miércoles, 13 de mayo de 2009

Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) - L'Isola Di Niente (1974)


Of the three PFM albums that I've heard (the first three Italian language releases), this is my least favorite. With one exception, there aren't any bad songs on the album, but there also isn't much that makes me say "wow" like the first two albums do.

I got off on the wrong foot with this album on my first listen - the opening minutes of nothing but choral vocals had me wondering if I had picked up the wrong album. Once that title track gets going it turns out to be a good symphonic prog track though. Unfortunately, "Is My Face On Straight" comes along next and ruins any goodwill I've started to build up about the album. Featuring some hideous English-language lyrics and poor, accented vocals, this song makes me understand why most hard core PFM fans recommend avoiding the all-English albums.

The remainder of the album is better, but by this point there's only seventeen minutes left. "La Luna Nuova" starts out with a neat little percussion section and then turns into a bouncy number with very catchy violin and synth leads. Probably my favorite song on the album. "Dolcissima Maria" is a bit too pastoral for my tastes, but "Via Lumiere" makes up for it with some really chops-driven and intense sections that sound a little out of place on this otherwise very pretty album.

Overall the good outweighs the bad on this disc, and if you're into Italian prog it's worth picking up eventually. But if you don't already have the first two PFM albums, I'd grab those first.

(C) Ground And Sky.

Franz di Cioccio, drums, percussion, voice;
Jan Patrick Djivas, bass, voice;
Franco Mussida, guitar, voice;
Mauro Pagani, violin, flute, voice;
Flavio Premoli, keyboards, voice

Tracklist:

1. L'Isola di Niente — 10:42
2. Is My Face On Straight — 6:38
3. La Luna Nuova — 6:21
4. Dolcissima Maria — 4:01
5. Via Lumiere — 7:21

Total time: 35:29

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Buy it:

- Amazon (MP3)
- Amazon (offers)
- IBS - Internet Bookshop
- Dada - The Music Movement
- Legal Sounds

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