COOK [AKA: LIVE IN THE USA]

If Focus are called the "Dutch Masters" (as a compilation album of their music was called in the seventies), P.F.M. are IMO the "Italian Masters" of Progressive Rock music. This is a very enjoyable album, from start to finish. Even if the quality of the recording of this album is not very good (it was recorded in August 1974), this band shines. They play with energy and feeling. Their music is very original, with their very particular "Italian taste".Even if Progressive Rock was created in the U.K., bands from Holland (Focus), Germany (Triumvirat), France (Ange), etc., took this style of music, and they added their own sound and style influences from their respective cultures.

This album, IMO, was predominantly recorded and released to promote P.F.M.`s International version albums with lyrics written and sung in English ("Photos of Ghosts" and "The World Became the World"), even if "Dove...Quando" was sung in Italian and "Celebration" too. I have read that one of the weak things of this band were the vocals, but I think that the main lead singers (Franco Mussida and Flavio Premoli, I think) do a very good job despite not being "purely lead singers".

This live album starts with "Four Holes in the Ground", the English lyrics version of the song "La Luna Nova". Every member of the band shines in this song, particularly drummer Franz Di Cioccio and keyboard player Flavio Premoli. This song has several changes of tempo, and hard time signatures. It is a good start song for this album.

"Dove...Quando" is a more "quiet" song without drums, but with a bit of percussion. It is played in a Fender Rhodes piano. It also has a very good flute arrangement.A very good "Prog ballad" in the Italian style.

"Just Look Away" is the English lyrics version of the song "Dolcissima Maria". It stars with a an acoustic guitar improvisation. Drummer Di Cioccio plays very good drums in the final part of the song. This song also has a very good flute arrangement. It is very melodical.

The song "Celebration" is really the English lyrics version of the song "É Festa", but the version included in this live album is really the Italian version because it has Italian lyrics. This song also includes a brief keyboard melody taken from the song "The World Became the World" (the original song with Italian lyrics is called "Impressioni di Settembre").The mix of both songs sounds very good.

"Mr. 9 till Five" is the English lyrics version of the song "Generalle" (which didn`t have lyrics in the original version released in Italy). This is also a very good song, with hard time signatures and even with some Jazz influences.

"Alta Loma 5 till 9" is a song which was included for the first time in this album, not being released in their previous studio albums.It is really a very "Jam" song, which starts with a very Bluesy guitar.It has several guitar, keyboards and violin solos, and it is the "heaviest" song in this album. It also includes an arrangement of Rossini`s "William Tell Overture", which closes this long instrumental piece.

IMO, if one Prog Rock music fan wants to listen for the first time to this band, this album is very representative of their music of the seventies. The band was, IMO, at their peak then.