I first became aware of Franco Battiato back in 2001 when I acquired an LP copy of Jumbo's Vietato ai Minori di 18 Anni? (1973) on the Philips label. Strange I would find out about this famous (in Italy, at least) figure through a rather rare and obscure prog rock album (very worthy of your collection, with "Gil", which Battitato guested on, resembling what he did in '72-'73), rather than his career directly, but there you go! I decided his albums from around the same time have got to be just as interesting, and I was right! Franco Battiato had too varied a career to be categorized as one thing. He's done it all: pop, prog, electronic, classical, avant garde, you name it. He even entered the Eurovision Song Contest. But don't let that put you off if what you're looking is for more great Italian prog to add to your collection. Nothing remotely pop about this 1973 offering, Pollution. This is his second LP (Fetus was his first). To me, as excellent as Fetus is, Pollution improves on it! It's more sophisticated, for one thing, and also benefits from a better production, and everything is an improvement over his debut. It starts off with "Il Silenzio del Rumore", where you hear a Strauss waltz with some spoken Italian. Then you get treated with some heavy guitar riffs and organ. Here you might think Battiato had entered the same time of heavy prog covered by the likes of Biglietto per L'Inferno, Museo Rosenbach, Metamorfosi, and the likes, but it ends rather suddenly. "Areknames" is a fantastic piece with great vocals in Italian and very raw, in-your-face use of the VCS-3 synth (Heldon's Electronic Guerrilla has that similar use of raw, in-your-face use of the EMS synth). "Beta" is a rather spacy psychedelic/prog number with themes from "Arkenames" popping up, usually on piano this time. "Plancton" is a truly amazing acoustic number with synth, reminding me of PFM during their more mellow, acoustic moments. "Ti Sei Mai Chiesto Quale Funzione Hai?" is a rather strange number, using a classical piece and electronically modifying it. Franco Battiato himself isn't the only one credited to VCS-3, but also pianist Ruby Cacciapaglia and guitarist Mario Ellepi. I noticed some of the band were credited to a VCS-2. That is something I am completely unaware of, and while I was able to dig up info on every synth EMS made from 1969 to their 1979 demise, completely no mention of a VCS-2 was made (despite mentions of several synths that were never made commercially available but with only prototypes existing). This leads me to believe it was simply the second oscillator of the VCS-3 used to electronically treat the instruments or sound, or something custom-made.Certainly Franco Battiato might create albums not everyone will like, but it's agreed that both Fetus and Pollution are the best place for the prog rock fan to start with. For me, Pollution is definitely the better and I really think it's a totally essential album that needs to be in your collection!