Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso - BDMS (1st album 1972 )

[umbertino]

 

RIP Francesco Di Giacomo ( vocalist)

 

 

Side A In volo – 00:00 R.I.P. (Requiescant in pacem) –02:12 Passaggio – 08:56 Metamorfosi – 10:52

 

Side B Il giardino del mago – 21:08 ...passo dopo passo ...chi ride e chi geme... ...coi capelli sciolti al vento... Compenetrazione Traccia – 39:36

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saw them twice in concert ( 1972 and 1976).....Extra-good...One of their secrets is the double keyboards mode ( piano & organ, piano & piano, organ & organ)....Thanks Nocenzi brothers

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banco_del_Mutuo_Soccorso

 

 

 

Review by Fitzcarraldo
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/uploads/avatars/20060430_164009_Fitzcarraldo.jpg

http://www.progarchives.com/static-images/3stars.gif A very good debut album from an Italian band with an unusual, slightly avant-garde, sound. The album introduces the extremely competent keyboard skills of the two Nocenzi brothers.

The most melodic and exciting track is 'RIP', a real foot-tapper at the beginning and then turning into a rich wave of sound, with Francesco Di Giacomo belting out the vocals. He does sound like he should be singing opera instead of rock though.

'Passaggio' is a short dabble on what sounds like a harpsichord or spinet (instruments not mentioned on the CD liner notes).

'Metamorfosi' is also very good, with electric organ 'metamorphosing' into some very competent piano playing, and back into some great Progressive Rock.

'Il Giardino Del Mago' (the wizard's garden) is very long and has distinct parts with different tempos and feel, some of it very frenetic keyboard playing of staccato, repetitive note sequences that are not particularly musically sophisticated in my opinion (somewhat of a BANCO trait).

The final track 'Traccia' is very good: starting off with fast, repetitive piano but picking up percussion and other instruments along the way and turning into bombastic medieval-sounding music to which I can picture a big public procession marching.

Possibly less interesting than later BANCO albums, this is nonetheless very good and, although I'm being hard in giving it 3 stars (Good, but non-essential), I wouldn't dream of not having it in my collection. But if you want only one or two examples of BANCO, you could do better than this.

Edited January 3, 2022 by umbertino

[umbertino]

 

 

Banco del mutuo soccorso could be translated more or less like this:  Mutual rescue/help bank