Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - "Banco del Mutuo Soccorso" (1972)

Let me see... I think that Bancos, PFM's and Latte e Mieles first albums are perhaps the strongest debuts, and they were all released in 1972. What a glorious year!
I have read polls and reviews and many are dominated by Banco as favouriteband and albums. And indeed it's not hard to understand why. They surely must have set the scene with their three heavenly albums from 72-73. OK, "In Volo" starts the album, it's a short spoken poem accompanied by romantic and theatrical music. And then comes one of the more famous Bancosongs; "R.I.P"(Requiscant in Pace). I had only heard "Io sono nato libero" before I bought both Darwin! and thi cd at the samt time. So what surprised me was the loud and intense 'live-feeling' in this track. And that goes for the other long tracks also. I also am slighlty discontent with the soundreproduction, it could have been a bit better. But hell, its this version I want anyway (BMG) before the dreadful 90's version of this album.
Anyway, "R.I.P" contains so many great themes and changing mood and signatures that it's hard to grasp. Intense is the word. There are some amazing keyboardthemes here that I find very inspiring. Overall one of their best songs of course.
Then comes a short song played on harpsichord before "Metamorfosi" begins. This too is very good with plenty of that good 'Banco-vibes', fast, complex, astounding. The 18min long "Il Giardino del Mago" opens with a mystic and haunting theme, as always the instrumentation is in total check. The drums sound a bit muffled in places but I can live with it. The singer sings two verses in this first hypnotic part, and then the band breaks into a furious drive, I can't really find this kind of energy on the other two albums by Banco. This is SO good.
The rest of the band adds some backing vocals and make the sound even the richer. And then comes a slower more mellow part. The guitar hits some high notes. And then the piano plays the maintheme. For a while it dwells around this theme. The singer sings in his usual overdramatic way (I don't think he had found his vocal style just yet, on this first album). Indeed a good and complex song.
"Traccia", a short but oh so sweet classical sounding song ends the album. This album is very different from say their 3 release, and also very different to "Darwin!". I still like the rough style they had here. This is a very striking and interesting debutalbum.

In Volo
R.I.P
Metamorfosi
Il Giardino del Mago
Traccia

Go to next Banco album - Darwin!