From: Mark Fonda
Anyone hear of the 70's Italian group IL ROVESCIO DELLA MEDAGLIA (RDM) and the
album CONTAMINAZIONE (1973) which was supposedly the forerunner or inspiration for Los
Canarios "Ciclos'? According to GEPR it is a classical rock album based on the life
and works of Bach, derived from Bach's "Well-tempered Clavier" (harpsichord)
combining Bach motives, orchestral instruments, pipe-organs, choral voices, rock sections
with guitar, synth, etc. It is highly praised by all the reviewers. Has anyone heard it?
..and it IS available on CD!!
From: "Grant Penton"
<>
It is a most excellent 40 min of Euro-prog-rock that does indeed owe much to Bach's
motifs. It is available on CD, as I taped it from a lending library 7 years ago. There's
also an English LP available, called "RDM-Contamination" with a silver cover and
some passable English vocals (at least as listenable as Le Orme LPs sung in English).
Highly, highly recomended, better than Le Orme, on par with the best of Banco, has the
edge of PFM on "The World Became the World" and Il Ballento di Bronzi's 2nd LP.
From: Mathias Thallmayer <>
I have to disagree. I hardly listen to it anymore. And, even when I did, it was nowhere
near as good as Orme or PFM. I say spend your money on something else.
From: <>
Here's another strong vote for Contaminazione! This LP is often considered ONE OF THE BEST
from the 70's Italian progressive era. As with any release, there are always folks that
just do not enjoy it, but I fairly confident on this one that there are enough
enthusiastic "thumbs up" that it warrant at least a try.
Interestingly enough, back when these were only LP's, Contamination (from '75) was easy to
find and Contaminazione ('73) was almost impossible. As far as I know, Contamination was
never released on CD. Beautiful keyboards, vocals, orchestrations and, unlike many from
Italy, very nicely recorded. Luis Enrique Bacolav led the orchestra -- some might recall
him from Osanna and many other efforts. Do not confuse Contaminazione with the prior
release from RDM which was not as classically and keyboard oriented. "Io Come
Io" ('72) didn't even have keyboards, but, surprisingly, was not too shabby of a
release. Never heard "La Bibbia" ('71) or "Giudizio Avrai" ('88) --
does anyone have any comments on these efforts?