The 1998
Castle Communications
reissue (ESM 647) of the only album by the progressive band as a quartet runs circles around every other version of this album on CD, including the material in the 1995
Charly Records
box, which was pretty good. Otherwise, the music is a flawed but valiant effort at progressive-type
art rock
, a little too heavily influenced by spaced-out, druggy
psychedelia
and suffering severely from the lack of a real singer in the ranks of the band.
Keith Emerson
's organ and piano flourishes never sounded crisper, and
Davy O'List
's
Hendrix
-ish guitar is in sharp relief as well. Mostly, though, this record still suffers from the fact that the players had virtually no experience in a recording studio, and seem uncomfortable working without an audience in front of them. ~ Bruce Eder