Customer Reviews

Chocolate Kings

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Chocolate Kings features the addition of lead singer Bernardo Lanzetti. This expanded the group to six musicians. Lanzetti sounds like a mixture of Peter Gabriel and Gentle Giant's Derek Shulman. All lyrics are in English.

Musically, this album is rich in progressive rock arrangements and songwriting. It is a wonderful mix of keyboards, guitars, violin, flute, drums, and vocals. Six fairly long songs make up the album. This album should be in every prog-rock fan's collection. Too bad the album isn't more readily available.

Buy this album, even if it means applying force to the scoundrels and scallywags who should do a better job of supplying quality music to the masses.

I first heard this in 1977 in my teenage years (at Karma Records in Evansville, IN). It struck me as in the same league as ELP, Genesis, King Crimson, and Tull- GREAT PROG! I bought the LP and wasn't sorry! I still own that piece of vinyl and just found this for sale at Tower Records on the web. The music still holds up. Granted, the vocals and words are clumsy (and almost unintelligible-wish they'd included a lyric sheet!), but the music rocks! It is by far the most "rock" that PFM ever sounded. And it flows better than their second best (in my opinion) LP "Per un Amico". Great keyboards, guitiar, etc. Definitely the best crossover (i.e. American-British sounding) Prog LP recorded by an Italian band.

The very first time I listened to a copy of this disc by a friend, it absolutely blew me out of the water...years later, it still does! Bernardo Lanzetti's vocals add an Ian-McDonald aura to the fine blend of violin, guitar, 'thunder-bass' and awesome Moog/Hammond/Mellotron keyboard work! "From Under" hits you right off the bat with a brashy fusionesque riff only to leave you hanging on to the quiet Hammond swelling up - well, from under. I love the violin melody line after the words "Somebody said 'Don't Sell Me Lies" and the production just carries you away into the winds. "Harlequin" starts with a pleasantly unassuming Fender Rhodes line in 3/4 until Franco Mussida's acoustic guitar falls right in...it has sort of an Italian 'Lucky Man' feel to it (albeit with a dash of Tull). The title track rocks out to fix the jones one would have for a 'live Roundabout' sound, extolling the, uh, 'virtues' of American Culture - check out the swooning Moog solo in the fadeout! No correlation to the next song's title, "Out On The Roundabout", this tune shows of Franco's virtuoso guitar talent, and most accurately represents the velocity, fierceness and finesse these 5 men displayed during their live shows. Finally, a great close-out to the album, "Paper Charms" exhibits incredible versatility in song & verse. The violin solo feels soooooo good in your ears! Sadly, this was to be Mauro Pagani's last effort with PFM, so enjoy the flute/violin combination whilst you can! If you like what you hear, check out their earlier releases as well. Viva Italia!

"Chocolate Kings" found PFM on the way from the progressive peak of "The World Became the World" to the fusion-improvisation of "Jet Lag". The band had brought in vocalist Bernardo Lanzetti, who had better command of English than guitarist Franco Mussida, in an attempt to break into the American market. Lanzetti's hoarse voice is an acquired taste (25 years later, I still haven't acquired it), and the production quality had dropped off a bit from "TWBTW". But the songwriting and arrangements were still first-class, and every song is of high quality. Opener "From Under" is a quiet storm, focused on a drop-dead gorgeous violin-synth theme. "Chocolate Kings" may be PFM's best attempt at a hit radio single (in execution, not airplay). The other three songs all start and end with beautiful slow melodies, with fast, intricate passages in the middle. This album has more of the improvisation that typified PFM's live shows than previous albums. Violin/flute player Mauro Pagani left after this album, and was sorely missed. Good luck making out the lyrics without a visit to a fan web-site, and good luck understanding them even then. The title cut appears to be about the influence of American culture and values on Italy after World War II.

This 1976 release is just fantastic and shows PFM starting to head in the direction of jazz rock that would come to full fruition on Jet Lag (1977). Chocolate Kings is still very much a progressive rock album however, with fantastic playing all around and featuring ex-Acqua Fragile lead singer Bernado Lanzetti for the first time. Although all PFM albums had a high standard of playing, this album seems to pull out all of the stops and as such, ranks among some of my favorite albums by the band.

