L'ISOLA DI NIENTE

PFM? PFM! In the grand scale of the RPI movement, there are three bands I commonly think of: Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso, Area, and Premiata Forneria Marconi, or PFM for abbreviation. PFM is kind of the most stand out and recognizable band of the whole RPI movement, kinda like how, say, Caravan was for the Canterbury Scene, or Can in the Krautrock department. There is a good reason why, they are not only the most accessible in terms of RPI, with all the weirdness of Area or the more psychedelic Le Orme, but their sound is very comfortable to get through in terms of symphonic and folk styles of progressive rock fans. Obviously, their most recognizable workings are Storia Di Un Minuto and Per Un Amico, or even the odd Photos Of Ghosts and Chocolate Kings, but recently I have been listening to their fourth (technically third since Photos Of Ghosts is a English remix album for Per Un Amico) studio album, L'isola Di Niente, quite a bit, and it does deliver in terms of some really golden RPI music, but it is not without its flaws..

Unlike the band's previous, more folk and classical sounding works of prog rock fare, L'isola Di Niente takes a different approach and instead implements more rock, jazz, and even slight bits of Gentle Giantesque experimental rock flairs, specifically with the last track of Via Lumiere. I think this new interpretation of PFM's sound definitely has its benefits, as it shows the band can dabble to more prog rock ideals than what they were comfortable doing within their last three records. Additionally, the focus on making their music more proggy in a sense is a great change of pace for me, as previous records had a lot more short handed songs, as opposed to here with the title track being this long and spiraling 10 minute piece. This album really does give itself a new PFM flair for appreciation.

I think that, while this change of direction is good for the band to take, I also feel like they are pulling their inspirations a bit too heavily here, and I think it became a bit of a habit later on with their next 2 records. While these songs are admittedly great, a lot of them feel very much like songs you'd hear from other bands, specifically Yes and Genesis. The guitar playing provided by Franco Mussida has the same flairs and catches as Steve Howe, and a lot of the keyboard playing elements from Flavio Premoli has a considerable Tony Banks aspects to them. They are sort of losing themselves within the threshold of their inspirations, and it is showing a bit more than usual. This, to me, is where I think PFM was losing their original magic, as, while this may sound like an original sound to PFM, they really aren't making it their own on here. It isn't bad to pull from your contemporaries or your inspirations, in fact that is how retro prog bands like The Flower Kings and Wobbler got their footing later on, but here, it, to me, PFM is starting to ditto out and become a bit of copycats, kinda like what bands like Gryphon would do with records like Treason later on after the prog rock hype died down in the late 70s.

This is far from a bad record, not by a long shot, but I cannot help but see it as far from an original and magical album. All of these songs are good and played to the best of the band's abilities, but I cannot help but find the abilities here to be in a rather muddy place. While I cannot say it is all downhill from here in terms of good music from the band, it is the beginning of a new, less PFM sounding PFM.