LIVE IN JAPAN 2002

The first time I put this CD on and listened to the two new studio tracks (Sea of Memories and Bandiera Bianca) I thought, "OK, they've lost whatever magic they once had. Then I got onto some of their older stuff and thought that it was worth further listens. As a result Sea of Memories is now one of my all-time favourite PFM tracks (I just love Franco Mussida's guitar hook), although I do yearn for a bit of Mellotron. From then on I was convinced PFM still have the magic.

Sound quality is excellent and well balanced. In particular Franco's guitar sits well up in the mix (whereas I feel it's a little quiet on the Piazza Del Campo live recording 3 years later)

It maybe lacks the passion of Live in the USA but I guess that's understandable: 30 years had passed, and I get the sense that PFM really feed off an audience's energy. The audience here seems quite small and fairly reserved. As a result many of the performances seem fairly slow paced.

Franz Di Coccio gives it his all on the drums as ever, Franco Mussida can do no wrong in my book on guitar, and Patrik Djivas excels on bass of course. And is there a man more capable of getting the best out of a Moog than Flavio Premoli? (That's a rhetorical question- the answer is NO)

Outstanding tracks for me are:

-Sea of Memories -Rain Birth/River of Life -Photos of Ghosts -Peninsula (quite different from the Jet Lag version and played outstandingly) -Dove.Quando -Mr 9 till 5 -Tokyo Electric Guitar Jam including Alta Loma 5 till 9 (took a bit of getting used to having been reared on the Live in the USA/Cook version of Alta Loma. Barely recognisable as the same track but it is essentially a jam, and a good one at that) -La Luna Nuova/Four Holes In The Ground -Out of the Roundabout- One song I really love from Chocolate Kings but this version does miss Bernado Lanzetti's voice

Less good in my opinion (mainly due to my dislike of the material rather than the performances): -Bandiera Bianca -Promenade the Puzzle -Maestro Della Voce -Si Può Fare (I wish they'd drop this from the set, it's also a low point of the Piazza Del Campo recording)

All in all though there's enough good material on the CDs to justify a decent rating. This still gets pretty regular plays on my CD.

3.5 stars really, rounded up to 4 because of the pleasure listening to the good stuff gives me.