The lineup on Chocolate Kings includes Franz Di Cioccio (drums, percussion and backing vocals); Patrick Djivas (Gibson "ripper" bass); Franco Mussida (electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals); Mauro Pagani (flute, violin); Flavio Premoli (Hammond organ, piano, electric piano, synthesizers); and Bernado Lanzetti (lead vocals in English). The individual and ensemble virtuosity on this album is simply stunning - these guys are all incredible players (I love the aggressive, trebly tone that Patrick gets out of his Gibson). Bernado Lanzetti has a very unusual vocal style that is definitely an acquired taste - there is a great deal of vibrato in his singing and the quality of his voice is somewhat hoarse (it sounds like he sings from his throat rather than his diaphragm). Still, his voice does not bother me too much - the playing is just incredible and more than makes up for it.

The five tunes on Chocolate Kings range in length from 4'39 to 8'30 with four of the five tracks in the 7-8 minute range. In large part, this album is comprised of very high energy progressive rock with enough jaw-dropping playing to keep all prog fans very entertained. There are some nice dynamic contrasts too and the arrangements are simply top notch. I think that of all the tunes, the title track is the closest the album comes to even vaguely resembling a pop track (it actually reminds me somewhat of Celebration from Photos of Ghosts, 1973) although it too is still over-the top prog with breathtaking soloing.

All in all, this album is very highly recommended along with Storia di un Minuto (1972), Photos of Ghosts, The World became the World (1974), and Jet Lag.

For me, Chocolate Kings is the last genuine prog album of PFM. Everything that the band released during the first half of the seventies, including this one, is worth buying and listening over and over. I wouldn't pretend that Chocolate Kings is PFM's best album, but it certainly can be considered a very creative, complex, dense and intense one. Some of the tracks on this album truly deserve to appear in any anthology of the band. Georges

When I first heard Chocolate Kings, I thought Peter Gabriel had joined Gentle Giant! With more listens, now I think Peter Gabriel had joined Seals and Crofts!

Well, the friendly "blooming with life" atmosphere Seals and Crofts were doing in the mid 70's resembles the music of Chocolate Kings. Of course, the difference is that Premiata Forneria Marconi is a progressive rock band from Italy, not to mention a very respectable one by this point in their career.

I'm just surprised how mellow and updated the production is compared to Per un Amico and Storia di un Minuto. The quality of the songwriting is really high on Chocolate Kings, but MUCH different musically from what you're probably thinking, that is, if you heard this album immediately after the other Premiata Forneria Marconi albums from the early 70's. Chocolate Kings sounds like a completely different band.

This is just a very likeable, pleasant and well, flat out BEAUTIFUL, prog rock album from Italy. Despite the Peter Gabriel like vocals, this is quite the brilliant album. Funny how I never noticed the connection to Genesis before from other PFM albums, and now, seemingly out of nowhere, they resemble Genesis a LOT.

Despite that, I absolutely love the way the vocal melodies flow beautifully into other themes, and that makes Chocolate Kings a fantastic album.

PFM is regarded as one of the finest Italian prog rock bands ever, and when you hear Storia di un Minuto and Per Un Amico, you understand why. They also did some English language remakes too, like Photos of Ghosts (Per un Amico) and The World Became the World (L'Isola di Niente), but those albums demonstrated that English wasn't the band's high point.

Now comes Bernardo Lanzetti, who was previously with Acqua Fragile, who released two albums worthy of your attention, their self-entitled 1973 debut and Mass-Media Stars (1974). Both albums were produced by PFM, so thanks to the PFM connection, it's little wonder Lanzetti joined the band! The band felt they needed a more distinct vocalist, and that's what they got, a vocalist in the Peter Gabriel/Roger Chapman vein.

The band also stopped recording both Italian and English language albums and now stuck strictly to English (as it obviously took less time only having to record one version, and they had enough international recognition to record exclusively in English).

Chocolate Kings was released in Italy in 1975 on the Numero Uno label, but released in the States in 1976 with a different cover (chocolate bar wrapped in an American flag) on the Asylum label, which is really odd company as I usually associate that label with that mellow L.A. sound of the Eagles, Warren Zevon, and Jackson Browne, so PFM was probably the only prog band ever to find themselves on that label.

