GLI ANNI 70

Most of the reviews of BMS's first three records I have read in this site, describe this band as one of the best of the "Italian Symphonic Prog" genre. I decided that Darwin should be my selection for a first approach to the band. In the virtual store where I use to buy, they didn't have Darwin but I found this boxset instead, and decided to order it.

For those who are familiar with BMS and have their first three records, this review may be useless, but I hope that could help other people like me. The boxset contains two cd's with a total playing time of more than two hours, only one very short track of "BMS" is missing ("Passaggio") and more than 70% of both "Darwin" and "Io sonno natto libero" are part of the selection so it covers great part of the first three albums. It also includes five tracks recorded before the release of "BMS", with a line-up different to the traditional one, in which doesn't appear Di Giacomo.

The music is complex but easy to appreciate if you are familiar with Symphonic Prog. There are obvious British influences (mainly from ELP) and some from jazz-rock, but the band has a style of it's own builded over the skilfulness of Nocenzi brothers' on keyboards and the powerful and tenor-like voice of Di Giacomo.

The music goes from sweet and slow ("Mille Poesie", "750000 anni fa...la amore?") to frenetic (like some passages of "R.I.P.") with frequent changes within a same song, great guitar and percussion and some accoustic passsages. "Canto nomade per un prigioniero politico" includes almost every sound BMS produces, plus a short passage with percussions that resembles an afro-american style, "candombe" (very popular in Uruguay). This track. is one of the highest points of this boxset and could habe been an excellent last track, but there is more!!, "Metammorfosi" is a wonderous closing

All the tracks are great, no weak numbers and very good lyrics. The tracks are not in cronological order, and in fact when some songs of the same album are together, sometimes the original order has been altered. The inclusion of "Miserere alla storia" in the first cd could be a matter of available space, but I think there are some esthetical reasons in the order given to the playing list.

In summary, for those who don't know BMS, this is an excellent selection. If you prefer the individual albums, I suggest to begin with "BMS". You will not be dissappointed.