''Banco'' is the fourth studio album by Italian

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band

Banco del Mutuo Soccorso Banco del Mutuo Soccorso (English: ''Bank of Mutual Relief'') is an Italian rock band. A popular progressive rock band in the 1970s, they continued making music in the 1980s and 1990s. Recently, they were still active, playing live in 2001 and ...

(at that time known simply as Banco). The album was originally released in 1975 on the

Manticore Records Manticore Records is a record label launched by the Manticore production company in 1973. These companies were owned by the members of the progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer (commonly known as ELP.) and their manager, Stewart Young. ...

label launched by

Emerson, Lake & Palmer Emerson, Lake & Palmer (informally known as ELP) were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitar, producer) and Carl Palmer (drums, percus ...

with whom the band shared a firm stylistic similarity.

Background

Around 1975 the band attempted to make inroads outside their native Italy and released this English sung album on

label. The album was largely a compilation, consisting of re-recordings of songs from their first three albums, with the exception of one track. The material from the second of the band's albums, ''

Darwin! ''Darwin!'' is the second studio album by Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, released in 1972 on the Ricordi label. It is a concept album about the birth and the evolution of life on Earth. The album is highly rated by progressive rock fans as one of the ...

'' (1972) was completely omitted, however, while the only original track, with Italian lyrics, was "L'albero del pane." All the songs were re-recorded specially, with new arrangements, with the exception of the concluding piece "Traccia II", which was identical to the original recording. The songs were translated into English by the American musician Marva Jan Marro. To promote the album, the band toured the US and UK with limited success.

CD re-release

In 2010 a new, re-mastered, edition of the album marked its British debut on CD and continued a comprehensive series of releases of the Manticore catalogue. The music was remastered by Ben Wiseman at The Audio Archiving Company.

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

* Pier Luigi Calderoni - drums and percussion * Vittorio Nocenzi - organ, synthesizers, electronic strings * Renato D'Angelo - bass guitar, acoustic guitar * Rodolfo Maltese - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, trumpet, backing vocals * Gianni Nocenzi - grand piano, clarinet and synthesizer *

Francesco Di Giacomo Francesco Di Giacomo ( 22 August 194721 February 2014) was an Italian singer and lyricist. He was the lead vocalist of the progressive rock band Banco del Mutuo Soccorso from 1971 to 2013. Life and career Born in La Caletta, a frazione of Sinis ...

- lead vocals

Technical

Engineers:

Martin Rushent Martin Charles Rushent (11 July 1948 – 4 June 2011) was an English record producer, best known for his work with The Human League, The Stranglers and Buzzcocks. Early life Rushent was born on 11 July 1948 in Enfield, Middlesex. His father ...

and Andy Hendricksen Total time: approx. 47 minutes 51 seconds. Mixed at Advision and Air Studios, London.

References

{{Authority control 1975 albums Banco del Mutuo Soccorso albums Manticore Records albums