Dprp Reviews Premiata Forneria Marconi (Pfm) Chocolate Kings
While other important Italian bands emerged in the heyday of the 1970s, such as Le Orme and Banco, when information technology comes to progressive stone, none can hold a candle to Premiata Forneri Marconi, commonly known in the English language world as PFM. Whether PFM is better or worse than whatsoever of these other groups is provender for bulletin boards and chat rooms; only when it comes to international popularity and sheer record sales, PFM remains the flagship Italian symphonic prog ring, despite a gradual evolution towards fusion in the latter half of the decade. All the same, PFM'southward eminent and unmistakable Mediterranean vibe distinguished it from groups cited as seminal influences: Rex Crimson, Yes , Gentle Giant , Jethro Tull , the largely forgotten Black Widow and progressive rock super group, Emerson, Lake & Palmer .
It didn't hurt that, subsequently 2 Italian linguistic communication albums—Storia di united nations minuto (RCA, 1972), and the fifty-fifty better Per un amico (RCA, 1972)—the group which began life as I Quelli, recording Italian versions of international hits like The Turtles' "Happy Together" ("Per vivere insieme") and Traffic's "Hole in My Shoe" ("Tornare bambino"), caught the involvement of ELP's bassist/singer/guitarist Greg Lake, who signed the group to the progressive rock super group's fledgling Manticore label. Prepping PFM for the international market meant they'd need to turn to English lyrics, and with ex-King Crimson lyricist Peter Sinfield onboard, it seemed that they had all the ingredients to make a good run at breaking out of Italia and to attract a global audience, at a time when "progressive" wasn't a dirty word—and was, in fact, selling LPs in the millions, with bigger acts like Yes, Crimson and ELP drawing arena-sized crowds.
While PFM'south Manticore releases have been available off and on over the years, they've largely suffered from poor availability and/or substandard digital transfers. The good news is that, every bit part of acquiring the rights to Manticore'due south entire catalog (also including Banco'due south two English language releases), Britain's Esoteric Recordings has been reissuing, during 2010, PFM's entire Manticore discography, with significantly upgraded sound and a compensation of bonus material—the most important of which tin can exist found on 1976's Chocolate Kings, with its full second disc containing a previously unreleased live show from Nottingham, UK in 1976, and an expansion of the group's only official live album of the 1970s, Cook (1975), from a single disc into a comprehensive iii-disc express edition box that also includes an entire concert from Primal Park in New York Urban center, newly remixed from the original 16-track masters.
PFM may take peaked in the mid-1970s with its five Manticore releases, despite committed prog fans typically preferring the grouping'southward Italian releases, only continues to this 24-hour interval, notwithstanding cartoon crowds in Italy and Japan, with a 2009 return to America at NEARFest, afterwards 3 decades, proving that the resurgent progressive rock camp of the past decade has not forgotten this groundbreaking group. PFM as well continues to deliver new releases, despite having a lot to live up to with a serial of 1970s albums widely considered to be the group's high watermark. A specially first-class double-live set, Live in Japan 2002 (Sony Music, 2002) mixes old classics with newer material as deserving of consideration, and proves that the core grouping—guitarist Franco Mussida, keyboardist Flavio Premoli, drummer Franz Di Cioccio and bassist Patrick Djivas—all the same has what it takes to deliver the goods. A more recent all-instrumental try, Stati di Immaginazione (Sony, 2006), found this line-upward reduced to a trio with Premoli's difference, but regardless, PFM continues to remain vital and viable, even though its glory days seem long past.
PFM
Photos of Ghosts
Esoteric Recordings
1973 (reissued 2010)
Photos of Ghosts benefitted from the group already possessing a repertoire ripe for the plucking, though many of the album'southward seven original tracks are more than than just instrumental tracks from Storia di un minuto and Per un amico with its Italian vocal tracks replaced. The calm, string-driven intro to "River of Life" that appears on Per un amico's "Appena Un Po'" is gone; instead, Mussida's classical guitar starts on a more than definitive note, with woodwind multi-instrumentalist / violinist Mauro Pagani joining in on flute, the counterpoint gradually expanding to include Premoli and bassist Giorgio Piazza (the grouping's original bassist, replaced on subsequent albums by Djivas) in a melodic whirlwind reminiscent of Gentle Giant simply with a sunnier disposition. When Di Gioccio enters with a propulsive backbeat that grounds a weightier section so fluidly filled with intertwining lines as to make finding "i" a challenge, it's clear that, for the international market unfamiliar with its extant Italian releases, PFM has arrived.
