ADVENTURE - "Adventure" Adventure ADV 001 (2000)

It's always a pleasure when you can sit down and review a cd from your own country, in this case Norway. And it's even a greater pleasure when a band comes up with a debut in the symphonic/prog-genre, of this calibre. Adventure is basically a trio consisting of Odd-Roar Bakken who plays keyboards, acoustic guitar and sings backing-vocals, Terje Flessen plays lead/rhythm/acoustic and bass guitars with Vebjørn Moen singing lead and backing-vocals. Some guest-musicians, which contribute with drums and flute also appears. The album is divided into two main parts, which again are divided into a lot of songs/tunes tied beautifully together so they nearly appear here as one long track. On the opener "Rivers Of Gold" you get a small dose of shitty weather before the music starts with some easy keyboard-sounds followed by a big rather heavy guitar sound with the bass-line closely run along with the melody making the expression mighty powerful. Not to forget the church-organ sound, which also contributes to the big sound here. Luckily Vebjørn Moen has the vocal-chords to cope with it. His voice is dark, strong, flexible and with nearly no accent at all. Well done! And I think that it has more to it than he expresses here making me looking forward to their next release when his voice maybe have been more mature. Norwegian is a hard and rather angular language, so to sing in another language than the native tongue is not an easy job. I got some horrible memories of some German bands that didn't fix this at all. On rockier tracks a band like Kansas springs to mind. Especially on those easy catchy refrains like the one here on "Rivers Of Gold". But the track also has lots of counterpoints and tempo-changes, which are really exciting and good, not only here, but also throughout the album. And the short passage, which leads, from the end of "Rivers Of Gold" to the beginning of "The Unease, Part 1" is no less than brilliant! On "New Adventures" Odd-Roar Bakken starts up with a beautiful piano before Terje Flessen picks up the guitar. And he's got a wonderful tone, a short vibrato-tone here, intense and good. A man like Mike Oldfield would have nodded with a grin here. Taking care of all the keyboard work here, Odd-Roar Bakken shows that he got good ideas and varies his keyboard sounds from straight synth to piano, church-organ and more, arranged in a clever way. Otherwise Terje Flessen's guitar work is classy throughout the album. He's very varied in his expression, from acoustic finger picking to howling brutal chords and intense solos. Emotionally he reminds me of Andy Latimer (Camel) at times, but without copying his tone (that's not an easy task either!). There are no live drums on the album, so it sounds a bit flat with programmed drums here, but then again I've heard worse. I've played this album a lot since it dropped in my mailbox few days ago and it's very good! On their thanx-list the band drop names like Arena, IQ and Pendragon which the writer have albums by, but for what it's worth, Adventure will be much more played in my house than the mentioned bands! Adventure is a band with talented guys which I expect great things for the future. They know how to write songs (Flessen and Bakken have written all the music and lyrics with some help from Nils Larsen and Egil Moe), arrange and play, that's for sure. And the lyrics here are basically about emigration, despair, longings and hope in a conceptual way. So for their next release I hope some big record company will pick them up giving them a budget they really deserve and promote it heavily. To get a copy of this self-released album you can try to contact the band via their homesite, mail or vendors like Oddity Music and Rockin'.

A.F.T. - "Automatic Fine Tuning" Charisma CAS 1122 (1976)
(Not released on cd)

About this band A.F.T. I know very little. And there's not much info available anywhere about them. But I do like their one and only album called "Automatic Fine Tuning". It's a monster when it comes to guitar albums from the seventies. I've heard people say it's almost too much guitars here. How come, you may ask? Is it possible for us guitar freaks to get to much guitar??! A.F.T. was a quartet who played instrumental (not quite, there's vocal on the last track on the record) complex progressive rock. So what?! A lot of bands did that. But where other bands played rhythm guitar and solo guitar, A.F.T. played solo guitar, solo guitar and more solo guitar! That's why they sounded like no other band I've heard. The album has only four tracks, where two of them are over fourteen and fifteen minutes long. The first one opens the album and is the first part of a long suite called "The Great Panjandrum Wheel". Bassist Trevor Darks opens the track with a sound on his bass very much like a Rickenbacker before a distant guitar comes creeping in. Drummer Dave Ball starts up nice and easy before another guitar comes in and a guitar Hell breaks loose! From then on you got a lot of counterpoints, tempo-changes and varied guitar sounds. Wah-wah pedals and fuzz-boxes are hard-working here, believe me. It's all well arranged with a lot of power on the border of nearly getting tiresome. Both guitarists Paul A. McDonnell and Robert Cross plays like their lives were depending on it, soloing and riffing all the time, in different ways making the sound complex but not without melody and emotion. But the main expression on the album is more powerful and almost sinister at times, than it's mellow if you get the idea. Both guitarists are without doubt well skilled, capable of creating exciting sounds almost like a keyboard and strings at times. I guess using a bow like Jimmy Page are used here as well to create the string effect we hear on the second part of "The Great Panjandrum Wheel". This is quite a unique album, which will appeal to all guitar perverts (like myself) with an understanding of what progressive rock is all about. But be warned, there's extremely much guitar here, tons and tons of it, demanding to get your attention. So for the sake of domestic peace, play it when you are all by yourself (or with the company of other guitar perverts), but then again LOUD!

