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Thread: FEATURED CD - Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) : Chocolate Kings

  1. #26
    Excellent album, even if Lanzetti sounds like some kind of half man-half goat hybrid.it works!.

  2. #27
    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER View Post
    Bill, have you heard one of their recent albums called Stati Di Immaginazione? Being a major PFM fanboy I can tell you that it is their best album since L'isola Di Niente and, even though it is a totally different thing than L'isola, it may actually be just as enjoyable to listen to!
    Stati Di Immaginazione is fantastic. The piano break on the first track is simply gorgeous. I had to buy the CD/DVD version of that because the CD went out of print rather quickly!
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  3. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by presdoug View Post
    One of my favorite PFM albums. Very emotional for me. Lyrically, very interesting. It has stood the test of time for me very well. Don't understand the hatred that exists for it, it's awesome!
    +1

  4. #29
    Member bill g's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER View Post
    Bill, have you heard one of their recent albums called Stati Di Immaginazione? Being a major PFM fanboy I can tell you that it is their best album since L'isola Di Niente and, even though it is a totally different thing than L'isola, it may actually be just as enjoyable to listen to!

    there, I said it... Stati is tied for 3rd of PFM's greatest albums IMO
    Yes, I own that one, but will have to revisit. Honestly, I found the composition weak-too straightforward and surfacey, without depth-more like jams than great composition. But sometimes if I hear something in the proper mood, I'll connect with it where I didn't before, so I will try again.

  5. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by presdoug View Post
    One of my favorite PFM albums. Very emotional for me. Lyrically, very interesting. It has stood the test of time for me very well. Don't understand the hatred that exists for it, it's awesome!
    +1 more

    This album flat rocks and Lanzetti never bothered me at all.

  6. #31
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Watanabe View Post
    Excellent album, even if Lanzetti sounds like some kind of half man-half goat hybrid.it works!.

  7. #32
    Member Paulrus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Watanabe View Post
    Excellent album, even if Lanzetti sounds like some kind of half man-half goat hybrid.it works!.
    I have to admit his vocals bother me the way Roger Chapman's do in Family. There's no denying the excellence of the music, though.
    I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.

  8. #33
    Quote Originally Posted by Paulrus View Post
    I have to admit his vocals bother me the way Roger Chapman's do in Family. There's no denying the excellence of the music, though.
    Chapman is one of the things I like in Family.

  9. #34
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    Great album, period. I was very glad with the Esoteric reissue a while back. Haven't played the live-bonus-cd though (and I own this album since this reissue was released). Should I be ashamed?

  10. #35
    Member chalkpie's Avatar
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    I don't think I have actually ever heard this one. I am usually turned off by English lyrics in Italian bands (my least fav track is the "Face" track on L'isola), but maybe I'll give this one a test drive due to the praise here. I have been bingeing on the first three which are just absolutely phenomenal albums.
    If it isn't Krautrock, it's krap.

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  11. #36
    Recently bought Jet Lag , really enjoy. The track Traveler is my favourite on that album. Does anyone know the time signature? And also unique sounding Moog tone on the outro solo, very interesting.

  12. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jaco View Post
    The track Traveler is my favourite on that album. Does anyone know the time signature?
    The first half? It's a 22-beat pattern divided up 3+3+2, 3+3+3+2+3
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  13. #38
    Quote Originally Posted by chalkpie View Post
    I don't think I have actually ever heard this one. I am usually turned off by English lyrics in Italian bands (my least fav track is the "Face" track on L'isola), but maybe I'll give this one a test drive due to the praise here. I have been bingeing on the first three which are just absolutely phenomenal albums.
    Oh man, Chocolate Kings has some great moments. It’s not quite as high up there as the first three (for me), but it’s well worth having/hearing.

    I’m not nuts about the lyrics and singing in “Is My Face On Straight” from L’isola, so I can understand. Although musically I love it. It gets spine-tinglingly good towards the end.

  14. #39
    Member chalkpie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by aith01 View Post
    Oh man, Chocolate Kings has some great moments. It’s not quite as high up there as the first three (for me), but it’s well worth having/hearing.

    I’m not nuts about the lyrics and singing in “Is My Face On Straight” from L’isola, so I can understand. Although musically I love it. It gets spine-tinglingly good towards the end.
    I did side one of Kings last night....quite good! Vocals are OK but musically these cats were/are monster players and the writing is still quite good, albeit more fusiony. But yeah you're right - definitely worth hearing and I won't be afraid to lump it in with the rest when a PFM mood pops up.
    If it isn't Krautrock, it's krap.

    "And it's only the giving
    That makes you what you are" - Ian Anderson

  15. #40
    PFM are an odd band for me. Per Un Amico is literally desert island disc stuff...I just adore every second and after having Photos of Ghosts for a number of years it was one of my favourite musical discoveries (in the old flagship HMV in London) that there was an Italian version. With a WAY better mix and vocals (to my ears at least).