It's a strong opening every bit potent as any progressive rock album of the time, defining PFM's wide characteristics in a scant, simply texture- and thought-rich vii minutes. "Episodic," moving from nearly-pastoral folksiness to thundering, mellotron-driven power, is of its fourth dimension, yet somehow avoids sounding dated, even with its vintage synths. The group wears its influences a fleck too heavily on its sleeve, perhaps; Gioccio, in particular, who draws from the spare but innovative arroyo of King Crimson's founding drummer, Michael Giles. But while at that place'southward plenty of virtuosity on brandish here, there's as well precious little of the grandstanding to which many of PFM's English cousins were, by this time, falling prey. Non that Photos of Ghosts doesn't possess its fair share of bombast; but it's somehow a more selfless kind of musical grandiloquence that doesn't isolate any i musician (they're all expert); instead, it's unmistakably a grouping effort and feels similar 1. Few groups are capable of true democracy, simply with Premoli and Mussida writing about all the music, its focus remains on the music, rather than overt individuality. That would come later, with its live shows.
Storia di un minuto's "È Festa" is even more than extensively revamped—and improved upon—every bit "Celebration," the radio-friendly but however uncompromising mini-epic that garnered the PFM'southward starting time radio play in the UK and helped push button the anthology into the BillBoard's Tiptop 200 in the Usa, significant airplay across North America, and even an appearance on NBC's popular Midnight Special idiot box bear witness in 1975. The title rail, " Mr. nine 'til five" and "Promenade the Puzzle" were all more than faithfully drawn from Per un amico—"Per Un Amico," "Generale" and "Geranio," respectively—with Sinfield's lyrics the only significant alter, though they were remixed for the English release.
Perhaps the just flaw with Photos of Ghosts and its follow-up, 1974'southward The World Became the Earth is that PFM'south singers—Premoli, Gioccio and Mussida—spoke very little English language, and with Sinfield'due south lyrics sung phonetically, any emotional resonance the vocals might take possessed was through instruction rather than actual connection with the words themselves. However, while foreign groups singing in their native tongues is now much less an event on the international front (though withal far from being a non-result), at that time it was rightfully felt that PFM would accept picayune chance at success away, if nonetheless singing in Italian.
Still, forgiving ears can and should requite PFM a break for their overt try to crossover. The pronunciation and enunciation may be a bit stilted—something brought into even sharper focus with the contrast of one song included in Italian, that was lifted, unchanged (other than, perhaps, being remixed), from Per un amico, the folk-informed "Il Banchetto." Based on Photos of Ghosts and The World Became the Globe, PFM's original singers possessed unmistakably lovely voices—a mellifluous quality that would exist largely lost when the grouping recruited an English-speaking Italian vocaliser, Bernado Lanzetti, for its last two Manticore discs.
Just more than nigh Lanzetti subsequently. There's simply not a single weak rails on Photos of Ghosts, including the brusque instrumental, "Onetime Pelting," a specially gentle characteristic for Mussida'south classical guitar, and Pagani'south violin and flute, not found on either Storia de un minute or Per un amico. With its stunning international debut, in many means PFM demonstrated a more thorough classical background that actually surpassed its English peers. During the middle section of "Il Banchetto," a keyboard extravaganza of surprisingly selfless proportions, Premoli'south synths recall the Camarata Contemporary Sleeping room Group's series of synth-laden reworks of French composer Erik Satie, beginning with The Velvet Admirer (Deram, 1970). Even when the keyboardist switches to 1000 pianoforte for a solo segment as impressive (albeit less overtly pyrotechnic) every bit anything Rick Wakeman or Keith Emerson ever did, again at that place's a refreshing focus on the music and non the musician. Perchance the members of PFM would be better-known individually today, had they behaved more than like their English counterparts, only it's what makes Photos of Ghosts such a refreshing record.
