La Pentola di Papin
Zero-7

For my first review on DeBaser, I wanted to choose a work that no one had yet discussed. Genre? Progressive rock, my passion. It wasn't easy to find: even the minors in prog like Alusa Fallax, Cressida, Museo Rosenbach, all have their reviews, even Paese dei Balocchi and Panna Fredda! Then the intuition: who might have reviewed La Pentola di Papin?

Album discovered by chance while I was looking for something else, in the Italian progressive section of FNAC in Milan, almost 3 years ago. Immediately charming for the name and for the cover depicting a sketch of a strange vintage instrument (the Pentola di Papin, indeed), and immediately purchased. 

The album, the band's only one, is from 1977, which is past the prime time for prog (I'm not going to dive into the narrative about the decline of prog, nor about bands that release one album and then disappear). Little is known about the group: it's known to be from Sondrio and consists of 4 members (keyboards and vocals, guitars, bass, percussion, and effects).

Let's be clear right away: the album is not a masterpiece, it's not innovative, and at times it feels uneven between vocal parts and music. However, it's quite pleasant, especially for those who want to listen to the sound of the Hammond from morning till night. Probably, the lateness of the release (and probably the composition as well) of the album is the cause of the syrupy lyrics, which suffer from an excessive pop influence ("I'm of the idea of breaking up with you, I've been thinking about this for some time, you know, I haven’t told you also because" is the lowest point of the lyrics). Moreover, the voice of the leader, and keyboardist Ferry Bettini isn't great in itself, not to mention the lalalala choruses. From a purely instrumental point of view, the album is very beautiful, well played, and reaches its peak in the "Intro" of almost 10 minutes, where the keyboards dominate, and the interplay with guitar and percussion is very evocative. Then the singing starts (unfortunately). The track ends with a reprise of some initial themes and the sound of bells marking the time. The other tracks partially repeat the same cliché, but without reaching the rhythm and pathos of the first track. The second is more hard and recalls in its second part some progressions of Bram Stoker, the third starts with almost purely pop sounds, the fifth with a drum solo. In an album that seems conceived as a suite, although a bit wobbly in this aspect, some pieces are themselves constructed as suites. They also feature some "directorial effects" such as the crowd noise that opens the album, the UFO effect at the end of the fifth track, and the thunderous applause at the end. Probably those applause that La Pentola di Papin never received. But deserved.