BACAMARTE - "Depois Do Fim" Rarity JR 001 (1993)
Originally released: ? 1983

I'm not being very familiar with the scene of progressive rock in South America, but Bacamarte from Brazil sure has made me curious. That's because Bacamarte's "Depois Do Fim" is such a good record. This release sure beats the crap out of many of those more well known bands in this genre. The key figure here is guitarist Mario Neto which besides playing both technically and emotionally on a very high level, has written all the lyrics and most of the music here. He's also involved in the production and mixing of the album. An acoustic guitar opens the albums first track "Ufo" before a warm bass and piano comes in with flute and more keyboards joins in, sounding like an old Moog. More electric guitars are added and a lot of time-changes colors the music. And the inspiration from folk and classical music are absolutely at present. Great opening! On "Smog Alado" the beautiful voice of Jane Duboc comes in after awhile on top of Mario's fluid guitar and Márcus Moura's excellent flute playing. I don't know anything about Mario Neto having any knowledge about Patto and the excellent playing of Ollie Halsall, but he's nearly up to his standards in my opinion. Super fast playing at breakneck speed, yet melodic, fluid and heavy and a clean sound. And maybe the most important at all, he's got a tone! A voice of his own. As far as I know he's also got a solo-album out which I'm gonna grab a copy of for sure. Watch this column for forthcoming review. More wonderful acoustic guitar we get on the short ballad "Pássano De Luz" and luckily more of Jane's voice. She sings on four of the albums tracks. The remaining five are instrumentals which gives the album a balance that suits me fine. On "Gano" an accordion spices up the sound together with a beefy muscular bass, pushes the track forward with some tango rhythms towards the end. But the best track here is the long "Ultimo Entardecer" with lots of counterpoints, a delicate acoustic passage and both power and emotion. Well, this is a truly great album and to me it's up there with the best of progressive classics.

DFA, which is an abbreviation for Duty Free Area, comes from Italy and by judging the band via this release, they are in the top league in their homeland when it comes to progressive rock/fusion.
"Work In Progress Live" is a live recording taped at the NEARfest in USA last summer. All the material here are self-written and taken from their two previously released studio albums. "Lavori In Corso" was their debut and saw the light of day in '97 and the follow up "Duty Free Area" came in '99. So far I haven't come across any copies of those cd's, but I can assure you that they are on my wants list now.
DFA are mainly an instrumental band, but some tracks contains vocals as well. The instrumental "Escher" opens with heavy echoing bass from Luca Baldassari before Albert Bonomi's synth comes floating in together with the sparse drumming of Alberto De Grandis. Silvio Minella's guitar sounding nearly metal, shows up with a solo, short but intense. The tempo changes several times trough the track, but much due to the bubbling keyboards here, a band like Ozric Tentacles comes to mind. "Caleidoscopio" is the first track with vocals and it's sung by drummer Alberto De Grandis. But Alberto Bononi sings as well backing up De Grandis. They sing in Italian, so you don't have to worry about any accents here. The cd's shortest track "Trip On Metró", is a frantic rhythmically complex tune which would have suited Gentle Giant fine. And Alberto De Grandis shows us what an incredibly good drummer he is! The longest track on the album, "La Via", follows and calm things down a bit at first. It starts up slowly with some lush sounding synth and vocals, but the pressure increases with the presence of Silvio Minella's guitar after awhile. Lots of counterpoints and tempo-changes during the track makes this a winner! More frantic speedy delivery we get in "Pantera", a track which reminds me of Colosseum II in their heydays. Excellent guitar and keyboard work with both organ, synth and piano over steady bass and drums. The album closes with "Ragno" which is a showcase for Alberto Bononi's keyboard work and Silvio Minella's guitar. A very complex track with a beautiful mellow interlude which develops into a real frenetic blow out. Just great!
So for those of you who generally likes progressive rock with a touch of fusion, this is worth checking out! If you can imagine the best of the Italian prog-scene of the seventies, combined with Colosseum II, Gentle Giant and given a modern sound, you have a clue how this sounds.

