PER UN AMICO

Hello, Prog Archives, this is my first review, and I must say, I'm a little nervous many reviewers here are older (and therefore, more experienced) than I -- an image of myself as a little ten-year-old boy giving a report on "Why Rock is Awesome", hoping that the thin, fragile confidence he has in this report isn't smashed by the glaring disapproval of his peers, comes to mind as I contemplate these words' place amongst the memories of listening to P.F.M. in the seventies for the very first time (memories of which I'm quite envious), or even the recent discovery of this album after years of being a seasoned prog enthusiast. That being said, however, I plan to confidently review this album to the best of my ability, an amateur though I may be in the rich world of prog rock. It is my duty to represent the ears, mind, and voice of the verdant youth! Well, perhaps not such a grave task as that, but still a youthful (albeit rare) perspective nonetheless. Now the first-time jitters and ramblings have ended, and so begins the review.

Per Un Amico was the first RPI group I listened to; when I decided that this was to be my first experience of RPI (ahem...about a week ago, heh heh....) it was a complete shot in the dark; being a newbie, I picked it because I saw that it was the highest rated RPI album on this site, and figured it would be a good representation of the genre. What followed was a most exquisite mind-blowing.

Appena Un Po' starts with an beautiful ambient soundscape, which fades away as a single acoustic guitar plays its somewhat plaintive song. Then enters the flute, along with the multitude of other instruments, and now things a a tad more upbeat. And then an abrupt switch to a little harder sound as the electric guitar comes in. For me, the best part of this song (and maybe the entire album) is roughly three minutes and forty seconds into the song. A few instruments play softly while the group sings in an equally light and airy manner -- and then the synth organ fades in. The vocals sustain a note at the end of a phrase, and the instruments become more prominent. Together they start to ascend -- a rather uplifting, ethereal sound as they get higher and higher, until the vocals stay on the same note while the other instruments continue to ascend, producing a hauntingly mellow turbulence, with much more gravity than before. Easily my favorite.

Generale is an energetic, percussion driven piece with a nice, fuzzy guitar distortion.

Per Un Amico: Features a very nice violin solo. At parts, a little frenetic. At others, very delicate. A very nice, varied track.

Il Banchetto: Very nice vocals here, beautiful and interesting chords. The synth section starts off as a smooth melodic line, then veers off completely in the opposite direction, a somewhat experimental showcase of the synth's capability, and a momentary lapse from P.F.M.'s melodicism. It's pretty amazing. The piano solo seems to draw from both jazz and classical music.

Geranio: A great build up to a somewhat repetitive ending. Especially the exceedingly long fade out. A solid track nonetheless.

My mind was blown, but I feel the band gave it all away in the beginning, and then ran out of steam towards the end (much like this review, I fear!).

For this, 4/5.