Cherry Five- Cherry Five

Talk about an obscurity. This Italian quintet consisted of Tony Tartarini [aka Toni Gionta] (vocals), Claudio Simonetti (keyboards), Massimo Morante (guitar), Fabio Pignatelli (bass), and Carlo Bordini (drums). I’m not going to go into too much history, as it’s very broad, but as a point, Cherry Five lived in London for a while (with an English singer), and their members come from various other bands and places. As far as a style, they are something like Genesis or ELP, but with a bit of a space rock edge. Released in 1974, Cherry Five’s self titled album is their only release, and also is sung in English.

Cherry Five opens with “Country Grave Yard”, a bombastic symphonic rocker. Pignatelli’s bass brings to mind Chris Squire of Yes here. Also of note is the strong keyboards and guitar. While Tartarini defiantly is a good vocalist in the technical sense, it’s obvious his skills with English are not the greatest. This doesn’t really detract too much from the vocals on the album, but it is slightly humorous. The sheer bombast is best part of this song. Afterward, we find “The Picture of Dorian Grey”, about the novel of the same name. This track is really similar to “Country Grave Yard” as far as the production, but it overall feels more lighthearted and more melodic. The guitar riff leading into the lyrics stands up there amongst my all time favorites. If listening closely, there’s some really great drum work on this song true. Next comes “The Swan is a Murderer, Part 1”. At 4:25, it’s the shortest song on Cherry Five. Here we have a keyboard led track to the extreme, it sounds like harpsichord or harpsichord like synthesizer was used. The song builds up with lots of emotion before transitioning to a creepy voice and bell noise section and fading out.

Those “voices” kick the next side of the album of to start “The Swan is a Murderer, Part 2”. The guitar plays a larger role than the keyboard this time, and close listening will also reveal a strong bass presence. But, it’s more or less the same as part one (not a complaint). On a piano, “Oliver” starts a long journey. At 9:33, it’s the album’s longest track. It also moves the slowest at many parts. The tempo allows for more ethereal keyboard and bass parts. The vocals, however, are at the medium fast tempo of most of the album. The last track is “My Little Cloud Land”, which is unfortunately its weakest. The vocals here are boring, for some odd reason, occasionally monotone. The keyboards and bass are redeemable enough, however.

The biggest problem, which isn’t all that big, is the music isn’t very original, they’re merely adding their take on what’s been done before. However, the value of the composing and playing is very strong, and it’s not hard to tell they really cared about their music. After Cherry Five disbanded later in ‘74, Moronte, Pignatetlli, and Simonetti would go onto form Goblin, a band famed for their soundtracks to horror films.

Definitely a lost gem of Progressive Rock. The best of Italian prog with a strange and ghostly twist. Grade: A-