EER-MUSIC.com HOME PAGE
Poseidon - Found My Way (Garden of Delights) Cyberhome: http://aural-innovations.com/god/main.html More info: Contact Keith Henderson at henderson.120@osu.edu Poseidon's lone 1975 album is one of the better German symphonic progressive albums I've heard, but taking it out of its national context, it still can't really measure up to the masterpieces of the French, English, or Italian scenes. While certainly not a masterpiece on the level of Halloween, Selling England by the Pound or Forse le Lucciole..., Garden of Delights deserves praise for re-releasing this document of a movement essentially an evolutionary dead end (Grobschnitt, SFF, and Nektar notwithstanding). Poseidon evidently know their strengths, because most of the tracks show off beautiful guitar playing and surprisingly tasteful moog/organ/piano leads. Their major influence, overwhelmingly major at times, seems to be the folkier moments of Yes (i.e. "All Good People" and especially the "Nous Sommes Du Soleil" portions of Tales From Topographic Oceans). I also hear similarities to the acoustic portions of the aforementioned Pulsar album. However, Poseidon are a bit more poppy and hook-oriented than those bands. The band itself is a rather standard five-piece, consisting of keyboard player Tony Mahl, drummer Rudi Metzler, and three guys, Horst Meinzer, Theo Metzler, and Wilfried Sahm, who split the electric guitar / acoustic guitar / bass duties. Curiously, no one seems to be listed as vocalist, though it seems like its the same guy singing on all of the album's tracks. This may be a purposeful omission, because the vocalist seems to be the weak link in! the band. His voice is often weak and strained, suggesting that maybe he was just singing until the band found a dedicated vocalist. However, sometimes the roughness of his voice adds to the folky charm of the music, so some listeners may not mind at all. Fans of progressive rock will mostly dig this album for tracks like "Swimming Against the Stream" and "Found My Way," which features nice acoustic guitar playing that slowly builds to a barrage of Yes-worthy Moog and electric guitar riffs. Some tracks like "How Heavy the Days" and "Cold Farmer" compare more favorably with 70's American album-rock, but even here Poseidon a few progressive twists and turns. Tellingly, the album's bonus tracks consist mainly of cover's of sounds like "Crossroads," John Barleycorn Must Die," "White Room," and The Nice's version of "America." As you can probably tell, Found My Way isn't an album everyone absolutely has to purchase. But it is a darn good album, and will surely please fans of Yes and international sympho fans, as well as those interested in the evolution of German prog-rock in the 70's. Kudos again to Garden of Delights. - Adam Murphree
GO BACK
RETURN TO:
To purchase this recording and get more info, soundclips, etc.
CLICK ON ARTIST'S NAME ABOVE
OR . . .
Please visit my BUY IT E.E.R. NOW INDEX PAGE
OR...
EER and AMAZON.com QUIK-LINKs
buyer's guide to recommended music.
OR ...
go to my LINKS page and find the vendors' section.
Happy hunting!
