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Joined: February 02 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 776
Posted: July 01 2015 at 01:00
For me RPI was a strange new genre classification in the first place. RPI or Italian (symphonic) prog is really strong/massive and has some unique characteristics but I wouldn't consider it a special genre so much different from other symphonic prog.
To answer the first question: I really like emotional singing in Italian and prefere it over English versions because it also adds a different musical quality.
I searched PA for a band from Italy still labeled symphonic and I found a band called Moongarden. In the description it's written: It is a symphonic band that happens to be Italian so should not be
considered in the ranks of RPI. The influences stem more from Camel,
Genesis and Pink Floyd than PFM or Banco.
Don't all symphonic bands have roots/infuence in English symph?
Joined: September 20 2010
Location: Serbia
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Points: 10213
Posted: July 01 2015 at 02:21
terramystic wrote:
(...) I searched PA for a band from Italy still labeled symphonic and I found a band called Moongarden. In the description it's written: It is a symphonic band that happens to be Italian so should not be
considered in the ranks of RPI. The influences stem more from Camel,
Genesis and Pink Floyd than PFM or Banco. (...)
Moongarden is Crossover Prog in my opinion. Not symph nor RPI.
Joined: October 12 2011
Location: Melb, Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 7951
Posted: July 01 2015 at 02:36
Yep, I've only got the latest Moongarden album, and they sure don't recall any kind of either RPI or Symphonic to my ears. Not a big fan of that album at all...
But back to topic!! (where's that emoticon gone for `Back to Topic'?!)
I think that RPI is about the origin of the music in the first place; next comes the language.
However, I prefer RPI sung in Italian above English when an album is available in both languages. I would not like to hear Le Porte del Domani in English. Italian fits the music well enough,
Joined: August 11 2012
Location: Toadstool
Status: Offline
Points: 1787
Posted: July 01 2015 at 07:55
Been into RPI for only about 3 years and loved it immediately with the Italian vocals. I do not understand the language at all and to me the vocals are another instrument and it frees my listening up to focus on the music and not a verbal message.
I think I only have a couple of "English" RPI titles and did not care for them, although I like the Cherry Five album, but is a one off and maybe more of rock in general in my book...
Joined: September 03 2013
Location: Rio de Janeiro
Status: Offline
Points: 1607
Posted: July 01 2015 at 12:14
Curiously no one pointed that the RPI uniqueness is not only related to the italian language vocals but also to the sounds reproduced by the other instruments - synthesizers etc., in such a creative way, and even exotic sometimes, up to the point that the composer can't remember anymore which instrument setting he used some years before on a specific piece .
Besides, RPI finds inspiration also from Folk music other than the brittish folk, and I 've been observing that at least 70's RPI drew generally even more Classical inspiration than the brittish prog rock bands. Thus, I reckon that the RPI's unique characteristics go much farther than the aspect of mostly being sung in italian language, a language that I admire and enjoy even more than my own mother language (portuguese.)
"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." LvB
Joined: September 03 2013
Location: Rio de Janeiro
Status: Offline
Points: 1607
Posted: July 01 2015 at 12:20
TeleStrat wrote:
t was mentioned that the Italian language can be very passionate and that's true. It can also be very
intense when the song needs it to be.
But that passion and intensity isn't in the words, it's in the sound that the vocalist creates.
The Italian language brings those emotions to a song better than most other languages do.
I totally agree with this point , and add that sometimes their poetry is very strong and passionate too. More than once my curiosity is stronger than my 'laziness' to look up in my italian dictionary the words I don't remember or don't know at all.
"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." LvB
Joined: March 30 2007
Location: Italy
Status: Offline
Points: 1136
Posted: August 09 2015 at 17:11
Would you expect each single Krautrock band to sing in German? Any Italian band playing progressive rock (especially in the 1970s) is RPI to me. I'd never let Sensations' Fix out of the list because they sing in English (just to make an example)
Joined: January 24 2010
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 8079
Posted: August 09 2015 at 19:33
For me, RPI bands that sing in English don't rub me the wrong way, in fact, in a couple of cases-the Libra debut album "Musica e Parole", and RDM's "Contaminazione"-sound so great in their English lyric versions of those albums, I find myself liking the English version better.
As to whether it still qualifies as RPI, sure, as the inimitable instrumental atmosphere that Italian prog bands create is still there.
Joined: December 06 2006
Location: New England
Status: Offline
Points: 8854
Posted: August 09 2015 at 21:04
ERIS PLUVIA sing in English and is classed in RPI I believe, although prog folk might be a better spot for them. "Rings of Earthly Light" is one of my favorite albums of all time. But I am glad most of the others sing in Italian.
