Chocolate Kings
	Produced by PFM & Claudio Fabi
	Released on 1976
	no chart information
	Find it at GEMM
7E-1061 cover [high resolution photo]

Y es. Genesis. Gentle Giant. PFM. The connection becomes clearer on Chocolate Kings. This is the first PFM album to feature Acqua Fragile’s Bernardo Lanzetti on lead vocals, who has a strong voice that unfortunately suggests Peter Gabriel with cotton wadding in his nostrils. I don’t buy these albums for the vocals though. I buy them because I love classic prog and musically this fits right in there with the masters: the aforementioned trilogy and of course labelmate ELP sometimes. If I were building a best of seventies prog quintuple album or whatever to plug the holes in my life, I’d consider “From Under” and “Paper Charms” for inclusion. Unlike Starcastle, PFM aren’t borrowers, they’re part of the great brotherhood. I’m sure they were aware of those who went before, but they weren’t looking behind them, they were marching forward. In an assembling of demigods to the original titans are names like Camel, Gong, Hawkwind, Kansas, Kayak, The Nice, Renaissance and PFM. At a given moment of weakness, I’m likely to elevate any one of them (mostly Camel), but most of them have difficulty sustaining the illusion for very long. Chocolate Kings is like that. The opening “From Under,” with its tantalizing bits of vintage Yes and early Genesis, really fed my sugar fix, but Lanzetti hits too many sour notes on “Harlequin.” The rest of the album is terrific in spots, tiresome in others, which is the same impression I had of Cook and Jet Lag. Combine the best parts of those three albums and you’d have a prog classic in the making, separate them and you have the kind of dusty archaeological dig best left to the patient classicists among us. Prog tasters, save your money. Connoisseurs, dig right in.

7E-1071 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. FROM UNDER    (PFM & Marva Jan Marrow)    7:25
2. HARLEQUIN    (PFM)
3. CHOCOLATE KINGS    (PFM & Marva Jan Marrow)    4:45
4. OUT OF THE ROUNDABOUT    (PFM)    7:53
5. PAPER CHARMS    (PFM)    8:29

CREDITS

FRANZ DI CIOCCIO -- drums, percussion, backing vocals
PATRICK DJIVAS -- ripper bass
BERNADO LANZETTI -- lead vocals
FRANCO MUSSIDA -- guitars, backing vocals
MAURO PAGANI -- woodwinds, violin
FLAVIO PREMOLI -- keyboards, backing vocals
Gaetano Ria -- sound engineer
Franco Mamone -- executive producer
Bob Nisbet, Anthony Telson & Associates -- cover design
David Draper -- artist

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