L'ITALIE

Putain mais RITA PAVONE la classe !

VOCATION HOMICIDE

RIPOSA IN PACE

ARMANDO TROVAJOLI ( 1917 - 2013 )





And a personal favorite:

CANTO MORRICONE

Somewhere, in the basement of my former building, there is a huge box full of CDs I left behind. Among them, a compilation named CANTO MORRICONE based on a great idea: showcase Il Maestro's talent as a songster. I bought it fifteen years ago to get MINA's SE TELEFONANDO, but ended up discovering many other gems, and performers I'd never heard of (like CHRISTY and TRIO JUNIOR) which convinced me that Ennio is one of the finest composers of madly sophisticated yet catchy pop songs in the world, next to your Bacharach, Jobim, and the like.
And now, far away from my precious CD, I listen to these tracks on youtube. And don't you just know it, like it happens so often, there are images to go along with the music.

LUCKY!

Another weekend, another find.
This year apparently my luck is in Italian soundtracks. And I found one I'd been looking for since 1998, when I first saw this incredible Ettore Scola movie with an unforgettable score by Armando Trovaioli.

L'ITALIE

Springtime, that time of year when people empty their basement and sell LPs in the streets for a handful of Euros... Here's last weekend top finds:

L'ITALIE

Italians do it better they say. Well they sure don't do it worse.
Only an Italian band could get away with using that much digital piano, fretless bass, chimes on every bar, reverb on the snare, over the top melody, over the top guitar, over the top everything, and still manage to touch me right in the heart in the end, when "ironic listening" is swept aside.
This is a guilty pleasure I don't even feel guilty about. Cheesy? No way. Italian music should be judged on whole different terms. It is beyond cheesiness.

L'ITALIE

If you say LUCIO BATTISTI, most people will answer, "Ah, ANCORRA TU".
Sorry, but as much as many would like to see Italian singers as pleasant in a cheesy, almost ironic way, most of Lucio's songs actually display genius melodies and arrangements, sometimes psychedelic, and more often than not, genuinely enjoyable without nudging and winking. Case in point: NON E FRANCESCA. A great song to begin with, with a magical coda that elevates it to masterpiece status.

L'ITALIE

Before Kraftwerk, before Manuel Göttsching, before Giorgio, before just about everybody really, there was PIERO PICCIONI.
I usually don't trust Library LPs collectors. Traditionally they are sort of weird and they have an annoying tendency to overrate their records based on how rare they are more than on how they sound.
But ADD (N) TO (X)'s BARRY SEVEN is an exception. His two long-out-of-print European library compilations (one focused on France, the other on Italy) are amazing from start to end.
I don't know what this music was used for (if at all), but I know it was recorded in 1970, and it sounds about 20+ years ahead of its time.

L'ITALIE

Sure Ennio is #1, but that doesn't mean the other Italian soundtrack composers should be forgotten. Praised be Piero Umiliani, Armando Trovaioli, Piero Piccioni, and...
STELVIO CIPRIANI.