Esoteric's reissue also includes thirty minutes of additional material, including first mixes of "River of Life," "One-time Rain" and "Il Banchetto," as well as instrumental mixes of the title track and "Mr. 9 'til 5," and a single edit of "Celebration." Most are of passing interest and far from essential, with the exception of "Mr. 9 'til 5," which actually works improve as an instrumental, without what is the grouping'southward least successful English vocal on the album.
PFM
The Earth Became the Globe
Esoteric Recordings
1974 (reissued 2010)
In Ernesto de Pascale's liner notes to Photos of Ghosts, PFM drummer Franz Di Cioccio is quoted as proverb, "From the very beginning nosotros decided that every PFM album had to be different from the previous one, even if it was a massive success...Every song belongs to an album that reflects a specific way of feeling and that was recorded in a specified period of time...If yous are a professional musician, you e'er take to deal with your present, not only with your past." While each successive anthology in the group's Manticore run from 1973-1977 demonstrates unequivocal—in some cases, completely redefining—development, they're also clearly built on by lessons. And and so, while The Earth Became the World is an anthology that couldn't accept existed without Photos of Ghostsbefore it, it's also a major step forward, in no pocket-size function due to the replacement of bassist Giorgio Piazza with Area'southward Patrick Djivas. Not that there was annihilation inherently wrong with Piazza, but Djivas possesses a phonation instantly more dominant and immediate on the opening nearly eleven-infinitesimal opener, "The Mountain," where his driving pulse elevates one of PFM'south most exhilaratingly dramatic epics.
But before the group enters, at that place's a ii-minute introduction, featuring an uncredited choir, that supports Cioccio's suggestion that, compositionally speaking, PFM never repeated itself. Mussida'southward choppy rhythm guitar signals the entry of the group, and his serpentine lines running underneath the vocal possess a more biting tone that adds to the anthology'south more aggressive opinion, also heard on tracks like "Is My Face on Straight?," which features a fluid flute solo from Pagani, over Djivas and De Cioccio at their funkiest, and "Have Your Cake and Beat It," that brings the introduction of Djivas as a significant new voice to the group full circle. His opening bass solo on this instrumental album closer is a virtuosic (and more than self-directed) pb-in to a fiery 13/eight section where, with Pagani's violin soaring over Mussida'due south once again choppy rhythm guitar, PFM moves towards a incomparably jazz-fusion approach it would explore farther on subsequent records.
The World Became the Earth may agree some of PFM'southward virtually assertive playing to date, but the group'southward symphonic roots and Mediterranean tinges remain a part of its overall audio. "Only Await Abroad," propelled past Mussida'due south elegant classical and warm electric guitar overdubs, is another folkloric track, its pastoral ambiance supported by Pagani's violin, this fourth dimension soft and lyrical, with Premoli's synths more orchestral in texture as one of PFM'due south most cute tunes leads to a descending four-chord pattern at the end that slowly builds with the addition of Premoli's expansive mellotron. The title track is a re-recording of Storia di un minute's "Impressioni di settembre," already sonically improved over the Italian version but here, with Esoteric'southward remastering, sounding even bolder, more dramatic, as Premoli's memorable synth line winds its way through layers of mellotron, acoustic guitars and an overall vibe reminiscent of early Crimson.
"Four Holes in the Ground" is, perhaps, PFM at its transitional all-time; mellotron orchestrations supporting a classically informed vocal track that comes after an introductory section that, taking up nearly half of the song'due south half-dozen minute duration, builds to an elliptical theme that seems to accelerate, despite the time remaining stock-still...until, that is, the song's stop, where the instrumental opening is recapitulated earlier the theme is, indeed, sped up to a fever pitch that only suggests how it would ultimately audio in breathtaking live performance.
With the majority of The World Became the World recorded in London with its international audience in mind, PFM still released an Italian analogue, Fifty'Isola di niente (RCA, 1974), but without the rework of "Impressioni di settembre," bringing it downwards to a brief 35 minutes. While Italian takes of "The Mountain," "Simply Look Away," "Four Holes in the Ground" and "Have Your Cake and Beat It" received Italian lyric treatments that many PFM fans notwithstanding find preferable to their English language language versions, PFM reversed Photos of Ghosts' assertion that, by including "Il Banchetto," it was still a decidedly Italian band (not that, with the group'south heavily accented English language, this was ever in question). At that place are no Italian vocals to be institute on The World Became the Globe, just 50'Isola di niente does contain the English version of "Is My Face on Direct?," making information technology clear to its still significant Italian fan base, that PFM was now and English band. And by significantly re-sequencing the Italian version—with only the album opener and closer in their same positions—PFM besides suggests that how its home audition perceived the overriding arc of the anthology was different than that of its growing intentional fan base.
