At the end of last year, top-shelf San Francisco reissue label Superior Viaduct rereleased the first three albums by Sicilian-born musician Franco Battiato. His name might not ring a bell for many Americans, but in Italy, Battiato’s something of a legend: an avant-garde pioneer who became a mainstream superstar.
Perhaps the overall appeal of his output in total—starting with his frisky pop singles from the 1960s to the adult contemporary-leaning work of his later years—will never be anything but intrinsically Italian. But for several years in the ’70s, Battiato was a one-of-a-kind global visionary, marrying gonzo prog-rock song structures with blurping synthesizers, gentle folk textures, free-jazz wildness, Italian operatic drama, and peerless pop instincts. Often, these elements would collide within a single song. And—on these three rereleased albums, anyway—the result was some of the most delectable, weird, wonderful music I have ever heard. To say that these reissues are worth tracking down is an understatement.