Joined: August 14 2015
Location: Sweden
Status: Offline
Points: 114
Posted: August 15 2015 at 18:31
I wonder if a band that is not from Italy, but from a country that speaks Italian like Switzerland makes an album with Italian lyrics. Is that Rock Progressivo Italiano?
Master James of St. George. Of the fields and the sky. He used to build castles of stone, steel, and blood. But lines get broken down.
Joined: October 02 2005
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Points: 46828
Posted: August 15 2015 at 19:11
symphonicman wrote:
I wonder if a band that is not from Italy, but from a country that speaks Italian like Switzerland makes an album with Italian lyrics. Is that Rock Progressivo Italiano?
nah.. it was never intended nor implemented as a blanket designation for all Italian (speaking) bands..Italian bands can be found across nearly (all?) the other sub-genres here. Much like the whole Krautrock thing man.. it was not a blanket designation for all German bands either. Nor was it a statement of a particular style... as RPI was not either. It is one of those.. you know it fits when you smell it.. when you feel it.
The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
Joined: August 14 2015
Location: Sweden
Status: Offline
Points: 114
Posted: August 15 2015 at 19:44
I understand what you mean. I was just thinking. What if there is a band that has the Italian sound and language that is not from Italy. There's Krautrock bands that isn't from Germany. There's Zeuhl bands that isn't from France. There's no Rock Progressivo Italiano bands that isn't from Italy though.
Master James of St. George. Of the fields and the sky. He used to build castles of stone, steel, and blood. But lines get broken down.
Joined: October 02 2005
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Points: 46828
Posted: August 15 2015 at 19:55
none that I know of... we did heavily discuss many South American bands that are heavily ..heavily Italian influenced. Hell many are of Italian descent.. they could have been added/moved there.. but for many reasons we decided against pushing for expanding the reach of RPI. It was hard enough of a fight to first get it, and get the Italian bands moved into it that weren't already in ISP
The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
Joined: September 03 2005
Location: Olympus Mons
Status: Offline
Points: 15916
Posted: August 15 2015 at 20:27
Guldbamsen wrote:
^Very nicely put my friend. I was going to say something similar:) The Italian ingredient - that is the essence of the RPI sound - doesn't necessarily have to come from the vocals, although I vastly prefer that. The music surrounding the vocals is often what takes you directly into the heartland of pasta.
And that, my friends, is why THE WATCH are Neo, not R.P.I.
Joined: August 14 2015
Location: Sweden
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Points: 114
Posted: August 15 2015 at 20:31
micky wrote:
none that I know of... we did heavily discuss many South American bands that are heavily ..heavily Italian influenced. Hell many are of Italian descent.. they could have been added/moved there.. but for many reasons we decided against pushing for expanding the reach of RPI. It was hard enough of a fight to first get it, and get the Italian bands moved into it that weren't already in ISP
It wouldn't be Italian anymore then. It would be Italian, South American
and throw in Cuba there as well just to irritate The United States.
They have what is it? One prog band and that should be enough to
irritate The United States.
Master James of St. George. Of the fields and the sky. He used to build castles of stone, steel, and blood. But lines get broken down.
Joined: February 02 2015
Location: Yugoslavia
Status: Offline
Points: 954
Posted: August 15 2015 at 23:51
symphonicman wrote:
I wonder if a band that is not from Italy, but from a country that speaks Italian like Switzerland makes an album with Italian lyrics. Is that Rock Progressivo Italiano?
Logically thinking, it ought to be RPI then because RPI at PA is a sub-genre, not a national selection of prog bands from Italy. eg a band from Switzerland's Ticino canton [Italian language speaking canton which borders Italy] ought to find the place in PA RPI section as same as a band from German language speaking Zurich or anywhere else in the world - only if they are singing in Italian and playing retro prog that touches the style of 70s RPI.
Edited by Komandant Shamal - August 16 2015 at 02:25
Joined: December 19 2007
Location: California
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Points: 3472
Posted: August 16 2015 at 01:58
symphonicman wrote:
I wonder if a band that is not from Italy, but from a country that speaks Italian like Switzerland makes an album with Italian lyrics. Is that Rock Progressivo Italiano?
Rumple Stiltze Comune is the closest case that I know of. We would have accepted them as RPI, but the influence was more clearly English.
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Is RPI sung in English - really RPI?
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terramystic wrote:
, in such a creative way, and even exotic sometimes, up to the point that the composer can't remember anymore which instrument setting he used some years before on a specific piece . 
, and add that sometimes their poetry is very strong and passionate too. More than once my curiosity is stronger than my 'laziness' to look up in my italian dictionary the words I don't remember or don't know at all.
