BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO: COME IN UN'ULTIMA CENA (1976)
1) ...A Cena, Per Esempio; 2)
Il Ragno; 3) E Così Buono Giovanni, Ma...; 4) Slogan; 5) Si Dice Che I Delfini
Parlino; 6) Voilà Mida (Il Guaritore); 7) Quando La Buona Gente Dice...; 8) La
Notte E Piena; 9) Fino Alla Mia Porta.
Since this is not a soundtrack no longer, but
rather a good old concept album, loosely (very
loosely) based around the theme of the Last Supper, with DiGiacomo returning to
his normal place as band frontman, initial hopes of getting another Io Sono Nato Libero are fairly high. But
alas, as it turns out after a few listens, the main problem of Garofano Rosso was not in being a
soundtrack — incredible as it may seem, the band simply started running out of fresh
ideas and basic energy, and Ultima Cena
continues that process.
It is still essential for the fans, since at
this point, the band does not yet show any signs of «commercializing» their
sound. Technically, we are still dealing with the same old Banco: a complex
fusion of classical, jazz, rock, pop, and «San Remo» influences, formally
unpredictable at every turn and aiming for an equally complex mix of emotional
/ intellectual reactions. Nor is there any technical sign of «slacking»: the
Nocenzi brothers and Rodolfo Maltese give themselves no respite, churning out
riffs, solos, and tonal experiments a-plenty.
Bad news, though: it no longer works so well,
particularly in the context of their earlier successes. Banco's musical themes
were never all that «catchy» — their approach to music was more in the
classical than in the rock vein — and while it paid off well during the early
stages, by 1976 the trick was getting stale. There is hardly anything here that they didn't do better
on their first three albums — which is especially ironic considering how much
there is: just about every single stylistic twist, technical move, emotional
pass, etc., that they were capable of will be encountered on one or several of
the tracks. Everything going on at once — and nothing imprintable.
At first, I was afraid it was just me; then I
began to find out that many reviewers had the same feelings — for instance, the
All-Music Guide review clearly stated that the album «shows signs of
breathlessness», although the reviewer was kind enough to let ʽIl Ragnoʼ (ʽThe
Spiderʼ) and ʽSloganʼ off the hook for their «power» and «energy». I wouldn't
be capable of the same kindness. Sure, ʽIl Ragnoʼ has a steady beat, a heavy
bass line, and a distorted guitar riff to keep it going, and the introductory
part of ʽSloganʼ tries to be dark and ominous... but none of that goes far
enough, or, rather, all of it goes too
far: not one of the instrumental parts has enough power to impress on its own,
and, when taken together, they cancel out rather than strengthen each other.
The cogs are grinding with all the required mechanical precision, but somehow, the
clock does not run with the necessary effectiveness.
Some small consolation may be taken in the fact
that this time around, the obligatory soft ballads are almost completely
stripped of that irritating Italian suaveness — ʽE Così Buonoʼ and ʽLa Notte E
Pienaʼ are formed by little acoustic-and-flute patterns that are more in the
old baroque tradition than in the «Mediterranean pop» style, and DiGiacomo's
vocals sound much less manneristic and affected in that setting. Which is not
to say that either one is a musical masterpiece of unprecedented depth and
power — only to say that, with their presence, Ultima Cena reaches a consistent standard of «uninterrupted
mediocrity»: an album that is bound to delight dogmatic fans of «That Classic
Banco Sound», wherever it may be found, but is far more likely to disappoint
those who rigidly demand «progress» from their «progressive». Because this here
is not progress — this is a classic example of stagnation, and (just as it
happened with quite a few other «prog» acts) it may even serve as a weak
justification for the band's soon-to-be transition to an unabashedly pop
stylistics.
"Banco's musical themes were never all that «catchy» — their approach to music was more in the classical than in the rock vein"
ReplyDeleteYou don't point out a correlation here, do you? There are truckloads of classical themes which are as catchy as any Lennon/McCartney melody. Indeed Banco never strived to be catchy, but that has a priori nothing to do with their classical influences.
Even before listening to this album I was ready to assume that the band couldn't achieve the genius of Canto Nomade. Still I think the opener A Cena more than fine to listen to, mainly because of the tasty piano work. DiGiacomo manages to express some melancholy. The guitar part impresses me much less though.
Il Ragno and Slogan remind me too much of Yes on not a particular good day; at best they are unmemorable.
I like E Cosi Buono in fact more than any previous ballad of this band.
The bombastic intro of Si Dice is just cheap pseudoclassical nonsense, immediately followed by rather faceless stuff. Voila is boring; I didn't make it to the end; the expanded tonality simply doesn't make sense. It's aimless. The same would be true for Quando if it weren't so short.
La Notte has an excellent intro; that's something they haven't done before. The medieval (not so much baroque) pastiche that follows is not that special, but still highly enjoyable.
Fino has a good energetic intro but oh is that guitar part generic and DiGiacomo's half parlando doesn't work wel either.
I don't blame Banco too much for not making progress. ELP stagnated after the second album and still wrote some excellent songs and the way Genesis and Yes progressed was not always too sensible.
So I think there is another problem with this album: the guitarist. In my ears the guitar parts are the weakest - it looks like Marcello Todaro was quite important after all. That possibly explains why I like A Cena, E Cosi Buono and La Notte best. My conclusion is that the band here does transcend mediocrity, but on Voila and Quando hits particlar lows.
It's not only the stagnation and not progressing. It is 'stagnation in 1976'. The overall zeitgeist was changed and time worked against prog as a genre. Anyway, this is much better than the faceless 'Jet Lag' by their counterparts PFM.
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