Finisterre has been out there for some years now. Despite this fact, this is my first real meeting with the band's music. Before this, only one track from a sampler from the Musea label has hit my ears.
"Storybook" is their fifth album so far, and it's their second live album. Five albums since their debut in '94, that's quite a production! And if that wasn't enough, so have bass player Fabio Zuffanti released two albums with his side project Hostsonaten! In fact all the members of Finisterre plays on the first album, so I guess these guys really enjoys playing.
Sergio Grazia's splendid flute riffing, is the first you hear after the band has been introduced to the audience by the arranger. "In Limine" is the title of the track and it's bloody good! Everything that your heart desires from an instrumental tune are at present here. You get loads of tempo-changes, counterpoints and strong melodic lines. Done in a fast pace and by musicians who knows how to play. "Orizzonte Degli Eventi" starts up with Sergio Grazia's mellow flute before Stefano Marelli's acoustic guitar comes in behind the vocals. The vocals here are warm and really pleasant, and it's done by guitarist Stefano Marelli. Also bass player Fabio Zuffanti are credited with vocals, and they both sings, sometimes in harmony. And they sing in Italian, which is a good sounding language when it's sung like this (otherwise I just can't stand sweet sticky Italian pop-music sung in their native tongue! But that's another story….). Boris Valle uses the sound of mellotron and electric piano to great effect here, nearly jazzy in his piano playing. To tie the tempo-changes together and keeping the power under control, Andrea Orlando does a wonderful job. A very powerful interlude fired up by Fabio Zuffanti's growling bass and Stefano Marelli's biting guitar makes this track outstanding! "Hispania" is another track with vocals and where the acoustic guitar have a nice touch of flamenco. A beautiful track it is with a romantic feel to it. Next one out is PFM's "Altaloma", the only track not written by themselves. It sounds good here, but I can't compare it to the original because I haven' heard it. The drums of Andrea Orlando and the mighty bass of Fabio Zuffanti creates a powerful backbone on "Macinaaqua, Macinaluna", and where Boris Valle shows us his classical background by including short classical themes from time to time. Together with Stefano Marelli's grandiose, epic and intense guitar, this is a winner. "Asia" is the shortest track here, a powerful instrumental. Good one. A fast riffing guitar opens "Phaedra" before the rest of the band joins in. Big sounding keyboards and lots of power are the keywords here, but maybe they should have shortened the track a bit. It's not interesting all the way. But the band are being properly credited through the track here, so it doesn't really matter that much. Rounding off this excellent album does "Canto Antico" in a very powerful way.
Finisterre is absolutely worth checking out if you like progressive rock, done by excellent musicians all the way. They have strong songwriting talents within the band and are inspired by classical Italian progressive bands from the seventies. Names like PFM, Banco and Blocco Mentale slips through my mind when I listen to this album, the best live album by any progressive band this year! At least so far.....

GERARD - "Pandora's Box" Musea FBGB 4221.AR (1997)

As so many of their contemporaries from Japan, Gerard are a band of highly skilled musicians. And by judging the picture on the cover, they are pretty young as well. But does it really matter? When using the word power-trio, most people think of guitar, bass and drums, but this band which I will label the same, have exchanged the guitar with keyboards. Main man here is Toshio Egawa handling the keyboards and writes all the music. Gerard counts as an instrumental band, but here are two tracks of the totally six here with vocals. The man behind the vocal-chords is Robin G. Suchy who also wrote the lyrics. The cd's title-track opens the ball and points out the direction of the album. The rather heavy bass of Atsushi Hasegawa starts pounding away after some strange use of sampled voices in the opening seconds. Drummer Masuhiro Goto follows him before Toshio's wall of keyboards enters the speakers. And I'm very pleased to say that he has a love for the Hammond-organ! By using it's power together with Korg synthesizers he creates a very powerful and mighty sound. Creating sounds from other instruments like strings, piano and violin often turns out to be boring and lacks credibility, but that's not the case here. Toshio is a true virtuoso on his instruments and his use here are both clever and innovative. The Hammond-organ kicks "Analysis Of Life" forward and it is a catchy tune which Robin G. Suchy sings good. He's got a strong voice but is perhaps a little anonymous. "Chaos" is a fast tune, rather frantic with a really sticky synth-riff. On the interlude here everything slows down a bit with Atsushi's brutal bass very upfront. Great track! "Siren In The Mysterious Sea" starts up with a sound of piano, before building a more powerful atmosphere with strings, solo-violin and flute. A good track nearly romantic in it's expression. "Delirium" is up tempo again and the title may give you an idea how it sounds. Fast and furious. The album ends with a vocal track and it is as close as we get a ballad here with piano and strings making it very sweet yet powerful. So if keyboards aplenty makes your day Gerard is absolutely worth checking out. Good progressive rock is what they are exponents of. If I'm gonna compare them to any other band, it must be Ars Nova or Deja Vu, which are from Japan too. Gerard got at least four albums on their back by now, and I hope we'll hear a lot more from them in the future.

