BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO

In a flourishing and golden 1972 for the genre, another of the fundamental actors of Italian progressive rock appeared on the scene, Banco del Mutuo Socorsso. While sharing the influences of the indispensable E,L&P and similar mastodons of the time, Banco ventured to combine dense structures with baroque and classical elements, unlike their more melodic and gentle compatriots, Premiata Forneria Marconi.

And Banco's eponymous debut album reflects that, where generous and at times mysterious instrumental developments contrasted with intermittent but decisive and overwhelming vocal interventions, mould a work of remarkable pieces. Such as the moribund "R.I.P. (Requiescant In Pace)", of epic character and framed towards its epilogue by the enormous and dramatic vocal register of Francesco Di Giacomo, one of the best of the album, or the Kafkaesque "Metamorfosi", of clear Emersonian influences, a demonstration of the virtuosity of Vittorio Nocenzi and his brother Gianni on keyboards, going back and forth between passages charged with intensity in a counterpoint with Marcello Todaro's guitars and the restraint of Pier Luigi Calderoni's lighthearted percussion, or also the extensive and mysterious suite "Il Giardino Del Mago", unravelled between sombre atmospheric passages and deep sonorous lucubrations again guided by Vittorio Nocenzi on keyboards, the lyrical brushstrokes of the incommensurable Di Giacomo, and the correct bass of Renato D'Angelo.

At the initial and final extremes of the album, both the brief "In Volo" with its spacey aroma and pastoral flutes, and the unhinged "Traccia" with its schizoid choruses and rushed development, add a tinge of immediacy and versatility, complementing the stupendous musical proposal.

With their first work, Banco begins to write their history and make a prominent place for themselves in the Olympus of the Italian vein of the genre, sharing the podium with PFM and Le Orme.

Excellent.

4/4.5 stars