    I quite like the two albums either side but nowhere near to the same degree. And Chocolate Kings is probably level with them. That bit in Harlequin around 3:15 where it starts speeding up is magic

    Matt.

  16. #41
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    I bought the Manticore box and the first two last year. I dig 'em all.

  17. #42
    Member since March 2004 mozo-pg's Avatar
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    I much prefer the first three PFM's albums.
    What can this strange device be? When I touch it, it brings forth a sound (2112)

  18. #43
    Member Since: 3/27/2002 MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER's Avatar
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    I concur with the majority here that the first 3 are classics. CK is (to my ears) an attempt to sound like Yes when (to my ears) the first 3 albums are lightyears beyond anything Yes ever did
    Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?

  19. #44
    Quote Originally Posted by aith01 View Post
    Oh man, Chocolate Kings has some great moments. It’s not quite as high up there as the first three (for me), but it’s well worth having/hearing.

    I’m not nuts about the lyrics and singing in “Is My Face On Straight” from L’isola, so I can understand. Although musically I love it. It gets spine-tinglingly good towards the end.
    Say what you will about Peter Sinfield, but it’s pretty obvious to me that he wasn’t giving PFM his “A” material. IMFOS is a pretty ham-fisted attempt at satire (and I agree that it’s excellent musically, nice accordion solo! I’m being sincere!) but at least that’s better than something like “Promenade the Puzzle,” where he’s clearly just pulling random imagery out of his ass.

    At some point he just quit caring. It’s a slippery slope from something like this to “Taste of My Love,” Bucks Fizz and Cher.

    CK was Marva Jan Marrow, right? A singer-songwriter from Colorado, displaced in Italy. She had already worked with Acqua Fragile and Banco. Of course, in Italy itself she’s probably best known for “Our Dear Angel,” her English version of Lucio Battisti’s “Il nostro caro angelo”:

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  20. #45
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    Compared to the previous PFM's albums, "Chocalate Kings" is an extremely frantic and it's maybe the most remarkable thing about this record. So many driving rhythms, hectic disturbed lines, lots of crisp bass runs and groovy instrumental parts. As a result, the wonderful rapturous moments that characterized PFM so much in their previous records are largely lost, but the tendency towards this could actually be foreseen already on "L'isola di niente". In any case, I still enjoy the fine instrumental work on this album, sometimes I even feel a bit reminiscent of early Yes, especially on "Harlequin" and the title track. To be honest, I miss their pastoral atmosphere which only shimmers through here occasionally, but "Chocolate Kings" still offers a solid prog-rock in which I especially like the powerful violin parts.
    Lanzetti's singing takes some getting used to, sometimes it slips too much into a pressed grumbling. The change to singing in English doesn't suit me either. Maybe the problems with singing are also due to the fact that in a foreign language singing often seems troubled and unnatural. Normally, I prefer Premiata Forneria Marconi stuff sung in Italian. The singer Bernardo Lanzetti (ex-Acqua Fragile) was new on the board on this record, he was often referred to as "Peter Gabriel of Italy" and although for my part I don't want to agree, there are certain vocal similarities in the quiet passages (yes, a few seconds of quiet passages can already be found on "Chocolate Kings").
    Overall, "Chocolate Kings" is an okay album that has a really great title track, as well as "Harlequin" and "Out on the Roundabout" that are classics often perfomed during the band's live performances. However, if you don't have anything from PFM yet, you'd better buy their ultimate masterpieces "'Storia di un Minuto", "Per un Amico" or "L'Isola di Niente".

  21. #46
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    I always found the debut a bit overrated but 2 and 3 are stonkingly good and I struggle to choose between the two.

    CK I go back to periodically but have never loved. I find my attention wandering. The sound is much thicker but commensurately less attractive.

  22. #47
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    Lanzetti's singing in English is in my ears less-than-desirable, difficult to ignore, where as his singing in Italian on Passpartu doesn't bother me at all.

  23. #48
    Member chalkpie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lovecraft View Post
    I always found the debut a bit overrated but 2 and 3 are stonkingly good and I struggle to choose between the two.

    CK I go back to periodically but have never loved. I find my attention wandering. The sound is much thicker but commensurately less attractive.
    Debut overrated? I give that sucker a 10/10....as good as Per un Amico in my eyes. Isola loses a tad of the magic of the first two for me but it's still growing on me.

  24. #49
    Perfection is overrated.

  25. #50
    Quote Originally Posted by chalkpie View Post
    Debut overrated? I give that sucker a 10/10....as good as Per un Amico in my eyes. Isola loses a tad of the magic of the first two for me but it's still growing on me.
    Interestingly, it's kind of the reverse for me -- L'isola I'd rate as good as Per un Amico, with the debut just slightly behind them. However, Storia has "Impressioni di Settembre", which is one of the most wonderful songs anyone has ever made IMO.

    I'd never call Storia di un Minuto overrated. It's lovely.

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