Formula 3
Dies Irae

THE REVIEW

When they appeared on the scene in 1969, they caused quite a stir. At least in Italy: in a country accustomed to the melodious warbles of Mina (just to name one among many) or the ultra-light music of Sanremo's song enthusiast aficionados that had been dragging on wearily from the late '50s through all of the '60s, Battisti was already a half-revolution. However, it was a period of great change, as we know: fortunately, there was no shortage of talents, and before the explosion of our local prog groups, a series of bands were already stirring in the undergrowth that would be the real driving force for those to come. So it happened that Battisti was the planet around which, from time to time, Dik Dik, i Giganti, the New Trolls, the Camaleonti, Riki Maiocchi, and many others gravitated.

Revolution, it was said. The times were moving fast, and it wasn't too advanced to think like Gabriele, Tony, and Alberto. For sure, they had something new: never before had such a minimal formation been seen. There were only three of them, and in addition, there was no bass, but they pounded as if they were eight. Alberto Radius had played with Battisti (him again...), Gabriele Lorenzi had collaborated with the Camaleonti and little more, Tony Cicco was a perfect unknown. Gabriele's riffs and Tony's violence were inconceivable in Italy at that time, and Radius's guitar was the backbone on which all the songs rested.
Thus, for their debut single, they chose a piece by Lucio, Questo Folle Sentimento. After all, they said, they had something more that others did not have, and there was no need to write songs, at least not right away - the others would do that. And, indeed, there was that "something more": a hard rock attitude, barely softened by Battistian melodies and enriched by the growing progressive trend, which they chose to fully embrace.

And in the end, when it was time to pour that unheard energy onto a record, the songs were ready: four by Battisti, one even by the Bennato brothers - who were just then starting to take their first steps - and two other covers. They brought the sound, and the novelty was clear when the album came out.

To understand what I'm talking about, just listen to the title track: echoes of King Crimson's "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" (which would be released three years later), guitar bombardments intertwining with the ominous atmospheres woven by Lorenzi's Hammond, Tony Cicco being the most frenzied of all and would be for the whole record. In one stroke, the acclaimed hits Non è Francesca, Questo Folle Sentimento, and Sole Giallo Sole Nero are revisited and turned upside down with brazenness, the latter with a long instrumental segment at the end. The classics of the long-haired singer admired by the whole nation are no more, overwhelmed by the zeal of three guys looking at the hard sound from across the Channel as a model to follow, when they don't do so for an easy filler like Walk Away Renee. But throughout the record, there reigns a special atmosphere, a strange blend of hard prog and Italian pop song. It was just the beginning, the first chapter for a group that soon got lost along the way, and that gave much less than it could have.