Sunday 8 September 2019

Il Balletto Di Bronzo ‎– "Ys" (Polydor ‎– 2448 003) 1972



Thats enough German Prog, aka Krautrock.Far too much has been written about it and frankly,the whole concept bores me.
Now Italy embraced Prog more than any other country,and still do. No moaning about how the musical ability of the musicians excluded the ordinary man,just an appreciation of Intelligent rock composition. For christs's sake Van Der Graff Generator are Pop Stars over there to this day, selling out stadia,and getting number one albums, while we in the UK are fawning over idiots like Kanye West and other twats like that, of which i have no memory of for my own mental safety.
Whereas German prog was a roughed up kind of progressive rock, the emphasis in Italy was on melody and musicianship, something I usually sneer at, in an anglo-american outfit as is.Its anglo-american cultures role to move on and be progressive in discovering 'new' directions, and leave it to others to take it to a logical conclusion after the fickle British public have tired of it. So if King Crimson and Van Der Graff stopped doing rock as we knew it around 1975, the Italians didn't, and developed their own brand of symphonic rock with a barbed edge........I dunno what i'm talking about really, but I do love this shit.
So, here I start with my personal fav Italian Prog, or dare I call it 'Wop Prog',or, "Prog Wop"?
I present the complex and powerful Symphonic Prog masterpiece that is "Ys", by Il Balletto Di Bronzo.
There is not a single unconsidered quaver in the carefully-composed songwriting, not a percussive flam or synthesizer knob-twist that isn't deliberate and functional; these are some of the most arranged arrangements I've ever heard.Free Rock improvisation this is most definitely NOT!Its got a Mellotron on it too......, what more do you want?
I also like the fact that I don't know what the fuck they are singing about.....and I don't wanna know either.
They looked good too:
Young men are you watching?This is how to dress!!!

Tracklist:


A1 Introduzione
A2 Primo Incontro
B1 Secondo Incontro
B2 Terzo Incontro
B3 Epilogo


DOWNLOAD larks tongues in ass wop not spick HERE! (terrible link title,but one trys)

11 comments:

Webbaticy said...

One of the 5 greatest records of It-Prog.
The lyrics are about the last man left on the Earth, who has 3 awful hallucinations before disappearing. Very psycho-dramatic.

Anonymous said...

They did a gig just last Friday at Veruno Prog Festival.
Excellent job, it's a pity Gianni Leone is actually a Salvini and Trump big fan.

Jonny Zchivago said...

One of those groups with one original member left?....Nah!

snoopy said...

Call it Woprock.

Moahaha said...

These two first italian prog albums are two of greatest I know of - with YS maybe being my actual favorite. Carefully composed yet a furious attack that almost feels out of control. Skills are meant to be used like this.

Jonny Zchivago said...

Moahaha ,I absolutely agree wholeheartedly with your assessment.

Anonymous said...

This Mortal Clothes..

kevinesse said...

link got shut down! curses!

kevinesse said...

then i found this! https://mega.nz/#!YUxUiLia!7_oc4TyBXKPKK8LIAtGdJkHghassNXDmwtvPQt0mXPc

Jonny Zchivago said...

For the nth time...link is active just try more thyan once and it'll let you through that limp amazon advert.

Bambi said...

Thanks Jonny, I don't d/l much from you, however I love reading your descriptions (really like your humour). This album is superb, I had to listen after what you said about it, so thanks for that.