What's really surprising is PFM still hadn't lost it at all, and created a fantastic album that I think is very much a classic, although many don't feel that way. For one thing this isn't Per Un Amico revisited, but you know it's difficult to top that album, so the band was trying something new, and that's a harder-edged approach with fusion tendencies, and succeeded with flying colors. The pastoral acoustic feel of their previous albums had pretty much disappeared, but that should let that bother you. Flavio Premoli's Mellotron had pretty much all but disappeared, but he tended to use more electric piano (the Moog is still used too). Mauro Pagani's violin work was now more in the fusion style.

Great examples of this more bombastic approach PFM was adopting goes to "Harlequin", which starts off mellow with flute, then gets into some killer jamming, another being "Out on the Roundabout". The title track reminds me a bit of Acqua Fragile circa Mass-Media Stars, but that is little surprise thanks to Bernardo Lanzetti. Of course, like too many great Italian prog albums, the album is rather short, just a little over a half hour, but sometimes better that than a double LP set of iffy material, that's for sure.

If you're not put off by Bernardo Lanzetti's singing (heavily accented English in the Gabriel/Chapman style), and the fact the group pretty much forsakened the pastoral approach of previous albums for a harder-edge approach, I really highly recommend this album!

this is definitive ther best one, aggresive, very well structured, just awesome.

I'm slack jawed with amazement to read the disrespect this INCREDIBLE lp gets from some of my fellow reviewers. For those who have been curious enough about this band and LP to read this far, let me state up front that this recording is ABSOLUTELY one of the greatest prog-rock masterpieces of all.

To summarize as quickly as possible, let me first praise the incredibly skillful musicianship of ALL. To single out any of the quintet for plaudits obscures another, but suffice it to say that even causual listening will quickly amaze you with the dexterity with which the group tears through some incredibly complex material.

I'll be the first to concede that being a great musician alone doesn't guarantee a great record, but in this case, the considerable maestro-horsepower is harnessed to a chariot of five INCREDIBLE songs that seriously thrust "Chocolate Kings" into the upper echelons of progressive rock. A previous reviewer correctly pointed out the haunting violin/keyboard theme of the opening track, "From Under;" strong stuff indeed. Even more impressive to me is track 2, "Harlequin," certainly one of the most tightly-compacted lyrical/instrumental expressions of human anguish ever committed to record. The gentle acoustic guitar & flute opener is garnished with light keyboards, ramping up tension to the furious middle section full of propulsive drumming/bass with snarling keyboard/guitar/violin riffs trading lines with Lanzetti's totally in-the-moment vocal delivery.

Here I must take SERIOUS exception to any slagging of Bernardo Lanzetti's vocal prowess. YES, his command of English was rudimentary, but what an expressive, forceful set of pipes he brought to PFM. I know that our personal appreciation of singers is highly subjective, but from the very first hearing, his powerful voice IMMEDIATELY grabbed me and still moves me now.

To my ears this album has NO weaknesses, except to concede that much of the power of the EXCELLENT lyrics is lost in Bernardo's shaky phonetic rendition. Some vinyl LP's do come with lyric sheets, and they truly do enhance the experience by enabling our full appreciation of the highly insightful lyrics of Marva Jan Morrow, who I never heard of before (or since, to the best of my knowledge). I wonder whether Morrow wrote these lyrics first as stand alone poems and Pagani (flautist/violinist) and Mussida (guitarist) wrote the music around them. The lyrics certainly stand as potent, fully realized works of art independent of the music they were fused to, so it's unfortunate that Bernardo's expression-over-enunciation delivery obscures them so badly. (Write me if you're interested in seeing a lyric sheet.)

The credits reveal that this LP was very much the compositional brainchild of flautist/violinist Mauro Pagani, and unfortunately it proved to be his swan song with PFM. He left the band to do a very mediocre solo album, and PFM replaced him with another violinist, Gregory Bloch, who could bring none of the compositional fire to the band that Pagani provided for "Chocolate Kings." I vividly remember how anxiously I anticipated the follow-up to "Chocolate Kings" back in 1976, and how DISSAPOINTED I was by the all-too aptly titled "Jet Lag" that abruptly brought the band halfway down the pinnacle they'd ascended in '74 with "Chocolate Kings."

Of course PFM still soldiers on, as a quartet, (Bernardo is long gone, unfortunately) and they certainly command respect among us prog-heads as they continue to record and tour, though I confess I haven't kept up with them since the mid 1980's. Still nothing can ever obscure the blinding brilliance of "Chocolate Kings." I say with ABSOLUTE conviction that if you're interested enough to give this underappreciated band a try, THIS IS THE CD TO BUY.