AREA DI SERVIZO

Genco Puro & Co. was the name chosen by Italian musician/singer Riccardo Pirolli for the release of his only personal album to date.As Ricardo Rolli he released a couple of singles in the 60's for Durium and Decca and participated on Battiato's ''Fetus'' album in 1971.Pirolli released a couple of singles in 1972 and in return Battiato helped him in his sole full-LP release ''Area di servizio'' for Bla Bla in 1972, singing in a couple of tracks, while the tracks are composed by a mysterious figure named Ed De Joy, reputedly it was Battiato himself.

The original album contains 12 short tracks, none of them exceeds the 4-min. mark, and most of them are a mix of typical Italian-styled Melodic Pop with light Progressive Rock influences here and there.So, there is not much to expect from Genco Puro & Co. than decent song choruses blended often with some artistic music structure, mainly due to De Joy's keyboard arrangements.These are mainly built around piano and moog synthesizers, alternating from Orchestral Pop/Rock to more demanding still melodic passages.The rest of the instrumentation is based on standard acoustic melodies and a soft rhythm section.Of course there are also a few mediocre ballads in a typical singer/songwriter style.The opening tracks are quite good, however the rest of the album is of minor prog interest, flowing more and more in Melodic Pop vein.

Pirolli released another single after the album and remained linked with the music industry, working as a sound engineer and arranger.

The original album is very rare, however a couple of CD reissues by Artis and BTF (with bonus tracks straight out of Genco Puro & Co.'s early singles) make this one an easy to find record.Still the interest for prog fans should be kept relatively low for this album and the only true reason to buy it is the presence of Battiato and the sometimes intricate synth pasasages...2.5 stars.