CONTAMINAZIONE

After two albums of a veritable proto-metal style of hard rock, the Rome based quartet IL ROVESCIO DELLA MEDAGLIA (The Other Side of the Coin) joined the ranks of the majority of Italian prog bands of the early 70s and added a fifth member, ex- Il Paese di Balocchi keyboardist Franco Di Sabbatino. This changed the band's sounds drastically and they were at last considered a symphonic prog band in the vein of PFM, Banco, Museo Rosenbach, Jumbo and just about every Italian band that jumped on the prog bandwagon. Not only that but the band suddenly got quite ambitious and started to collaborate with the famous Argentine composer Luis Enriquez Bacalov who had worked with the New Trolls and Osanna.

The result was the band's third album CONTAMINAZIONE which was long suite of over 13 movements primarily inspired by the "Well-Tempered Clavier" of J.S. Bach. While not truly original as this had been done before, this was first in England by The Moody Blues and Deep Purple and then later in Italy itself from the New Trolls and Osanna under the guidance of Bacalov. Following in the footsteps of these symphonic rock giants who made a prog rock tribute to the world of classical music, IL ROVESCIO DELLA MEDAGLIA released CONTAMINAZIONE in 1973 and immediately the album became a smashing success and their most famous effort which led to an English language edition released under the title "Contamination."

CONTAMINAZIONE was one of the most Baroque sounding albums of the entire prog scene and while the album was a hybridization of the J.S. Bach works musically speaking, lyrically the album was inspired by the alleged tale of an 18th century Scottish musician who claimed to be Bach's illegitimate son but unfortunately was not recognized by the composer as such. The album was also notable at its time for its amazing production modernity which allowed all kinds of new recording processes to be implemented. Oh and BTW the album actually has an official title that is quite lengthy: "CONTAMINAZIONE di alcune idee di certi preludi e fughe de 'Il Clavicembalo ben temprato' di J. S. Bach." The album features 13 separate tracks but in reality the entire 36 1/2 minute run sounds like one lengthy masterwork.

A complete change in style from the previous keyboard-free hard rocker albums, CONTAMINAZIONE is primarily dominated by vast arrays of keyboards ranging from Hammond organs and harmoniums to Eminent, VCS, ARP and Moog synthesizers. Likewise Ballarini's vocal parts are subdued as the album is primarily instrumental and literally rockin' the classics with some moments of hard rock returning for brief moments. The vocal lines that do occur are often designed to be part of the musical flow rather than actually convey the story but the overall lyrical theme does play a major role in the mood and feel of the entire work. Unlike the band's previous two albums, CONTAMINAZIONE was a major hit which led to an English version being created for international export and has become one of Bacalov's most famous works as well.

While it seems that IL ROVESCIO DELLA MEDAGLIA had found its true calling as a symphonic prog band after all and experienced much coveted success with its first foray into the style, the band suffered a major blow shortly after the release of this album by having all of its unique specialized equipment and instruments stolen in one of the most famous musical heists in prog history. This devastating blow crippled the band so much that even as it was poised to become one of Italy's major prog players, instead the band was forced to call it quits in utter defeat. A very sad occurrence by any means. While CONTAMINAZIONE remains a divisive album for many who claim that this classical meets prog rock hybrid has been done way too many times and that it sounds cheesy, in reality i think IL ROVESCIO DELLA MEDAGLIA did a really excellent job at keeping this Bach inspired album feeling more like an Italian prog release of the 70s rather than just a tribute to a great classical composer.

I may be in the minority but i actually prefer the hard rock / proto-metal style that preceded on the band's first two albums "La Bibbia" and "Io Come Io." Sure they were raw and primeval in their approach but also utterly unique however despite joining the ranks of New Trolls and others, CONTAMINAZIONE is a very well executed album release that showcases the band's ability to completely reinvent itself into the world of symphonic prog and crafted an amazingly beautiful album that focuses on just enough blatant Bach runs to keep the connection well established but obfuscates his influences enough to make the album sound unique. The star of the show on this one is clearly newbie Franco Di Sabbatino who cranked out some amazingly keyboard moves. I'm also one of those who avoided this album for the longest time due to the nauseating album cover art but in the end there is no denying that this is a beautiful tribute to J.S. Bach set to 70s progressive rock. The album has continued to attract audiences throughout the decades and now is even on Bandcamp with a remastered 2.0 edition.