Customer Reviews

Storia Di Un Minute

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

 

 

This album is not quite as flawless as the other PFM release of 1972, Per Un Amico, in that the final cut, Grazie Davvero, contains some of the cheesiest horns commited to vinyl. That is the one flaw of the entire recording however. The rest of the compositions are among PFM's finest. This disc presents a brilliant marriage of chamber music and rock that results in compositions of great beauty. Where the vocals are in Italian it only adds to the romantic feel of the music rather than detract from overall enjoynment. This band was among the elite of the genre and this recording among their best. Highly recommended...Simon

Few bands achieve this level of beauty and musicianship on a debut album. First released in 1972 in Italy, Storia di un Minuto proved that Italians could beat British progressive bands at their own game. This album and Per un Amico are essential for anyone discovering Premiata Forneria Marconi, the best Italian band ever.

with Banco Mutuo del Soccorso, Premiata Forneria Marconi's music bears no resemblance to BMS neither in style nor in contents, both groups are completely different, the only thing in common is their mother tongue. While Banco's music has a very distinct Italian flavor, PFM sounds more like a British band. Also Banco's music is much more complex compositionally.

The first track, Introduzione, makes a good introduction indeed, progressing from a whisper to a full crescendo. Impressioni Di Settembre is an excellent track, E Festa is OK. The remaining tracks are nothing special, the celebrated Dove Quando inclusive.

This is PFM's first album (1972), entirely in Italian. As another reviewer termed it, this recording is lush, at times even ornate, as well as innocent and mellow. A far cry from the rocking band that Americans were later introduced to. The difference between this album and "The World Became the World" is like the difference between ELP's first album and "Brain Salad Surgery", or between the King Crimson songs "Moonchild" and "Red". There is not a tremendous amount of "rock" here; other than "E Festa", you never hear the drum kit for more than a minute at a time. I have at least a dozen PFM albums by now, and this one is not among my favorites. While it's pretty and well-played, I prefer a rocking PFM. "E Festa" (which you may know better as "Celebration") loses its intensity by having Di Cioccio's drums badly undermixed. I prefer the "Photos of Ghosts" version of the song, and I like "Impressioni di Settembre" better in its later incarnation as "The World Became the World". Only the ending of "La Carrozza di Hans" gives a hint of the prog-rock workout this song eventually became in the PFM live set (check out 1998's live "www-pfmpfm-it" or 2002's "Live in Japan" and you're likely to be much more impressed with this song). While the woodwind quartet on the intro of "Dove...Quando" is nice, the full orchestral brass section playing an atonal arrangement on "Grazie Davvero" is too much for me. "Dove...Quando-parte II" is all over the map, going from rock to semi-classical, then out of nowhere jumping into a jazz vamp. On my scale, this is a 3-1/2 star album, good but not great.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)