GRAVY TRAIN - "Staircase To The Day" Sequel Records NEMCD (1991)
Originally released: Dawn Records 1974

Fully aware of that "Staircase to the day " is not regarded as Gravy Train's best efforts, it's still a monster from the seventies rock era! And it was my first meeting with the band's music (Thanx Frank). The musical brain behind the band was Norman Barrett, no doubt about that. He wrote most all of the music, took care of most of the guitar-work in a splendid way and what a gifted vocalist he was! A strong moving, very flexible voice that should have been far more known that it is. The album consisted originally of eight tracks (ten here on this cd ), all good, but the killer track here is "Bring My Life On Back To Me", a sad but suggestive song about the horrors of war. In fact one of the best anti-war songs ever written. The title -track "Staircase To The Day" is a long track where Norman shows his enormous vocal-capabilities in full. A slow song with both organ, flute and mellotron, a true beauty which should make every prog-rock lover drool! For us who loves the sound of the flute we get more of it in "The Llast Day" delivered here beautifully by John D. Hughes which also handles much of the keyboard-work here as well together with Pete Solley. But the most progressive track here, if we are to use that expression is, "Busted In Schenectady" with loads of guitars from both Norman and George Lynon, which became a member of the band before this album was recorded. And the wah-wah pedal is used with great effect. Fat slide and roaring bass-playing here too. It sounds to me that Les Williams prefers the sound and power of a Rickenbacker when it comes to bass-guitars. On this cd-release two bonus-tracks has been dug up from the vaults. They are ok, but not much more really. But the original eight tracks here that saw the light of day in '74 on this album, are some of the best rock that was released in the early seventies IMHO (in my humble opinion)!

PATTO - "Patto" Repertoire REP 4446-WP (1994)
Originally released: Vertigo Records 1970

My plans here were to write an article about Patto, but that has been done so well already by one of Norway's best drummers. So there was no need for me trying to exceed that. Check out the web-site of Tore Wildhauer for more detailed information about the band. More info on the net about Patto and Ollie Halsall you'll find by clicking on the names.But I just had to do some writing about the bands releases anyway. Maybe my all-time favorite band together with Gentle Giant! Patto were a musicians musician band. Four very talented guys in one of the most underrated bands in the history of rock. Before Patto were formed, all of them were together in Timebox, playing a very different style compared to Patto. Much more in a straight pop-direction, but good of course. To describe Patto's music is no easy task, but I'll give it a try. It's a kind of seventies guitar-based hard rock with hints of jazz-rock and progressive without fitting in totally in either category. Mike Patto had an incredible voice. Raw, but smooth, very flexible, strong , emotional ........oh shit, I run empty of superlatives here. It must be some kind of irony here when a man with a voice like that years later dies of throat cancer! One of the best guitarists ever walked on this earth was Patto's Peter "Ollie" Halsall. He was known under the name Ollie, always using it when credited. What an incredible guitarist he was, both technically and emotionally. Clive Griffiths and John Halsey was the backbone of Patto playing bass and drums respectively. Both well-skilled musicians on a high level. "The Man" starts out slowly with Clive's warm bass behind Mike's beautiful voice before Ollie and John comes in carefully. Ollie does a beautiful solo on vibraphone before the band increases the power and starts to rock real good. "Hold Me Back" rocks away fine with it's heavy riff and splendid solo-guitar. Ollie goes acoustic on "Time To Die" and shows us he's capable of handling that way expression too. An easy almost sing along track, with qualities that would fit as a single release, but never was. Quite the opposite is "Red Glow" with it's massive guitars and Ollie's jazzy solo, but otherwise a rocking catchy powerful track. Patto had the incredible capability of combine straight rock with jazzy phrasing, which made them really unique. That shows very clearly on "Government Man". The most jazzy track here is "Money Bag" which clocks in for over ten minutes. Ollie really stretches out on the guitar here, sounds like a jam at first but develops into a more structured song when Mike comes in on vocal. "Sittin' Back Easy" rounds of this incredibly good debut album. A more mellow track but with very powerful parts.