Esoteric'due south reissue also includes an additional 12 minutes of bonus features. A single edit of "Four Holes in the Basis" supports its "previously unreleased" status, the edits choppy and destructive; the same can be said for a previously unreleased single edit of "Celebration" that suffers the same problems, and is surprisingly inferior to the single version included on Photos of Ghosts, given it'southward actually 24 seconds longer. A United kingdom unmarried version of "La Carrozza di Hans," first released on Storia di un infinitesimal fares far better, though the addition of crowd noise at the starting time and end, to advise it'southward live (when information technology isn't), doesn't brand a whole lot of sense. Still, because it'south 1 of the group'southward earliest tracks, information technology positions well on The World Became the World, an album that found PFM moving in a new management that would evolve even farther with the release of Chocolate Kings.
PFM
Chocolate Kings
Esoteric Recordings
1976 (reissued 2010)
1975 saw the release of Cook, a alive album that proved PFM as thrilling live as information technology was compelling in the studio, with Esoteric'due south expanded, 3-disc reissue to be reviewed in a subsequent review. In many ways, information technology acted equally a consolidation of the group's accomplishments to appointment, and put a menstruation on them as well, every bit there were changes afoot that would further modify the grouping's complexion, leading to what many consider to be its high point, though not without its ain controversy.
In addition to being sensitive to the polarized critical response to its first two Manticore releases—a Tune Maker reviewer echoing many others when he wrote, "PFM are great musicians, the only problem is that they are Italians singing in English language"—the group also felt that, as welcome as Peter Sinfield's often flowery lyrics were, they didn't reverberate the band'due south feel or interests. It was difficult enough to sing the lyrics, given their poor command of the language; only when the lyrics held picayune personal meaning for the singers, it meant that the vocals could never actually possess the necessary ring of truth.
And so, 1975 brought significant change to PFM, every bit information technology recruited a new member, Bernado Lanzetti, a pb vocalist from Acqua Fragile, who certainly possessed a distinctive voice, albeit one that fell into the category of "acquired sense of taste," much similar other Italian vocalists including Banco's Francesco Di Giacomo and, decades later, Deux Ex Machina's Alberto Piras. PFM as well began writing its own lyrics, for the first time, in English; not just Lanzetti, but Pagani and friend of the group, Marva January Marrow. More overtly political, PFM began to explore subjects similar the American entry into Italian republic at the end of World State of war II, following the defeat of Nazi Germany, but its lyrics also reflected a cultural gap where comic absurdity and outrage sometimes coexisted.
The result was Chocolate Kings, PFM's first anthology written in English, without any Italian songs, and featuring a new vocalist who, while certainly capable, possessed a foreign, almost harsh edge that seemed in sharp contrast with some of the album's music. While his odd, somehow compressed vibrato—and the feeling that, while he was making the notes, they were a abiding struggle—actually worked on the more than expressionistic material, similar the incendiary heart section of the episodic "Harlequin," earlier in the same vocal, when Mussida'due south steel-string acoustic guitar creates a more folksy vibe alongside Pagani's lyrical violin, information technology just feels somehow wrong. On the other manus, with Premoli, Mussida and Di Cioccio—all atomic number 82 singers previously—at present relegated to the position of groundwork vocalists—and rarely used ones at that—it allowed them to focus more exclusively on the instrumental side of PFM. And while Lanzetti'south vocalisation is, at best, an acquired taste and, at worst, an unfortunate distraction, the reality is that Chocolate Kings is PFM'due south most fully-realized album to date; if Photos of Ghosts was an impressive shot beyond the bow of international prog, and The World Became the Globe a powerful follow-up, Chocolate Kings became the instrumental masterpiece that PFM had been aiming for, a career peak that the group might approach, just never again accomplish.
