FRANCO BATTIATO/JURI CAMISASCA/OSAGE TRIBE-LA CONVENZIONE, CD, 2002 (RECORDED: 1972-1975), ITALY

For those with an ear cocked to the kosmiche, Franco Battiato was perhaps the most formidable presence on the Italian 70's scene and the first two of his four tracks here (originally issued as a single in 1972) are the precise sort of mind erasing acid godhead that listeners to his first five albums have come to anticipate; all scything and burbling VCS3 synth haze, Upfull acid guitar filigree and soaring and poignance-twanging vocal keening (the lesser third cut, "Stranniza D'Ammuri" from three years later anticipates his more mainstream pop tendencies that'd manifest themselves later). If I have the story straight, the connective through line for this compilation is that in addition to the four proper Battiato cuts featured here, he was also responsible for producing the remaining tracks here by Casmisasca and Osage Tribe for the Bla Bla label. I've no idea how Camisasca's material squares with that featured on his highly touted solo album from the period (which I've yet to hear), but his five cuts here are a lovely melange of elements, the first two in more of a sophisticated prog pop mode somewhere between Godley & Creme and 801's "Listen Now", the next three veering between Lord Krishna Von Goloka acid folk and explicitly Battiato-ish psychotropic overdrive. The one Osage Tribe cut here is a blazing krautrock-ish sounding power trio shitstorm replete with intoning choral vocals. Please do yourselves a collective favor though and omit listening to the howlingly awful and depressing new version of "La Convenzione" that Battiato felt was necessary to tack on the end here. It's a definitive turd in the punchbowl and after having this monster compilation buffet you from one sublime acid fantasia to another, it's a cold kick in the nuts to be confronted by an 80's-hair-metal-sounding (or whatever this rot qualifies as) version of one of his masterpieces from the 70's, a track that truly proves how much he lost the plot (and evidently the pot) after his glory days in the 70's.

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