PATTO - "Hold Your Fire" Repertoire REP 4360-WP
Originally released: Vertigo Records 1971

Sure was Patto's debut "Patto" good, but "Hold Your Fire" was even better! All those loveable things from the debut was here and more. Both musically and lyrically this album is better than it's predecessor. Incredible, but true. Besides delivering the best guitar-parts in his life here, Ollie plays some great piano on most of the tracks. Expanding the sound and expression. On their debut the whole band was more involved in the song-writing than they were here. Here it's Mike and Ollie who's written the most together except two tracks written by Ollie alone. I guess that's some of the reason for this album having a more homogeneous feel to it. And what a guitar-album it is! Once, one of the editors (I think it was)of the prestige-heavy Guitarist magazine said that there were two guitar-albums that really counts and no record-collection would be complete without. And that was Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" and Patto's "Hold Your Fire". Do I need to say more??!! Well, let me try to convince those of you who still stands like a dweller on the threshold. The title-track which opens the album tells us not to kick those who already lies down. Ollie backs his own guitar with some powerful piano-playing rocking away as his life was depending on it. What an opener! The follower "You, You Point Your Finger" is every bit as good and lyric wise it's a kick in the balls to The Establishment, maybe their strongest lyric ever. And done as a beautiful ballad. "How's Your Father" is another kind of ballad, but with a more jazzy touch. Specially Ollie's solo here have that feel. Ollie starts out with a rocking riff on "See You At The Dance Tonight" and the whole band kicks as so it's hard to sit/stand still here and Ollie explodes in a fast solo towards the end. And the rocking continues in "Give It All Away" given more power with the piano rolling along. It's even harder to sit still here. So just give it up, the denying of being a closet air guitar-player, blow the dust of your old airy Gibson SG 1967 (Ollie's favorite) and play along! You won't need any more physically workout that day, believe me, I've tried it! "Air aid Shelter" is Ollie and John's showcase. A very jazzy tune over seven minutes long with lots of almost straight jazz playing. Ollie's guitar-playing and Mike's vocal, John's energetic rhythm patterns are really playful and exciting here behind Clive's intricate bass-tones. On the steady rollin' "Tell Me Where You've Been" you get tons of Ollie's guitar on top of John's easy pounding beat and Clive's effective bass-figure. "Magic Door" ends the album in a perfect way. A ballad with Mike's emotional vocal and with Ollie on piano and beautiful vibraphone again. I've bragged a lot about this album now, but it's so good it really hurts. I've played it for many years now and will continue playing it to the day I die. So if you're to buy just one of Patto's albums, "Hold Your Fire" is the one to get.........but of course you have to get them all!

PATTO - "Roll'em Smoke'em Put Another Line Out" Edsel Records EDCD 510
Originally released: Island Records 1972

"Roll'em.." was Patto's third and final release while they were active as a band. And for the first time in their career they released a single to promote an album. Both tracks appear on the album so there's no need for other than the die-hard collectors to use money on it. "Roll'em..." is also their most diverse album. More humour and less guitar than before are something you soon notice. In fact there's no guitar at all on the opener "Flat Footed Woman", Ollie plays just piano and organ here. But have no fear, Ollie is a good piano-player and this rocks without any help of the guitar, believe me! "Singing The Blues On Reds" was the A-side on the single they released and is funky and tough with chopping guitar-chords and el-piano. "Mummy" is a perverted tale about incestuous sex, done with a solid dose of humour and is not a song really, just John Halsey presenting a dialogue with the other guys on ridiculous harmonising. Strange enough this track was chosen as the B-side of their single. "Loud Green Song" are the most heavy song Patto ever recorded, so if you missed the guitar antics of Ollie so far on the album, you get it here in full flight. Really heavy chords with a solo at breakneck speed on the border of being troublesome. But outstanding anyway. "Turn Turtle" is really outstanding with it's rolling piano on top of some Hammond chords with excellent harmonising. Again without any guitar. But then again we get loads of guitar in "I Got Rhythm", one of the best tracks on the album and where Mike plays the el-piano and sings in a beautiful relaxed manner. Groovy track, would the hippies said. Ollie takes the lead-vocal on "Peter Abraham" while Mike takes care of the piano here. Without having Mike's colossal voice, Ollie's doing fairly well on the vocals, something he was to develop a bit further when he was to take over the role as guitarist with Tempest when Allan Holdsworth left the band. But first both Allan and Ollie was together in the band and when their live album was recorded. The last track on the album "Cap'n P' And The Attos (Sea Biscuits Parts 1 & 2)" humour, bullshit and not much else. Musically absolutely worthless.