From its alternating rapid-burn down unison lines and atmospheric textures, "From Under" announces a major footstep forrard, both compositionally and instrumentally. With organ a more dominant vocalization and Premoli shelving his mellotron, PFM moves further away from its symphonic origins towards a jazz-fusion vernacular, though its inherent lyricism—especially Pagani'due south flute and violin—keeps the group away from the excesses and "wait at me" posturing of its English peers. Virtuosity was a prerequisite to perform complex music with shifting tempos, meters, textures and harmonies, only the collective remains paramount higher up the individual, though Djivas continues to be a dominant presence, with his new Ripper bass possessing the brighter texture and dial, when required, of Yes' Chris Squire and Genesis' Mike Rutherford, simply still capable of greater depth and warmth. Impressive throughout its tenure to date, Di Cioccio is, in many means, the hero of Chocolate Kings, a powerful strength who, leaving early influences behind, finally seems to have establish his vocalization.
A capable unmarried-note histrion, Mussida'due south greatest forcefulness may really exist more as a rhythm player, his playing on the intro to the title runway as grittily compelling equally Yep' Steve Howe , with his execution more precise. A cursory tune at under five minutes, "Chocolate Kings" may have been the album'due south best possibility every bit a single, with a stiff rock pulse and jig-similar synth theme that gives it a "Celebration"-like vibe, but it's hard to imagine a runway like this on radio, as the reductionist Punk movement was already well underway when the anthology was released in 1976. At that place are, in fact, no bonus tracks from the studio sessions to mirror Esoteric's before issues—no kickoff mixes, no instrumental mixes and, virtually chiefly, no single edits. What makes this issue definitive is its second bonus disc—the lion's share of a concert from Nottingham in 1976, which proved this incarnation of PFM to be, perhaps, an even ameliorate live group than on Cook. Lanzetti may not have been an platonic vocaliser, only he did free up the remainder of the group to focus on their instruments.
Live versions of the studio album's second side really surpass the originals. If Chocolate King is PFM at its hardest-rocking, then live the group turned things upward a notch or ten. The recording quality isn't equally good, and the mix a fiddling odd (Mussida's guitar dominating Lanzetti'due south vocals on the opening "Paper Charms," and the drums sounding relatively flat); but the group's performance transcends all sonic deficiencies, as Mussida and Pagani (on violin) combine for some frighteningly fast runs of nearly- Mahavishnu Orchestra proportions. In the studio, PFM may take eschewed rampant individualism, simply live there were plenty of solo features, with Mussida taking a stunning classical guitar solo ("Acoustic Guitar Solo"), and the closing "Alta Colina Five 'til Nine/William Tell Overture" an instrumental bout de strength for Pagani, who combines reckless abandon and unrelenting focus. Nowhere is the separate that allowed American and British artists of the time to become lifelong superstars, while as talented players from elsewhere in the earth operated in relative obscurity, more than evident than with Pagani—a thespian who has led a successful mail service-PFM career, to be certain; merely had he lived elsewhere, might well have go a much bigger name.
A live version of The World Became the World'southward "4 Holes in the Ground," with its expanded middle department a solo feature for Premoli, largely on electric pianoforte, is another stunner, though it would have been meliorate with its original singer. Chocolate Kings may have deserted PFM'south symphonic origins, just this live performance demonstrates that they remained intact when the group hit the stage.
PFM
Jet Lag
Esoteric Recordings
1977 (reissued 2010)
After a career loftier like Chocolate Kings, how could PFM possibly follow up? In truth, it couldn't; Jet Lag isn't a bad album but, relative to its first three Manticore studio releases, ranks as its weakest. Pagani was gone, having chosen to pursue a solo career and, with the group recording its follow-up away from Europe for the offset fourth dimension—at Kendun Recorders in Burbank, California—PFM not only largely deserted the Mediterranean inflections that gave it its initial voice, merely the influence of British progressive rock likewise. Instead, as the grouping fell increasingly under the sway of American fusion—Djivas fifty-fifty making the switch to fretless electric bass, à la Weather Written report 's Jaco Pastorius , who had emerged the previous twelvemonth equally a near-overnight jazz superstar. Premoli focused exclusively on organ, electrical pianoforte and Micro Moog, and Di Cioccio's tone and approach turned from thunderous expansiveness to more backbeat-driven grooves.
