Pholas Dactylus: Concerto Delle Menti (1973)
Another totally obscure and forgotten gem of Italian prog rock, Pholas Dactylus released this one and only album, and then vanished. Unlike other Italian prog bands where the vocalist would sing, and there might be a few seconds of narration on occasions (like on Banco del Mutuo Soccorso’s Io Sono Nato Libero), the vocalist here does nothing but narrates! As the “singer” narrates, you get treated with some excellent prog that at times brings to mind ELP or Gentle Giant (the band featured two keyboardists, one on organ, the other on piano), with the occasional heavy guitar passage much in the style of Biglietto Per L’Inferno, Semiramis, Museo Rosenbach, etc. Often a theme would get repeated over and over, but right before boredom would set in, they move to the next thing. One part, the band might get in to something jazzy, then they might go in to a quirky experiment that’s not unlike something Gentle Giant would do, other times they’re just grooving and jamming along, you just don’t know what to expect next (that is until you’re familiar with the album, that is). There are also lengthy instrumental passages as well, so you won’t always hear narrating.
The album is simply divided by Part 1 and Part 2 (actually it says “Parte 1” and “Parte 2”, since this is Italian). I really dig the second to last part of “Parte 1”, where the band moves away from the Italian prog sound and goes off the deep end with experimentations that obviously brings to mind certain Krautrock bands of the time.
“Parte 2” continues on the greatness of the first part, I especially like the part where the bassist kick in, and they put out a great organ solo. Near the end is a neat experiment in vocals, giving it an almost medieval feel, before suddenly the band rocks out at the end playing that same theme, this time on guitar. And the band managed to cram nearly an hour of music on to one LP. I guess these guys, as well as Klaus Schulze, Genesis (particularly Selling England by the Pound) and Todd Rundgren were all trying to compete on how much music they can cram on to one LP. Part 1 itself is 29 minutes. Given the narrating is in Italian, I really have no idea what he’s saying.
The original Italian LP was released on the Magma label, a small label owned and operated by Vittorio de Scalzi of New Trolls, meaning you had a label ran by a musician who knew a thing or two about music (something you can’t say of faceless corporate American labels that have Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys on their roster). And while the LP doesn’t exactly grow on trees, it had been reissued on CD on a number of occasions, such as Vinyl Magic in Italy, Si-Wan Records in Korea, and if I’m not mistakened, it was available as a Japanese import as well.
Truly, Concerto Delle Menti is one of the more challenging prog albums I’ve heard. The one thing you have to get used to is the narrating, because you expect him to sing any time, but he never does. Still, a favorite of mine, and recommended to all Italian prog rock fans.