PATTO - "Monkey's Bum" Audio Archives AACD 008 (1995)
Originally recorded: 1973, never before released.

Patto were dropped by Vertigo after their two first albums due to disappointing sales despite ecstatic reviews and critics. And I guess that was the case with Island as well who released their third album. A fourth album named "Monkey's Bum" was recorded before Patto called it a day, but not to be released at that time. The tape of this recorded album was discovered by Audio Archives after many years and finally sees the light of day on this cd. But there are limitations of the source tape, here due to bad keeping I guess. So don't expect top-notch hi-fi sound here, but the music is in the quality that Patto were capable of delivering. In other words, good of course! Containing ten tracks and opens with "My Days Are Numbered" with solid powerful vocal performance from Mike and of course great guitar as usual from Ollie. John Halsey adds some congas here too, together with the drums. And the electric piano comes from Mike's hand here. Electric piano starts up "The Dream I Had Last Night" before the band comes rocking in on this track with a pop-feel to it. And just listen to the incredible backbone of the band consisting of Clive's bass and John's drums. Fantastic! But you get the feel of being cheated here when the track clocks in for less than two minutes! On "Sugar Cube 1967" Ollie delivers some great slide together with a horn section (The cover leaves no information about who's playing the horns on the album) to lift it up. Great track, mellow yet rocking. "I Need You" is a frantic rocker, fast and furious with lots of guitar and a tremendous solo from Ollie. Wow! So it's good when things slows a bit down on "Good Friend" letting us catch our breath again. A beautiful ballad with a long and varied solo, once again from Ollie. The tempo increases again on "Get Up And Do It", a fast bluesy track with tough sax and Clive's mighty bass rolling along. "Sausages" is rocking along fine as well, but with a kind of Beatles pop-feeling to it, still sounding definitively Patto. "Hedyob" starts up as a funky horn-driven track and develops into a more rocking tune after awhile. Needless to say, but Ollie's solo here lifts it up considerably. Clive's bass and Ollie's piano together with horns are the melodic drive in "Pick Up The Phone", the only track without any guitar. "General Custer" finishes this album in a fresh rocking manner. A really worthy end to a great album! Of course the sound could have been better, but it's not that bad, so if you enjoyed the previous albums, you got to have this as well. "Monkey's Bum" is the most straight easy going of all Patto albums and was pointing out the direction for the music in Boxer when that era of Mike and Ollie was to take place.

PATTO - "Sense Of The Absurd" Vertigo 528 696-2 (1995)

"Sense Of The Absurd" is a double-cd, which contains Patto's two first albums "Patto" and "Hold Your Fire". But the clue here are four unreleased tracks which were discovered while listening to the original master tapes! "Hanging Rope" is a nearly 15 minute showcase for the great drumming of John Halsey and the guitar work of Ollie Halsall. They are both very upfront in the mix with Clive Griffiths' bass slightly more distant. Mike Patto sings some in the middle of the track and towards the end. This track is more like a loosely based jam yet controlled. "Beat The Drum" is very percussive with John's drums and Ollie's vibes starting up before Clive's bass joins them after a few seconds. Mike sings here too but not much. And if you listen well, you'll hear a few piano-chords as well, but few! More of Ollie's excellent vibes are at present on "Bad News", but also with his guitar this time. And it's the straightest forward rocking tune of the four bonus tracks added here. The last bonus track here is an alternative version of "Air Raid Shelter". Not that different from the version on the "Hold Your Fire" album, but nice to hear anyway. So for those of you who still haven't got yourself a copy of "Patto" and "Hold Your Fire", grab a copy of this at once! .......That's if you can get it.....The rumour has it that just fifteen-hundred copies were released, but then again this is no verified information.

PAZOP - "Psychillis Of A Lunatic Genius" Musea FGBG 4191.AR (1996)
Originally released:1972/1973 EMI ?