If information technology had been from any other band, Jet Lag would have been merely forgettable; boilerplate fusion-informed prog, played by a group with not inconsiderable skill, but lacking a distinct voice. Instead, coming from PFM, it serves to highlight all the things it was had mistakenly deserted. While the group was excited at the recruitment of replacement violinist Gregory Bloch—an American who had come from String Cheese Incident and an incarnation of Information technology'south A Beautiful Mean solar day after its heyday—he simply didn't possess Pagani's ability to think in both curt and long terms. With parts of Jet Lag petty more than vamp-based jams—in particular "Storia in 'LA,'" which seems a lot longer than its mere six-and-a-one-half minutes—the selfless aspect to PFM is no more. Instead, lengthy and often uninteresting solo excursions supervene upon detailed writing and tight arrangements. Not all of Jet Lag is wearisome, but a lot of it is flabby and unnecessarily turgid, despite the bulk of its tracks running betwixt three and six minutes. Simply one rails breaks the nine-minute mark. Non that length is a determining gene of greatness; merely that PFM couldn't maintain interest in a dart means that its i marathon—the lengthy championship track—simply hasn't a chance, even though Premoli's electrical piano solo over Djivas' greasy fretless in the 2d one-half of the rails, remains one of the anthology'due south loftier points.
Only, at the stop of the day, Jet Lag suffers from a grouping who, finally finding its phonation, decided to summarily dismiss information technology in search of influences that may have seemed exciting to them, but to which they couldn't chronicle on a mitochondrial level. The bonus rails—a xiv-infinitesimal live version of "La Carrozza di Hans," from the same Nottingham concert that makes up the 2nd disc of Chocolate Kings, and featuring the pre-Jet Lag line-upward with Pagani on violin, and a staggering solo from Di Cioccio—is the clear winner on this release, and while its greater jam-centricity makes it a good choice to include here, it simply goes to bear witness just how much PFM lost when Pagani left and the group decided to desert its inherent Euro-centricity for a forgettable American fusion veneer.
PFM
River of Life: The Manticore Years Anthology 1973-1977
Esoteric Recordings
2010
Curiously, Esoteric chose to release its generous, double-disc PFM anthology, River of Life, before it released individual titles. It does, however, do what a good anthology should exercise: drum up involvement; provide a strong entry signal for the uninitiated, who might then get on to check out individual titles that interest them, based on what they've heard; and provide some bonus features for the PFM completist.
Information technology'south hard to pick annihilation merely all of Photos of Ghosts and Chocolate Kings for an anthology of PFM'southward best, just that would defeat its purpose. Credit to Esoteric, then, for selecting four of Photos' strongest tracks, and a live version of a fifth; three of Chocolate Kings' 5 tracks, with a live version of 1 more; and, including live versions from the expanded version of Cook, all but one track from The World Became the Globe. That Jet Lag is represented past a diminutive three of its eight tracks, representing a mere fifteen of River of Life'south two-and-a-half hour running fourth dimension, speaks volumes.
It is, indeed, a terrific starting point, and a thorough cross-department. For the completist, live versions of "Dove Quando," from Storia di un minute, appearing nowhere else in the Esoteric reissue series, and a kicking-ass version of "Celebration," both from the Nottingham show also represented on Chocolate Kings and Jet Lag (together, totaling almost 100 minutes and, perhaps the unabridged show) are unique to the collection; whether they're enough to concenter those who are picking up the private titles will speak to the depth of their pathology. But whether or not 11 minutes is enough, River of Life remains one of the best grouping anthologies in recent years, focusing heavily on PFM's many strengths and doing its best to minimize its late-1970s weakness.
That PFM, after Jet Lag, chose to desert its adoption of all things N American, and render to Italian republic, where information technology has enjoyed a successful career ever since—and no shortage of success on an international level either, on the relatively rare occasions that it has ventured out—speaks to a refreshing self-sensation. That its subsequent albums haven't reached the high plateaus of Photos of Ghosts, The World Became the Earth or Chocolate Kings matters little; what counts nearly is that Premiata Forneria Marconi—a grouping almost sweetly named after the bakery where it rehearsed in its formative years—didn't repeat the mistake of Jet Lag. Instead, PFM returned to its progressive, Mediterranean and classically informed roots, and has, in the three decades since, remained all the ameliorate for it.
