Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso: Your Favorite Album?

Which is your favorite of Banco's classic-era albums?

What a great band huh?

Mine is "Io Sono Nato Libero." I never even heard this one until about 10 years after the first two. I dunno what I was thinking waiting that long!

 

The 1975 Manticore for me. It was the first one I heard back then and it totally blew me away.

Still does.

 

There's something about the low-fi production and the more overt romanticism of the debut that really does it for me. It sounds *very* Italian. But any of the first three are fantastic records. I'm also a huge fan of both "Di Terra" and "Come In'ultima Cena", particularly the former. I think it's quite possibly the most successful fusion of rock music, classical and jazz ever assembled. I don't know if anyone is familiar with the Hungarian band After Crying, but a lot of what they do sounds as if it was directly inspired by "Di Terra".

 

"Io sono nato libero", for me is the top of the first three - giving S/T 99%, Darwin 98% and Isnl 100%.

 

although I have all of these I'm not really that familiar with their work enough to make an informed choice....I picked Darwin, but I guess they're all good, eh?

 

Darwin lp was recorded in UK and mastered by Ray Staff . Sadly the final tape mix have some kind bias current problem. The synth parts are amazing in this album

 

This poll is not fair! There should have been an option to select all of these albums, along with Canto di Primavera! Love Banco!

 

You can't lose if you start with any of the first three albums (Self-titled, Darwin, or Io Sono Nato Libero).

BTW, despite the dated synth technology of the early 90s, I really like the re-recordings of the first two albums as well.

 

I'm surprised to see "Darwin!" in third place. It seems for years on most prog sites "Darwin!" was hailed as their best and even saw it ranked as the #1 Prog album of all time.

 

What, no Capolinea!?!?! I too voted for Io Sono..

 

I really had a hard time choosing. I suppose it is Darwin! as I find that to be their most consistent LP. I love Io Sono Nato Libero, but don't care for the "Traccia" instrumental or "Non Mi Rompete". Their first album has some great material, but most of it evolved into something better later in live shows and on the 1975 Manticore LP.

I will say this, though. I have really come to love Come in un'ultima cena lately, even though it took a LONG time to grow on me. It could end up being my favorite LP by them now. What did it especially was finally being able to read the English lyrics and understanding the meaning behind the songs. The idea, which is centered around a guy who confesses his weaknesses and needs to his friends at dinner and their responses to him, is something I can really relate to. I think every prog fan should own some Banco and also this LP.

 

Year-old bump. Hate to not break the tie but actually make it a three-way tie by voting for 'Io Sono Nato Libero'.

Fitting, really; these first three albums are absolutely fantastic and it is really too hard to choose.

 

+1

But if I must choose I'll break the tie and go with Io Sono.

 

Is there a preferred mastering? I only have the BMG jewel case MPCD205. Does anyone know if the 24-bit remaster or Blu-Spec address the issue above?

 

Though I'm obviously a prog fan and used to publish a newsletter on the genre, I never delved all that deeply into Italian prog, though I always liked what I heard. I guess I just like my lyrics in English. So I went with Banco.

 

Io Sono Nato Libero for me.

I'm also pretty partial to Canto di Primavera, which I think doesn't get much respect because it was past their prog prime. But there a a couple of very beautiful songs on there, and nothing which I would really call weak.

 

I like Canto Di Primavera too. Really, I enjoy most anything Banco did in the 70s. It's really too bad they haven't released a modern progressive "comeback" album the way PFM, Le Orme and New Trolls have in recent years. The last Banco album was released in 1994 and it wasn't all that great, IMO.

 

I would like to know too. I have never heard any of their albums, but expect they would be right up my alley - I love early PFM.

I am afraid to order the BMGs blind since the release dates are quite close to the hideous PFM gold discs from the same label.

 

Don't know how these new releases sounds, i have these old ones and i'm ok with these. Darwin on Nexus was the first Banco CD ever, later arrived the Italian releases. If some have new releases can check their EAC peaks with these to see if they share the same masterings.


Darwin, Nexus-King K32Y 2052, Japan 1987
01 100,0
02 92,3
03 76,3
04 97,6
05 82,0
06 94,8
07 86,8

Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Dischi Ricordi CDOR 8041, Italy 1988
01 28,5
02 68,0
03 42,2
04 72,4
05 71,9
06 75,7

Darwin!, Dischi Ricordi CDOR 8094, Italy 1990
01 79,8
02 73,6
03 61,5
04 75,2
05 59,3
06 82,9
07 61,6

Io sono nato libero, Dischi Ricordi CDOR 8202, Italy 1990
01 74,2
02 55,3
03 74,1
04 74,5
05 71,8

 

I thought I read here that the Blu-Spec are taken from the Japanese 24-bit, which were already taken from the Italy BMG 24-bit gold that everyone hates, right?

I have the CDOR and it sounds good to me. I think the MPCD version is supposedly very similar. I would not trust blu-spec to be taken from anything but digital source so I have not tried it.

 

That is possible. In the DR database there is only a few Banco CDs, but it appears the MPCDs have passable dynamics in contrast to the Darwin Gold CD listed there that is clearly destroyed.

massnerder, could you load up your MPCD and compare it with winopener's peaks? I think we could safely extrapolate the result to the other CDs. It is quite possible that BMG is keeping the old masters in print, the 2005 BMG release of Storia di un minuto by PFM has the 1989 mastering.

 

I've googled for the covers of ISNL and found the MPCD back, looks like the ORCD plus the newer BMG logo, so it should be a straight reprint of the original release.

 

I am pretty sure that the versions now in print are the MPCD version masterings because I just bought the first album a few months ago and it sounds really nice (copyright Sony 2005). Came in a jewelcase.

I thought there was something here that said the MPCD versions were just slightly louder in volume than the CDOR versions and that was the only difference?

 

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