Belgium is not the most famous country in Europe when it comes to music internationally known. But it was the homeland of Pazop. In the early seventies they evolved from several groups into what became Pazop. They were a quintet who didn't have any guitarist in the line-up. Not that usual when it comes to progressive rock. So now you may think that they must sound boring without any guitar, but I assure you they didn't. For the most part there's the energetic violin-playing of Jan Jakub Szczepanski (don't try to expel this when you're drunk, it may seriously damage your tongue!) nicknamed Kuba, and the good keyboard work of Frank Wuyts who's responsible for the melodic drive here. The short instrumental "Le La Loo Loo Le La" opens this cd, a fast track where you get a pretty fair idea what Pazop were capable of. Fiddling frenzy over a piano and moog, exiting and fun. "Harlequin Of Love" follows with Dirk Bogaert playing flute and sings. Lots of counterpoints here with excellent drumming and fat rolling bass and swirling Hammond-organ. Dirk Bogaert is an extremely gifted singer and showcases on "Crying For Disaster's Hand" using nearly the whole register of his voice. You can hear that he's no stranger to jazz when it comes to phrasing. Some playful avant-garde madness shows up in "What Is The Further Purpose", makes me think of Frank Zappa at first, but there's more to it. A touch of Gentle Giant also lies hidden here. Both el-piano and distorted organ pushes the song forward with advanced vocal expression. Dirk Bogaert takes his voice further on "Swaying Fire", almost in an operatic serious classical way. Just great! Jacky Manners shows his skills and power behind the drums on the frantic "Freedom Dance" with Patrick Cogneaux brutal bass together with Kuba's fuzzed violin, Frank's powerful Hammond-organ and Dirk's flute and splendid vocal-arrangements. "In The Army" could easily have been written by Frank Zappa. With it's playful snappy playing and sleazy filthy lines it makes you grin from ear to ear! Well, if you admire bands and artists like Frank Zappa, Gentle Giant, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Flock, here's a cd release you should lend an ear to!

SOLARIS - "Nostradamus - The Book Of Prophecies" Periferic Records BGCD 025 (1999)

Not many bands from Hungary are known to a wider audience. And how many people are aware of the band Solaris? Anyhow they should have been at least as popular as let's say Spock's Beard. Because this is good ladies and gentlemen! "Nostradamus…" are their fifth release so far. I've heard three of those and they are all very good, but this one is their best effort so far. Solaris is mainly an instrumental band, but h ere they've hired four voices with background from opera and classical vocal. Just a few seconds into the cd's opening track "Book Of Prophecies" you get a taste of how this works. It's a long track which runs for over twenty minutes divided into three parts. And it's grandiose symfo/prog-rock suite and contains all the necessaries which recognizes this kind of music. It has beautiful themes knitted together with both passion and power, lots of tempo-changes/counterpoints and it's done by extremely well-skilled musicians. Kollár Attila plays flute (and sings) and he's got a style very different from Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson. But incredible good he is. Drummer Gömör László is something of the best I've heard in drumming for a long time. He is very at present all the time and knows exactly what to do. Brilliant! And the same goes for the man handling the keyboards, Erdész Róbert. He uses mostly modern synths, but are being used in a clever way. He plays the ass of any of those young keyboard hot-shots of today anytime. The mighty guitars of Bogdán Csaba sounds everything from naked and clean to distorted and powerful, howling to whispering and nearly bluesy to aggressive. And of course the bass-playing done by both Kisszabó Gábor and Pocs Tamás are excellent in their expression, from the warm sound of a jazz-bass to the more brutal sound of a Rickenbacker. All this given a clean rich production make this the most played symfo/prog-rock cd in my house last year. There's no point in mentioning the other tracks on the cd, they are all very strong, full of emotion and dynamics......and bloody good!

