Franco Battiato
La Convenzione

With this song, I had complete confirmation that Battiato is truly the greatest thing we have had in Italy. We Italians in the seventies, musically speaking, can really boast of a great many artists, tracks, and albums; we were on par with groups across the channel, and what penalized us was our singer-songwriter tradition which obviously was also felt in the progressive arena, and it was precisely this that penalized the consideration and success of some on the international taste level.

In any case, I am not a connoisseur of Battiato; in fact, I have many gaps. The certain things I know are that, after a period in the late sixties when he published several pieces typical of Italian song (including the cover of "rain and tears" in Italian by Aphrodite Child), he dedicated himself to avant-garde music and experimentation in the seventies and then, in the eighties, to the more commercial side and great success ("Voce Del Padrone", "Arca di Noè", "Patriots" etc. etc.). In the nineties, the two aspects coexisted with an alternation of commercial and experimental works and New World.

But let's go back to the beginnings, namely in 1972 when this single "LA CONVENZIONE" was released, serving as a bridge between the first album "Fetus" and the second "Pollution". We are in the experimental period, and the thing that shocked me about this piece, the first time I listened to it, was the date. A priori, I was convinced it was a piece with a maximum age of 15 years, but then I found out it was indeed from the early period, and my amazement was exaggerated; I didn't believe it was possible in Italy in those years to publish something so "forward". Speaking of the piece, it can be said that it is a preview of the rough sounds of Pollution but with a greater dose of catchiness. The track starts with synth distortions and a nice drum roll, the dynamics are high from the beginning, and Battiato's voice comes in shortly after, high, rough, and violent. The beginning is the most shocking part of the track, truly beautiful.

The lyrics are a futuristic vision of a time far away from ours in which, after a certain convention probably following a disaster/conflict, man tries to find space to live on other planets like Jupiter.

The piece continues very acid and frenetic until the middle, in which Battiato delights in a whispered singing, and then it re-explodes always with the synth sound in the foreground. I really believe this track should be listened to notice the modernity of the sounds and melody. I would say that if it were released today, it could be described as a perfect piece of Italian alternative rock, although what I think characterizes Battiato compared to all other Italian authors is his internationalism, his ability to have no flags. That is why he has always been so distant and unreachable.

The B-side is occupied by the track "Paranoia", which lyrically and musically is very close to the themes of Pollution on pollution and is also distinguished for a certain catchiness. It starts with a soft and psychedelic musical base with almost ironic singing, then thickens more and more, culminating towards the end in an epic seventies-style guitar solo, therefore "in step with the times".

Finally, I conclude by saying that the track is now found on a CD collection titled "La Convenzione", which includes not only two tracks by Battiato (a third also titled “Stranizza d’ammuri”) but also other artists from the Bla Bla label, which was the same one that produced the Sicilian singer-songwriter's records during his "experimental period".

Happy listening and long live Battiato