Giusto Pio: Legione straniera (EMI, 1982)

I hope you'll get used to the publishing of some Battiato-related stuff every now and then in the blog's "Eighties" corner. I personally believe his school is one of the greatest moments to ever bless Italian pop music. As for today, let's concentrate on the second solo album by Giusto Pio, 1926-born violin teacher and longtime collaborator of Battiato's.

As a matter of fact, "Legione straniera" is a two-hands work by Pio and Battiato. Pio's compositional style relies mostly on his violin, and embodies an ideal trait-d'union between baroque music and postmodern minimalism. Elegance, repetition, and regularity are the key aspects of the albums, where schematic violin themes fluctuate over Battiato's straight beats, evocating sometimes an outworld placidity, other times more nervous and metropolitan ambiences.
The album collects many extra-European suggestions, but never actually sounds like world music. And despite the strong electronic architecture, the prevailing air is a noble fin de siècle mood.

Tracklist:

1. Aria di un tempo
2. Celestial tibet
3. Cristina's Day
4. Eritrea's
5. Giardino segreto
6. Legione straniera
7. Ostinato
8. Totem

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Warning: the audio quality is quite bad


Similar music on the blog:
Franco Battiato: Giubbe Rosse (EMI, 1989)
Francesco Messina: Medio Occidente (Casablanca Records, 1983)

Central Unit: Central Unit + Loving Machinery (M.P. Records, 2003)

The unquiet waverings of Tuxedomoon spawned a whole school in the Italian underground. This record (a sum of two actually, see below) heralds the tendency: skeletal electronic beats and evanescent synth atmospheres, combined with mechanical basslines and relentless violin meanderings, with slothy saxophone murmurs peeping out here and there.
The music is ghostly, decadent, and subtly soggy; it never sounds epic or apocalyptic though, nor excessively amateurish (it's not minimal wave, to make a long story short). On the contrary, it sounds quite elaborate: its orbits are knotty and obliquous, and its mood is the mood of fallen aristocracy.

Central Unit were a band from Bologna. They were among the first in Italy to manipulate synths, drum machines and other electronic devices to create atmospheric soundscapes. This is a reprint of their first LP (produced by Tuxedomoon's Peter Principle), together with a preceding EP.

Tracklist:
 Central Unit LP (1983)

1. Detective Fredd
2. Orient-Express
3. Mas rapido
4. Primavera di Kaspar
5. Grotesque
6. Bailamme
7. Mordor
8. Où Papè d'Où Marcocù
9. Aiumassah!
10. Die Flucht Ohne Ende

Loving Machinery EP (1982)

1. Saturday Night
2. Rock Onze
3. What Use? (Version)
4. Beset City

Download (192 kbps) (re-up)


Similar albums on the blog:
Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici: GMM (Materiali Sonori, 1985)

Minox: Lazare (Industrie Discografiche Lacerba, 1986)

Donatella Rettore: Kamikaze Rock'n'Roll Suicide (Ariston, 1982)

Italian synth-pop's known mostly for its many electrodisco hits, but it also spawned some more "new wave"-sounding records. "Kamikaze Rock'n'Roll Suicide" is one of them, a somehow obscure concept album about the cult of honour in Japanese philosophy. Drawing on the figure of WWII suicide kamikazes, the music funnily bridges bleak oriental atmospheres, a sullen sense of resignation and the robotic aesthetics of early-80s discopunk. A bit Devo, a bit Blondie and a bit Gaznevada, the album's light, decadent, provoking and adventurous at the same time. Wonderfully pop, and slightly demented.

Donatella Rettore's career covers three decades, but she's mostly known for a couple of hits which are still absolute floorfillers at trash parties. "Kamikaze Rock'n'Roll Suicide" is her sixth album, and does contain one of those tracks: the awkward techno-ska "Lamette".

Tracklist:

1. Kamikaze Rock'n'Roll Suicide
2. Karakiri
3. Oblio
4. Sayonara
5. Lamette
6. Garage
7. Sangue del mio sangue
8. Canta sempre
9. Giulietta

Donwload (256 kbps except for one track)

Similar albums on the blog:

Giuni Russo: Energie (CGD/Warner Music Italia, 1981)

Gaznevada: Sick Soundtrack (Italian Records, 1980)

Ensemble Havadià: '81-'82 (Warner Italia, 2006)

Irriverent, jocose and dynamic, this music is one of the highest peaks of the Italian "R.I.O." scene. The songs are exuberant chamber-rock divertissements, full of mockeries, calembours and sharp eccentricities. Nevertheless, the structures are extremely lucid and complicated: ubiquitous North-Italian folklore and fanfare elements clash with flabbergasting tempo shifts and early 900 classical references - daring layerings which unexpectably manage to keep light and funny; miles away from any self-indulgent prog-rock bluster.

Ensemble Havadià was a short-lived project captained by Milanese "jew atheist" Moni Ovadia, now a well-known stage actor and comedian, and closely related to "Gruppo Folk Internazionale" and Stormy Six's label "L'orchestra". "'81-'82" collects the only two records issued by the band: the eponymous 1981 LP and the 1982 EP "Specchi".

Tracklist:

1. Finale
2. I benandanti
3. Aria del serpente
4. Il serpente burocratico
5. Aria del serpente
6. Gocce amare
7. Konik
8. Fuma el camin
9. Sigla
10. Apertoure
11. L'eternità
12. Straziato assai
13. Rumba "An den Leser"
14. Treno

Download (160 kbps)

Similar albums on Il golpe e l'uva:

Gramigna: Gran disordine sotto il cielo

Stormy Six: Macchina maccheronica

Garbo: Scortati (EMI, 1982)

One of the main figures of the Italian new wave, Milanese artist Renato Abate gained some celebrity with the single "A Berlino... Va bene" extracted from his first album. "Scortati" is his sophomore release and improves his rich synth-pop formula, strongly influenced by David Bowie, Roxy Music and, much probably, Japan.
The album pivots around Garbo's deep, velvety voice, often half-spoken. Laid down, dressy but always very heartfelt. The sinuous, but sturdy basslines and the driving synth melodies and interlocks are the other core elements of "Scortati"'s very elegant sound. The guitars burst in here and there to dialogue with the keyboards with a red-hot, Phil Manzanera-like buzz.
The songs are extremely well conceived, both melodically and rhythmically. The album has its own, decadent allure and is surely one of the most accomplished of its era.


Tracklist:

1. Scortati
2. Generazione
3. Moderni
4. Al tuo fianco
5. Vorrei regnare
6. Terre bianche
7. Dance citadine
8. Frontiere - Auf Wiedersen

Download (192 kbps)