Italian Prog

If yopu would had asked me 2 or 3 years ago I would have voted for PFM without any doubt, but now my opinion has partially changed:

1. The best Italian albums are IMO Darwin! (BDMS) and Felona e Sorona (Le Orme)
2. PFM has the most solid career
3. Can't say which is the best band, because all the mentioned including Quella Vecchia Locanda are superb.
4. One of the few Italian bands I don't like is Deus Ex Machina very much, specially because of Aberto Piras's voice and the lyrics in Latin, if you want good music in Latin listen Gaudete by Steeleye Span.

Iván

Voted PFM, mostly because they did a remarkable impression soundtracking my late childhood. Altaloma 9-5 Live is still spinning in my car every day ! ! ! But I've recently discovered Loccanda and they are great...

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Lunar

I've only come to Italian prog recently too (through the archive) but have to say of all the ones I've sampled PFM are the only band I've bought albums by and their first three are some of the best prog records I've ever heard - can't believe I missed out on this music for so long!

Quella Vecchia Locanda sound pretty good too and Le Orme have a couple of decent tunes.... but.....

while there are good bits on some of the others I am not attracted to the bulk of it. To me most just sounds like bad Eurovision music with extra flutes and hammond organs.

PFM for me are the only ones who seem to cross the cultural divide to sound like a universal band. The rest sound too 'italian' to me (know that sounds weird and I can't explain it - and it has nothing to do with the language, I think it's a melodic sensibility I just don't get and don't enjoy)

I'll keep digging in the hope of more gems but for the moment, for me, PFM are the only real diamonds in the midst of a lot of cubic zirconium.

Fruit wrote: Emperor wrote: -I've got Murple a couple of weeks ago. It seems like that's the only album by them (Great one, anyway!), is it true?   Yes. is true! By the way,it is magnificient band!

Too right! It's a bloody classic, that album. Does anyone know of any live boots or ANYTHING else by them?

Buh?!? Bah?!? Where's Rovescio Della Medaglia?

Come on, even today, Contaminazione is THE ultimate blend of classical and hard rock.

In the long lost has-been section check out: Locanda Della Fate

This discussion is very interesting.The prog has taken root in a lot of regions of the world and  has been interpreted through the tastes and the musical traditions of the place.In the panorama rock is intellectually certainly a sought after and rich kind.The boys' approach to this kind is usually influenced from their studies and in Italy the classical music, that symphonic and the avant-garde of Berio, Varese and Stockausen  have left the sign.Also the search of the musical roots (very varied in Italy)  had his importance.The Italian prog for us Italian it is different from that understood from who Italian it is not.As we probably intend the English or German prog or French in different way from the inhabitants of that countries.Everything this to say that a lot of critiques that I have read in this magnificent site perhaps countersign an exotic approach to the prog in matter.I honestly have however to say that the greatest and more known Italian groups are recognized such all over the world.For many others there would be a lot to discuss as, I believe, for as others that Italian I am not.But this is another discourse, that would interest in general the prog and this is not the place.For an artist that it misses in the database rhyming you to my intervention in Band to add list. 
ciao

You forgive my English

Cesar Inca wrote:   AREA is missing in this poll!! DEMETRIO STRATOS: you're not gone, just a bit far away.

I wouldn't really consider Area Italian prog. For one, their music can't be classified like other Italian prog groups. They didn't have the italian "sound" For two, they were only half Italian... (three Italians, one French, one Belgian, one greek)

Eemu Ranta wrote: Quella Vecchia Locanda ("What an old cottage"?) gets my vote for their two superb albums, although any of the 4 other options would be a great pick. I really like Celeste, Il Volo, Museo Rosenbach, Alphataurus and Picchio dal Pozzo aswell.. the italian scene is endless!

Quella Vecchia Locanda = That Old Inn