Tracks and Personnel
Photos of Ghosts
Tracks: River of Life; Celebration; Photos of Ghosts; Old Rain; Il Banchetto; Mr. nine 'til 5; Promenade the Puzzle; Photos of Ghosts (instrumental mix); River of Life (showtime mix); Old Rain (first mix); Il Banchetto (first mix); Mr/ ix 'til five (instrumental mix); Commemoration (unmarried edit).
Personnel: Flavio Premoli: keyboards, vocals; Franz Di Giocci: drums, vocals; Giorgio Piazza: bass; Franco Mussida: guitars, vocals; Mauro Pagani: violin, woodwinds.
The World Became the Earth
Tracks: The Mountain; Just Look Away; The Globe Became the World; Four Holes in the Ground; Is My Face up on Straight; Have Your Block and Trounce It; La Carrozza di Hans (U.k. unmarried version); Four Holes in the Ground (unreleaed unmarried edit); Commemoration (unreleased 1975 single version).
Personnel: Flavio Premoli: keyboards, vocals; Franz Di Giocci: drums, percussion, vocals; Patrick Djivas: bass, vocals; Franco Mussida: guitars, vocals; Mauro Pagani: violin, woodwinds, vocals.
Chocolate Kings
Tracks: CD1: From Under; Harlequin; Chocolate Kings; Out of the Roundabout; Paper Charms. CD2 (Alive, all previously unreleased): Paper Charms; Four Holes in the Ground; Acoustic Guitar Solo; Out of the Roundabout; Chocolate Kings; Mr. ix 'til Five; Alta Colina Five 'til Nine/William Tell Overture.
Personnel: Flavio Premoli: keyboards, vocals; Franz Di Giocci: drums, percussion, vocals; Patrick Djivas: Ripper bass; Franco Mussida: guitars, vocals; Mauro Pagani: violin, woodwinds; Bernado Lanzetti: lead vocals.
Jet Lag
Tracks: Peninsula; Jet Lag; Storia in "LA"; Burglary In; Cerco La Lingua; Meridiani; Left-Handed Theory; Traveler; La Carrozza di Hans (unreleased alive track).
Personnel: Flavio Premoli: "Pari" organ, electric pianoforte and Micro Moog (1-8), keyboards and vocals (9); Franz Di Giocci: drums, wood percussion (one-eight), percussion (9), vocals (9); Patrick Djivas: fretless bass and Moog B12 (ane-8), bass (9); Franco Mussida: acoustic and electric guitars, vocals (9); Bernado Lanzetti: lead vocals; Gregory Bloch: electrical and acoustic violin; Mauro Pagani: violin and woodwinds (ix).
River of Life: The Manticore Years Album 1973-1977
Tracks: CD1: River of Life; Photos of Ghosts; Il Banchetto; Promenade the Puzzle; La Carrozza di Hans (United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland single version); The Mountain; The World Became the Globe; Merely Look Away; Four Holes in the Ground; Alta Loma Five 'til Nine. CD2: Is My Face up on Straight (live, previously unreleased); Harlequin; From Under; Chocolate Kings; Dove Quando (live, previously unreleased); Out of the Roundabout (live, previously unreleased); Celebration (live, previously unreleased); Storia in "LA"; Jet Lag; Traveler.
Personnel: Flavio Premoli: keyboards and vocals (CD1, CD2#1-seven), "Pari" organ, electric piano and Micro Moog (CD2#8-10); Franz Di Giocci: drums, percussion and vocals (CD1, CD2#one-7), woods percussion (CD2#viii-10); Giorgio Piazza: bass (CD1#i-five); Patrick Djivas: bass (CD1, CD2#ane, CD2#five-7), Ripper bass (CD2#2-4), fretless bass (CD2#8-10), Moog B12 (CD2#viii-10), vocals (CD1, CD2#1); Franco Mussida: guitars, vocals (CD1, CD2#i-7); Mauro Pagani: violin, woodwinds and vocals (CD1, CD2#i-7); Bernardo Lanzetti: lead vocals (CD2#2-x); Gregory Bloch: electrical and acoustic violin (CD2#viii-ten).
Source: https://www.allaboutjazz.com/premiata-forneria-marconi-pfm-the-manticore-years-by-john-kelman