Italian Prog Bargains from Amazon

[BarryL]

I don't know if it's a pricing error or an effort to clear inventory, but I just bought the following from Amazon.com for ninety-nine cents each. Let me know if you find any others at that price.

Il Volo - Il Volo
Il Volo - Essere e non essere? Essere
Museo Rosenbach - Zarathustra
Semiramis - Dedicato a Frazz

All are Italian prog. The Museo Rosenbach is considered by many to be the greatest Italian prog album of all time. I have a CDR copy, and I like it a lot.

The Il Volo Essere album is an instrumental album that is guitar based for the most part, and kind of spacy and jazzy. If you like Camel or Pink Floyd or Tangerine Dream, this should appeal to you.

I haven't heard the others, but for $0.99 for classic era Italian prog, you can't go wrong.

Order before they're all gone.

[Troy]

What's the deal with Italian prog? Aside from the language, they sound like mostly derrivative romantic style prog to me. Operatic and annoying.

In proghead circles Eyetie is SUCH a big deal. Worth an extra star in every review, automatic. I don't get it.

[BarryL]

What's the deal with Italian prog? Aside from the language, they sound like mostly derrivative romantic style prog to me. Operatic and annoying.

In proghead circles Eyetie is SUCH a big deal. Worth an extra star in every review, automatic. I don't get it.

Never heard of Eyetie. I think at the time Italian prog had its roots further into classical music than did British prog. I also think that because the market was smaller, the little labels at the time were less concerned with only supporting big selling acts and creating American breakthroughs. I suppose that led to more artistic indepencence for these bands.

That's all mere speculation on my part. Demetrio would probably know more about this.

You might really like that Il Volo Essere e non essere? Essere! CD. Of course, shipping will cost more than the CD itself.

[Rael Imperial Aerosol Kid]

Hey thanks for the "Heads up" Barry!
I just placed my order:
Strawbs - s/t .99
Clearlight Symphony - s/t .99
Banco - s/t .99
Nektar - Sunday Night in London .99
Dream Theater - Train of Thought .99 (can't believe this price!)
Neal Morse - One .99 (worth a try...I know he can be overbearing etc...)
Area - Concerto Teatro Uomo .99
PFM - Storia di un minuto .99
Tangerine Dream - Bootleg Box Set .99 (5 CDs!!)
Il Volo - s/t .99
Il Volo - Essere .99
Museo Rosenbach - Zara... .99 (at your suggestion)
IQ _ Dark Matter 13.99 (so I could get free shipping!)

All for $25.87... Cool!

Thanks again.

Jon

[Rael Imperial Aerosol Kid]

To find what is on sale, I sorted by musical style, (progressive), from lowest price to highest. There were a lot of good things that I passed on since I already own them (ex: Anglagard).

[Chrisgnat]

What's the deal with Italian prog? Aside from the language, they sound like mostly derrivative romantic style prog to me. Operatic and annoying.

In proghead circles Eyetie is SUCH a big deal. Worth an extra star in every review, automatic. I don't get it.

There is some badass Italian prog out there if you look for it!
Here's some suggestions :

Area ~ Arbeit Macht Frei , Crac!
70's Symphonic fusion with an avant garde edge and virtuosic vocals. Highly recommended!

Picchio dal Pozza ~ s/t
Fantastic Canterbury/avant Prog with minimal vocals.Really pleasant & dreamy stuff imo.

Deus ex Machina ~ Cinque, De Republica
A nineties band that sounds like Area/Led Zepplin/Gentle Giant. Amazing stuff!

Arti & Mestieri ~ Tilt
A mostly instrumental symphonic fusion classic. Essential!

Maxophone ~ s/t
A one shot prog fusion band wioth lots of cool instrumentation!

Il Balletto Di Bronzo ~ YS
A prog/psyche classic with two Hammond players and wonderful tortured singing.

DFA ~ Duty Free Area
More modern symphonic fusion with way more soul than most current fusion.

........just scratching the surface here....

[progfan]

I'm an Italian prog freak. I just can't get enough of it. I'm not as high on the current stuff but I do have a soft spot for DFA, Finnestere, Hostonaten and the like.

I like the fact that so many Italian 70s albums were barely more than 30 minutes. Sometimes, 60 minutes or more of music is just too much for me.

[DarrenH]

There is some badass Italian prog out there if you look for it!
Here's some suggestions :

Area ~ Arbeit Macht Frei , Crac!
70's Symphonic fusion with an avant garde edge and virtuosic vocals. Highly recommended!

Picchio dal Pozza ~ s/t
Fantastic Canterbury/avant Prog with minimal vocals.Really pleasant & dreamy stuff imo.

Deus ex Machina ~ Cinque, De Republica
A nineties band that sounds like Area/Led Zepplin/Gentle Giant. Amazing stuff!

Arti & Mestieri ~ Tilt
A mostly instrumental symphonic fusion classic. Essential!

Maxophone ~ s/t
A one shot prog fusion band wioth lots of cool instrumentation!

Il Balletto Di Bronzo ~ YS
A prog/psyche classic with two Hammond players and wonderful tortured singing.

DFA ~ Duty Free Area
More modern symphonic fusion with way more soul than most current fusion.

........just scratching the surface here....

Nice list but none of that is gonna impress Troy.

Personally, me likes PFM and Banco.They are what represents Italian prog to me. Great stuff.

Another great album is Biglietto Per L'Inferno's self titled debut. It was their only release if I'm not mistaken. From 1974.

