Contaminazione

Gracias

This CD is a Master Piece of Progressive Rock no doubt's!!!!!!!

Nice little Italian prog gem. Bold musicianship, creative and groovy. But poorly burnt on CD - it is fragile in about every cd-player I have played it on.

Excellent.

I think that this is one of those "underground" classics that people hear mentioned in other reviews of Italian progressive music but have not heard it. I, for one, took the chance and bought a copy. It is captivating, wonderful and rough around the edges. It is indeed contaminated classical (baroque) music but a fascinating one that should delight any fan of symphonic rock. Now, for the one star from being an overall masterpiece. The K2 24 bit mastering has significantly broadened the sound. The bass is low and articulate. The midrange is "in your face". The treble, is overbearing. I had to make a copy of the recording, turning down the treble significantly to make it palatable to the ears. It was almost painful to hear the violins. For the money, it should be a great recording, not one that needs further correction. Where was the engineer? What happened?

For many years I have been familiar with Contamination, the English language version of this album, because I owned the LP. I thought that album was a wonderful combination of prog and classical, specifically that of Bach, my complaint being that the English vocals didn't go natural for that band (much like PFM's Photos of Ghosts). Now I have got the original Italian language Contaminazione, which while sounds all pretty much the same (maybe some slight differences in places), the Italian vocals are definately an improvement. Prior to Contaminazione, the band had already released two hard rock albums, Io Come Io (1972) and La Bibbia (1971), neither not too well liked in the prog rock community (although I don't think La Bibbia is that bad - it's actually pretty good, albeit rough and unpolished hard rock). But then the band added a keyboardist and totally switched directions. The band hired Argentine-born Luis Enriquez Bacalov to conduct the orchestra (he already already did this for Osanna's Milano Calibro 9 and New Trolls' Concerto Grosso Per 1). Here the band bases their music on Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, with lyrics that tell the story of a Scottish musician so obsessed with the music of Bach he thought he was the composer's son, and eventually went insane. While the Moody Blues, Procol Harum, Renaissance, Rick Wakeman, Ekseption, Deep Purple, New Trolls, and Osanna had all explored rock with orchestra concepts, RDM decided to do their own, and made a great album in the process. Lots of great guitar and keyboards (Mini Moog, VCS-3, ARP 2600, Hammond organ, Eminent, harpsichord, pipe organ). There are some passages that bring to mind New Trolls' Concerto Grosso Per 1, I guess that's no surprise, given Bacalov was involved in both. There are some rather experimental passages, and short interludes that go between actual songs like "Ora Non Ricordo Piu`", "Lei Sei Tu: Lei", "La Mia Musica", "Johann", "Scotland Machine", and "Alzo Un Muro Elettrico". Often this involves grand use of organ, strange electronic effects, orchestra, the occasional jazzy passage, and so on. I thought the band ran a bit out of steam with the final piece, "La Grande Fuga", but still this album is deserving as one of the all-time great prog/classical hybrids. If you enjoy the Osanna and New Trolls albums mentioned, Bach, and Italian prog in general, this album is another must.

Je possède la version anglaise en LP depuis les années 70, j'ai récemment acquis la version italienne que je trouve plus fine. Le mélange de classico-baroque, synthés, rock et un brin de jazz est unique. Le son notamment les cordes, les claviers et les voix sont magnifiques. Par les interprétations touchantes nous décelons l'obsession d'un musicien qui a aimé Bach jusqu'à en devenir fou (particulièrement dans 'La mia musica'). RDM n'est pas aussi connu que groupes comme PFM ou Gentle Giant mais sont tout autant dans une classe à part. Bref: Un chef d'Oeuvre. I had the english version LP in the 70's, and I recently purchase the Italian version which I find more sensitive. The mix of classisism, synth, rock, a bit of jazz, is unique. The sound in particular the strings, organ and the voice is magnificent. Thru the sensible interpretation we feel the obsession of the musician who loved Bach so much that he became insane. RDM is not a well known band but they are for me in the same class as PFM, Gentle Giant. A masterpiece.

As a a teenager in 1976 I lived in Italy. Being 18 at the time I did not hang out with the other Army kids, but rather being fluent in Italian I hung with Italian youngsters. These kids took me to see RDM despite my initial scoffing at Italian rock bands. RDM performed this album in its entirety during the course of an incredible evening, during which I was totally blown away. Rarely have I seen musicians of the caliber of RDM or heard music of such power. An intimidating experience for a young musician and one that I still draw from. Not for the faint of heart, this is heavy listening but well worth the effort.