Never heard about TriPod you say? Neither did me until this releases showed up. After a short glimpse on the cover, it was thrown in the cd-player at once. The cover listed a trio behind the name with unusual line-up sax, bass and drums! Not since the days of good old Back Door have I seen such a line-up. And, wow, was I excited when I pushed the play button??! Is The Pope a catholic??! Do the bear shit in the wood??!
A big Yesss!, I shouted after a few bars into the opener “Jerome’s Delight”. This was really great!! And the comparison with Back Door is absolutely inevitable here. A thunderous bass, wild saxophone and powerful drums got me by the balls.
To go in detail on every track here is almost impossible, it is so much happening all the time. But I’ll try to give you a clue how this great band sounds.
Handling the bass and bass pedals is Clint Bahr, a twelve string which makes him able to vary his tone and playing a lot, and he does believe me! He’s also the main songwriter of the band, but is helped out from the other band members from time to time. And he takes care of all the lead-vocals as well. He’s not God’s gift to mankind when it comes to singing, but he’s okay. Keith Gurland is the man behind both alto and tenor saxophones, flute, clarinet pedals and sings backing vocals as well. The drummer is Steve Romano which plays both acoustic and electronic percussion. Luckily there’s not much of the latter. I prefer the good old drum sound, it’s got much more soul to it if you get the picture.
After the opener “Jerome’s Delight”, which gave me the idiot look on my face, (you do that when your jaw fell down to you chest!) things continues in the same way. “Trip The Light” is full of rhythm breaks and powerful as hell, with a beautiful saxophone theme woven in. More mellow and delicious saxophone, more rhythm breaks and counterpoints you get in “Dance Of The Kabuki”, one of the many great tracks on the album. “Prelude” is exactly that, a wonderful theme played on saxophone and clarinet before the rhythmic and melodic and very powerful “No Diamond Cries” comes next. An absolute killer!! A short (luckily!) silly track follows, with electronic percussion and some noise, and is easy forgettable. “Smoke & Mirrors” is a live studio improvisation and is quite pleasant! A rather chaotic opening sequence on “Conversation Drag” runs in a more structured way as the track rolls by with great percussion work. Nearly popish is “World Of Surprise”, short but with great hooks. “Ghosts” is a short instrumental, calm and beautiful! “Fashion” is nearly brutal in the opening, but as usual with TriPod not much is like it seems at first sight. It develops in to a killer with more than a hint of David Bowie’s song of the same name. But it’s tough as hell! Another goodie! Another live studio improvisation comes in “Fuzz”, exciting but a bit too long for my taste. To end this great album, they’ve chosen a long track called “As The Sun”. And it so good it hurts!! A great track loaded with dynamics and power. This albums winner for sure!!
There’s no doubt that TriPod has, with this album, delivered a strong application for album of the year, at least in my book. All members are rock solid musicians; I only wish that Clint Bahr was a better singer. He’s not bad, but he’s not among the top vocalists either. But never mind, TriPod will not be remembered for their vocal abilites anyhow. So for all you lovers out there of Back Door and more, this is indispensable!! Simple as that, catch it before everybody else comes to your door and brags and claims to have discovered them!!
If you have troubles getting your hands on this masterpiece, try the following address.

My knowledge about Vital Duo is not much to brag about. But what I do know, is that it's a duo consisting of the brothers Jean-Luc and Terry Payssan. And that they were the creative force behind Minimum Vital, one of the best progressive outfits in France from the late eighties to the end of the millenium. All I've heard with Minimum Vital is two tracks on compilation cds from Musea, so it's a little difficult to compare them to Vital Duo on that basis. Vital Duo plays everything themselves. Jean-Luc Payssan plays electric guitar, classical guitar, mandolin, cittern, drums and percussion. Thierry Payssan plays something he calls digital church organ, Hammond-organ, piano, synthesizers and percussion. And they both sings. So how does this sound ? Bloody good in my humble opinion!
The sound and production is excellent! A lot of space and air between the instruments makes it a really great pleasure to listen to. Lots of dynamics here which strenghten this piece of music even more.
I will call this an opus which blends medieval, folk and progressive rock into an excellent musical expression, rather unique in fact! Of course somebody will say that they hear inspirations from a lot of artists and composers here, and that's a fact too, but the overall impression here is extraordinary. Some guitar parts here are not that far from Mike Oldfield with its short, intense vibrato, but there's much more to it than that. And the keyboard-work sometimes makes me think of Rick Van Der Linden (Trace). I'm only saying this so you might get an idea of what this sound llike, not that I mean they are copying their styles in any way. The opus, as I choose to call it, are divided into 14 parts (clocks in for over an hour), but they are well knittet together and beautifully arranged. All parts are very good with one exception, it's the track "X-File" which sounds far too modern for my taste with its danceable beat, but luckily it is over in two minutes and sixteen seconds. I really wonder why they chose to put it in here, it stands out in a very negative way!
There is nearly meaningless to point out tracks to give an accurate description. There are so much great musical happenings here which are so damned good! But if you fancy those earlier mentioned artists, this is absolutely for you! Well-skilled musicians who performs an exciting form of music, well-played and sung. They don't sing that much, but they are excellent in harmonizing creating a choral effect at times. Splendid arrangements in both the musical and vocal departments, with stunning power and dynamics.