay 6.Private Man 7.Doomsday Up To Date
This is one of those comically awful exploitation LP's that were quite prevalent in the late 60's era, wherein a budget label tried to "bottle" the hip sounds of the day, and transpose them into palatable styles for the older set. Some of these collections were actually surprisingly good, because the studio musicians that were hired to perform the selections were often given only a partial set list, and told to simply improvise the rest. The results of these ad-libs were sometimes breathtaking, and it is these hidden gems that keep underground rock fans such as myself constantly on the lookout for new and undiscovered releases in this genre. But, alas, this one is actually so bad, it's more of a joke than anything else. Problem is, jokes get old fast, and one go through of this is set about all you need to hear for the rest of your life. It's basically all sitar instrumentals, performed by a guitar player who literally sounds as if he picked up the sitar for the first time barely hours before recording this album. Often off-key, and frequently out of time, this wouldn't even be fun if were a true garage release. The lone cover on the album, track B1, really needs to be heard to be believed. Line-up / Musicians Unknown Discography Flower Power Sitar 1968
1.Flower Power 2.Flower Bed 3.I String Beads 4.Do It With Flowers 5.Lulaby For Flower Children 6.Up, Up & Away 7.Beautiful, Beautiful Flower 8.Flowers, Flowers Everywhere 9.Ragadelic 10.Child Of Love
This early 70's Belgian trio is one of the best-kept secrets from Belgium. This instrumental KB-led trio is completely different from the usual ELP clichés that one might have. They took their name from the 10AM and 2PM breaks that allow kids to roam and play on the school grounds. Jean-Jacques Falaise is clearly the leader of the trio and his KB abilities shine throughout their two albums, but he also plays a competent guitar. Francis Lonneux is the drummer and Jean-Paul Vanden Bossche is the bassist and clearly these guys had decided to include humour in their music, something that is quite common among Belgian bands. As mentioned before the music is not like ELP, but instead draws heavily from Jazz, classics but also many different other sources.Their self-titled debut (71) has a superb sleeve artwork depicting human bodies falling through giants KB scales and consist of just six tracks, while the second album Music Or Not Music (72) holds 15 of them, but both albums have a similar feel not far away from Canterbury, jazz-rock and symphonic prog. Line-up / Musicians Jean-Jacques Falaise/keyboards,guitar Francis Lonneux/drums Jean-Paul Vandenbossche/bass Discography Don't Open 1971
1.Burning Chapel 2.Running For Life 3.Sexual Lover 4.Summer In The City 5.California Dreamin' 6.Reach Out, I'll Be There Music Or Not Music 1972
1.Music against music 2.Music for your dog 3.The night was clear, the moon was yellow 4.Where is the bar, Clay? 5.Caligula's suite in horror minor 6.My grandmother likes Andy Williams, too 7.We don't like it either 8.Last train to Rhythmania 9.... and the producer got mad 10.Glove story 11.Laughin' people - meanwhile starvin' children 12.Nothing's holy 13.Concerto for elevator 14.War business is a good job 15.To end or not to end
