FETUS

Poor old Franco. What did he do to deserve such a low score with such an inventive album? At 31 minutes you'd be right in not considering this an album at all. Didn't old 12" singles breach this duration in the 80's?

Anyway, at the age of 27 Battiato decided to go all electronic anti-pop with this little monstrosity of an album. The sleeve doesn't get things off to the best of starts, making me want to vomit before I've even heard a note. I mean, come on - who's gonna buy that!

Undoubtedly he had a great voice which is used relatively sparsely through the strange amalgamation of repeatedly shifting tunes and genres. Apollo 11 Moon landing recordings are used quite brilliantly on 'Meccanica' with orchestral background. The great thing is that no two tunes sound the same on this kooky and unearthly, mostly experimental album. Orchestral sounds re-appear with 'Silenzio del Rumore' along with the melliferous Italian singing of Franco himself.

Thankfully I've not heard too much of his later output, as I'm led to believe he became something of a superstar in Italy.

And we all know what that means don't we...