On the new front of Italian prog is a La Torre Dell Alchimista and Periferia Del Mondo.Not as good as thier 70's counterparts but good nonetheless.

Darren

[Chrisgnat]

Nice list but none of that is gonna impress Troy

Darren

Well, if Troy liked "Helmet of Gnats", then my pasta-prog's are no-brainer's IMO.


Chris

[jack70]

I don't know if it's a pricing error or an effort to clear inventory, but I just bought the following from Amazon.com for ninety-nine cents each. Let me know if you find any others at that price. I'd be curious to know if they are, in fact, pirates of some type, and they're getting rid of them to head of legal action. Pirate material is much more common overseas than here genarally, especially the far east.
Il Volo - Il Volo
Il Volo - Essere e non essere? Essere
Museo Rosenbach - Zarathustra
Semiramis - Dedicato a Frazz I have all those original LPs. I didn't find anything there that I either didn't have or need. But you can't beat the prices... LOL. The Semiramis cover art is one of the lamest IMO.

Barry, many Ital bands were pretty damn popular... in Italy! Much of the reason (for the lack of integration) is no doubt the language thing. And most tended to be prog or classically influenced, which was NEVER an automatic way to R&R fame. PFM was the exception, and it probably helped there was a large population of Italian descent over here, plus they got some timely US TV airplay too. But MOST prog music was never big in the west either... exceptions were later Yes, later Tull, later Genesis, later PF, Moodies & ELP. That passes over a few hundred others. And the few import labels that released Ital bands over here hardly got rich either.

I've noted that some of the Euro artists on some of my Euro comps were HUGE over there, but little appreciated here. BJH (UK) played to 100K stadiums in Germany... go figure. Some of the bands on my "behind the iron curtain" comp (harder rock/early metal) were also extremely popular in their native countries... but didn't even release a thing over here. Same with some of the bands on my Scandinavian comp... for example Saft.

It's similar to sports. We have no clue about the world soccer leagues, and only recently took notice of cycling, even though they've been huge over there forever. Some might call us insulated, but I think we just have plenty on our plate over here to care about European culture much, whether it's sports, music, TV, or movies. Heck, how many Americans can name even 2 or 3 CANADIAN football teams, and you're right next door.



What's the deal with Italian prog? Aside from the language, they sound like mostly derrivative romantic style prog to me. Operatic and annoying.Italian (early prog) DOES tend to be romantic, but others might call it lush, pastoral, or classical. Chopin is romantic too... and it's great. I also agree a lot of it is derivative, but that's only bad when it's done poorly or annoyingly. For example, LOTS of R&R is derivative... from immatating Dylan or the Beatles or Hendrix. Lots of early Ital Prog was ELP influenced, but there's plenty of weird original bands and even a few harder rock & fusion influenced bands. It's not my fave area of prog (a big area), but there are quite a few Ital Lps I'd have a hard time parting with. Just a matter of taste. There's a time & place for (most) everything.

[Rael Imperial Aerosol Kid]

I don't know if it's a pricing error or an effort to clear inventory, but I just bought the following from Amazon.com for ninety-nine cents each. Let me know if you find any others at that price.

.

Guess it was too good to be true:

"We regret to inform you that an error caused an item or items on your
recent order, #104-2455462-8971906, to be displayed at an incorrect
price."

[ForeverAutumn]

Guess it was too good to be true:

"We regret to inform you that an error caused an item or items on your
recent order, #104-2455462-8971906, to be displayed at an incorrect
price."

Lemme guess. Was it the Dream Theater disk? 'Cause that really did seem too good to be true. :(

[richmon]

Lemme guess. Was it the Dream Theater disk? 'Cause that really did seem too good to be true. :(
I ordered Train of Thought, The best of Kraan, and the Extended edition of Return of the King (at full price) .. The only one I'm getting is the DVD - both the other two 99 cent discs were too good to be true - they've retained the right to cancel mis-priced items they say.

[BarryL]

I ordered Train of Thought, The best of Kraan, and the Extended edition of Return of the King (at full price) .. The only one I'm getting is the DVD - both the other two 99 cent discs were too good to be true - they've retained the right to cancel mis-priced items they say.


Can't win 'em all, I guess. I got all excited for nothing. But I did find Mainhorse on CD, which they will be sending me. This was an early Patrick Moraz band before Refugee and his stint with Yes. Now, if they would only release Refugee on CD.

[ForeverAutumn]

I ordered Train of Thought, The best of Kraan, and the Extended edition of Return of the King (at full price) .. The only one I'm getting is the DVD - both the other two 99 cent discs were too good to be true - they've retained the right to cancel mis-priced items they say.

The drag here is that if this were to happen in a real store, things being mispriced that is, they would probably give it to you for the misprice and then correct everything left in stock.

I picked up Spocks Beard's Snow for $11.99 at Best Buy. The sticker was $11.99. I suspected that this was an error. When I took it to the cash register it scanned at $32.99! They gave it to me for the sticker price. :)

[richmon]

Now, if they would only release Refugee on CD.

I've got that Refugee on CD (the one with the grand canyon song right?)- picked it up as a used import about 10 years ago.

Nudge Nudge wink wink emeifIcanhelpabrudderout.

[BarryL]

I've got that Refugee on CD (the one with the grand canyon song right?)- picked it up as a used import about 10 years ago.

Nudge Nudge wink wink emeifIcanhelpabrudderout.

Oh stop it!!! Okay. But I don't have your email.

linetsky(at)istar.ca