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Hey there Sorry Staters! What’s cooking’? It sure is a messed-up world right now. Not that it hasn’t always been, but at least up to now we could all agree on what was up and what was down and whether the sky is blue, and grass is green. Not anymore. We’re truly in the upside down or Bizarro World. My anxiety increases daily. I’m just hoping that I won’t be affected negatively in my musical taste and will still be able to tell a good tune from a duff one, no matter what the genre.
These past few weeks have certainly found me spinning a wider variety of records for my listening pleasure. My recent revisit to my Sound Library records and particularly the section devoted to Italian recordings took me on some nice little journeys. I also found myself finally being able to appreciate some of the more adventurous tunes on records that I had previously found tough going. It really is true that you often must be in a certain place in life and have certain experiences and exposure to a wide spectrum of sounds to appreciate a particular piece of music. I would have never listened to half the stuff I do now when I was a teenager. Jazz Fusion? Progressive Rock? Are you serious? Do me a favor. Yet here I am this week playing some rare Italian Prog and digging it.
With that said, my pick for you this week is a record that came out in 1970 in Italy on RCA called The Feed-Back. Credited at the time as self-titled, it soon became known that it was a recording by Il Gruppo or The Group. They are the Gruppo D’Improvviazione Nuova Consonaza, an all-star collective formed in 1964 by experimental composers of the avant-garde. They had in their ranks Ennio Morricone, to throw a name out there that most will recognize. Their mission was to develop new techniques in playing and recording music through improvisation and experimentalism. Generally speaking, musique concrete, free jazz and modern classical are not my jams and this is what you’ll find on the majority of The Group’s recordings, but on The Feed-Back they got a little funky and hip and tapped into the “underground” sound. They weren’t young dudes though by 1970, with most of the players approaching their 40s or older.
The star of the show on the session was without doubt the drummer. Everything is built around his very upfront tight and groovy patterns. Many have compared the beats here to those on Krautrock records from the likes of Neu! And Can. That’s fair, but I wouldn’t want to say they were as good or better. It’s a journalistic kind of thing to say, but does fit. The drummer here was Enzo Restuccia, who was a session man at RCA Italiana and who frequently played on scores for Ennio Morricone, among others.
The rest of the musicians, including Morricone on trumpet, jam around the drum patterns. There’s guitar, bass and piano, along with various percussion to fill out the sound. Only three tracks and done within thirty minutes. It won’t change your life, but whilst it’s spinning it sort of hits the spot.
Original copies of this record fetch high price tags, which is understandable as it didn’t get a huge release back in 1970 and copies are scarce. The pedigree of the players behind the album certainly adds to the allure and brings more people into the chase, and because it has beats you also had producers and DJs on the hunt for it. I first heard a cut from the record years ago in a DJ set that this fellow was playing, and sometime after got a track on a compilation of rare tracks aimed at the DJ and collectors looking for beats and deep cuts. I pretty much gave up on ever finding a copy or being able to afford one if I did, and had forgotten about it. Fast forward to last year and whilst window shopping on Discogs I stumbled upon a guy in the US who had a reissue for sale at a very nice price. So, I bought it and am glad I did as even this reissue isn’t that easy to find stateside, and typically sells for more than what I paid for it. The repress was done by the fantastic Italian label Schema in 2014. They did a great job. Remastered from original tapes, it sounds fine to my ears, although I don’t have an original to compare it to. They did a nice job with the sleeve repro and even chuck in a CD copy for you to go digital. Cheers. An OBI is included with some brief notes and credits the musicians, which the original never did. I need to search for an English translation to the Italian liner notes, however. That might have been a nice touch as a small insert perhaps on the repress, but I quibble. The internet will have the translation somewhere.
Like I said, this won’t change your life, but if you have found that life has twisted your melon recently and you are partial already to some 70s prog and krautrock, then there might be something for you here. Either way, it’s a quick listen and still worth it and that’s my final answer.
Okay, deadline approaches. Back to listening to more Roy Ayers and New York Dolls records.
Cheers and see you next time - Dom