Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso

BiGi wrote: I can agree on Vittorio and Gianni Nocenzi being technically more gifted than their counterparts Flavio Premoli (PFM) or Toni Pagliuca (Le Orme), and on Francesco Di Giacomo having a distinctive and fascinating voice. As concerns guitar/bass parts I would say PFM is better, though! Then I sometimes find their music too pompous and hard to listen to... Surely their debut effort and Come in un'ultima cena contain outstanding tracks such as Il giardino del mago or Il Ragno (my favourite Banco track up to now) That said, I prefer PFM for their composition skills, but I do surely like Banco (and Le Orme as well)

Agreed 100%.  Banco is amazing at times, but I've found not as easy a listen as PFM is.  I know very little about Le Orme and was very dissapointed with an album I purchased a few years ago (so much so, I got rid of it).  I heard nothing in common with Banco or PFM.  It was quite boring.  Il Fiume I believe it was called.  Maybe someone could recommend a better starting point for Le Orme?

I can agree on Vittorio and Gianni Nocenzi being technically more gifted than their counterparts Flavio Premoli (PFM) or Toni Pagliuca (Le Orme), and on Francesco Di Giacomo having a distinctive and fascinating voice. As concerns guitar/bass parts I would say PFM is better, though!

Then I sometimes find their music too pompous and hard to listen to...
Surely their debut effort and Come in un'ultima cena contain outstanding tracks such as Il giardino del mago or Il Ragno (my favourite Banco track up to now)

That said, I prefer PFM for their composition skills, but I do surely like Banco (and Le Orme as well)

This live album is amazing! Listed on the archives - Seguendo Le Tracce. The sound quality is ASTONISHING! I've never heard such clarity on a live recording, ever!

I don't know of the album you mentioned (I'd love to), I only know of their "Banco", "Darwin", "Io Sono Nato Libero", and "Comein ultima cena" and I absolutely agree, although I am a fan of PFM, too.

I have listened to the said albums a couple of times now, but they look so rich to me, like I've never even sampled them - a continuous revelation, food for thought and music hunger!

Another great from Italy are I think Museo Rosenbach, with their flooding musicianship and overwhelming ideas in Zarathustra.

Listening to that new live album from 1974 as I write this (many thanks to a certain individual), and I am now adament that they are in fact the greatest Italian symphonic band, period. PFM are NOTHING compared to daring composition, expert musicianship and sheer grandeur that is Banco!

Your thoughts?