Meccanica - Mechanics

Meccanici i miei occhi Di plastica il mio cuore Meccanico il cervello Sintetico il sapore Meccaniche le dita Di polvere lunare In un laboratorio Il gene dell'amore Meccanica © 1971 Franco Battiato In the final third of "Meccanica" you hear a slowed down, sampled version of Bach's Aria from Suite No. 3, over the voices of the Apollo 11 astronauts.

Mechanical my eyes, of plastic my heart, mechanical the brain, synthetic the taste. Mechanical the fingers, of moon dust in a laboratory the gene of love. English translation © 2020 Dennis Criteser “Franco Battiato is often heralded as Italy's answer to Brian Eno. . . (Battiato) turned pop music upside down in the early '70s with three classic LPs – Fetus, Pollution and Sulle Corde Di Aries – that formed a confluence of avant-folk sensibilities and analog electronics. . . With his trusted VCS3 synthesizer, Battiato created primordial soundscapes that shift between dreamy and delirious. His unsentimental, yet evocative voice – combined with a sublimely detached approach to lyrics – spawned a new breed of divergent songwriting. Fetus, a concept album exploring themes of genetic engineering, is enigmatically sub-titled "Ritorno al Mondo Nuovo" (Return to the New World) and dedicated to Aldous Huxley. . . Battiato’s infectious melodies and innovative sound-collage techniques remain uniquely spry . . . (behind) the curious beauty of Fetus.” – Superior Viaduct review. Fetus was released in 1971 on the small alternative label Bla Bla. The provocative cover led many stores to not even display the album. The inside cover is of Niki de Saint Phalle's Hon (She) sculpture from her 1966 installation for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The lyrics on Fetus were written by Sergio Albergoni and Gianni Sassi under the pseudonym of Frankenstein, and then fine-tuned during recording by Battiato. Their publicity agency, Al.Sa., was also responsible for publicizing the album and subsequent tour, and the duo were quite involved in collaborating with Battiato and in creating his public persona as a ground-breaking and iconoclastic new artist. Just when recording was to begin on the album, Battiato was drafted to serve in the army. He was so unsuited to military life that, through his passive resistance to doing anything, he ended up being shuffled around the country in various military hospitals until ending up in one in Milan, from which he was able to escape at night and go into the studio to record the album. The music was not composed in advance, but rather developed in the studio, with input from all the musicians and from the recording engineer as well. Battiato was the second to purchase the newly invented VCS3 synthesizer, the first being Pink Floyd.

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