Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso
Garofano Rosso

It is incomprehensible how "Garofano Rosso" is the most unknown and least appreciated album of BMS's entire prolific production.

It was 1975, and prog was beginning to decline under the blows of disco music and the motto "It's Time to Land". The records of the genre's standard-bearers proved richer in technique and repetitiveness than in ideas. In the general bleakness, which would later also affect BMS, the Roman group was invited to compose and perform the soundtrack for the film "Garofano Rosso", whose value was such that no one remembers either the name of the director or that it lasted more than five days in a cinema.

By a strange law of compensation, instead, the music is of such depth that it resulted in the best Italian prog album of all time. I realize I'm making a bold statement, and many will not agree, but that's how I see it. If it weren't for the rhythm, "Garofano Rosso" could easily be a classical-contemporary album, very sophisticated and well-constructed.
In this it recalls, as an idea of structure and not as music, the legendary "Islands" by King Crimson, which is another record that is difficult to categorize as rock (even if progressive). In "Garofano Rosso" one can immediately notice the abundant use of wind instruments, strengthened by the synths of Vittorio Nocenzi, the sparse use of the electric guitar, in favor of the acoustic one, and a fluid and classical use of the grand piano, more suited to chamber atmospheres than to large youthful audiences.

A mature work by true musicians, for once freed from certain behavioral constraints imposed by the record industry. Among all the tracks, "Suggestioni di un ritorno in campagna" stands out. It is a real mini-symphony that ranges from the most philological classical to contemporary, not neglecting a glance at jazz and superbly introduced by the laconic piano of Gianni Nocenzi, who then repeats himself in the piece "Tema di Giovanna" (almost a solo), going as far as reaching decidedly dramatic tones loaded with lyricism. Also notable are "Zobeida", "Funerale", and "Quasi saltarello", the latter being a piece where the Banco extends a hand to the popular ethno-folk (the Saltarello is a dance from central-southern Italy).

To conclude, Garofano Rosso is the most underrated album of BMS's production and of all Italian prog. It probably didn't receive the attention it deserved because it was the group's first record released on a foreign label (Greg Lake's Manticore) and, perhaps, was opposed for this very reason. Worth mentioning is that in the entire work there is no trace of Francesco Di Giacomo's voice, who, for once, gracefully stepped aside to allow some experimentation by the two brains of Banco, that is, the Nocenzi brothers.