Book123

    Free register and download UseNet downloader, then you can FREE Download from UseNet.

    Download without Limit " Lyrics & Music Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) - Photos Of Ghosts (1973) " from UseNet for FREE!

More

Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) - Photos Of Ghosts (1973)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) is an Italian progressive rock band that achieved a high level of popularity in the 1970's, with success in both the British and American charts. They were the first Italian band to have success abroad. Between 1973 and 1977 they released 5 albums with English lyrics for the international market. They also had several successful European and American tours, even playing at the popular Reading Festival in England and appearing on a very popular national television program in the U.S.A.

PFM came to the attention of Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer during an Italian tour and PFM were signed to Manticore Records. The first album on Manticore, Photos of Ghosts, contained mostly remakes of songs from Per un Amico in English. New lyrics (not translations) were written for the album by former King Crimson member Peter Sinfield, who also helped produce the re-recording and mixing at Advision Studios in London. Photos of Ghosts was released all across Europe, Japan, and North America and represented the first real attempt by an Italian rock band to break into foreign markets. It was one of the first recordings by a European rock group to have significant chart success in the USA. The album contained a new instrumental Old Rain and one track in Italian, Il Banchetto. Photos of Ghosts also included Celebration, (a remake of É Festa) which received considerable airplay on album oriented rock stations. ~ Buy It at Lowest Price on Amazon

I was really amazed watching the PFM+Pagani DVD “Piazza Del Campo” last night which proved that the band is still great after more than thirty years in music industry. Awesome. The opening track of the DVD is my all-time favorite PFM song “River of Life” which represents my first introduction to this album. I was lucky that I knew the album from the English version so I had no problem at all and it seemed natural prog music to me even though when I knew the Italian version later I prefer this album was sung in the band’s mother’s tongue. But it does not mean this English version is bad at all. Well, especially when I consider vocal is another musical instrument as well – what is language anyway? It does not really matter to me. I always come back to my basic philosophy: music is emotion! So, I always find the joy of writing a review as an expression how I feel about it. This “Photos of Ghosts” does its job really well to serve that purpose.

I have always considered this album as one of the finest moments in progressive rock scenes. It blends all elements of classical, electronic (with mellotron sounds that characterized the era), traditional folk, and acoustic music with no particular focus on certain element , such as rock, jazz or pop as later albums being criticized. “River of Life” blew me away at first listen due to “really” touchy melody for the whole song. It opens beautifully by Franco Mussida’s classical guitar work that in a way reminds me to the intro of Genesis’ “Blood on A Rooftops”. It’s probably – accidentally (?) – Genesis heard this before making their Wind and Wuthering album? It’s probably not also, of course. But Mussida’s guitar work is really stunning. It’s then followed with Mauro Pagani’s flute work and Flavio Premoli’s keyboard. The combination of this three instruments in itself has projected a complex arrangement even though it’s performed acoustically. The music suddenly turns into a full blown one with the entrance of drums and bass guitar combined with beautiful violin. The music mood increases and suddenly stops beautifully, continued with first lyrical verse: “River of life …” oh my God … what a great melody! “ Rain was your birth / Gathered deep / Beneath the earth./ Search and seep/ Hollow stone/ Issue and flow ….”. The music flows really well with great instrumentation and heavy mellotron sounds. It’s really a masterpiece!

The second track “Celebration” has an upbeat tempo with keyboard as the main melody and rhythm section combined with the pan-pipe. Vocals are done together by the band members. The album title track “Photos of Ghosts” is another excellent one with a combination of silent passages with the full blown musical streams. Great flute work and keyboards. “Old Rain” explores another acoustic guitar work in ambient nuance combined with a very nice violin. It’s a mellow track with a bit of jazzy / avant-garde touches. “Il banchetto” is another excellent track that was not translated with an excellent combination of keyboard and acoustic guitar. “Mr. 9 till 5” and “Promenade the puzzle” are also classic tracks that have become legendary as well.

Sonic quality is excellent. The instruments were impeccably recorded with clean mixing, so when I turn my volume louder all instruments can be heard even better. This combines the left balance of simple and complicated arrangement. The musicians seemed like having shared the same feelings in composing the album as they seemed playing with their hearts and their minds. Highly recommended album! ~ Review by Gatot Widayanto @

Tracklisting:

1. River of life (6:58)

2. Celebration (3:53)

3. Photos of Ghosts (5:23)

4. Old rain (3:41)

5. Il banchetto (8:35)

6. Mr. 9 till 5 (4:11)

7. Promenade the puzzle (7:33)

Total Time: 40:14

Line-Up:

- Franz Di Cioccio / drums, vocal

- Franco Mussida / electric and acoustic guitar, vocal

- Mauro Pagani / flute, violin, Windwood, vocal

- Giorgio Piazza / bass

- Flavio Premoli / keyboards, Hammond organ, piano, Mellotron, Moog, Vocal

Get it here:

| |

Password: & 119;& 119;& 119;& 46;& 65;& 118;& 97;& 120;& 72;& 111;& 109;& 101;& 46;& 114;& 117;

Rating:
2.5 out of 5 by Book123