King Crimson - In The Wake of Poseidon/Islands

After finishing up the gig at the Fillmore West in 1969 and achieving an underground following with the release of In The Court of the Crimson King, the band headed back to England to work on a follow up to their debut album, but the band themselves was in limbo. Two of the members, Ian McDonald and Michael Giles departed from King Crimson to pursue other work as Greg Lake was about to follow them as he was about to embark on Prog’s very first supergroup with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer. It was up to Robert Fripp to let Greg and Mike stay for one more album and have Mike’s brother Peter come in as session musicians to help out on Crimson’s groundbreaking second album, In The Wake of Poseidon.

Originally released in May 1970, it received critical acclaim. One critic from the Melody Maker wrote, “If Wagner were alive, he’d work with King Crimson.” It’s one of their best albums from that time period and reached the UK charts at number 4. It was their commercial success and almost got them into the mainstream with Poseidon, but they weren’t rock stars, they brought chaos, brute evil force, and destruction as Fripp describes Crimson, “A way of doing things.” Robert brought the fast time changes on the guitar as if he is conducting and composing to let the band know where to go and where to stop.

Pictures of a City which could have been a sequel to 21st Century Schizoid Man, still sounds terrifying and has the same structures with the Schizoid riff and fuzz tone elements that Fripp does on the guitar effect to give it that real gnarly sound and makes the first early beginnings of math rock while the quirky humor fun of fast food on the Jazzy Rock sound of Cat Food still makes your mouth watery to fill your mouth filled with junk of corporate America. Cadence and Cascade still sounds like an acoustic love song melody which could have been the theme song for Love Story starring Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal as we have an extra track of Greg Lake’s guiding vocals on the tune that almost makes it pitch perfect.

The opening Peace – A Beginning still sounds like a disturbing introduction before getting into the sinister gut punching sound while the title track carries the same boundaries of the mellotronic beauty on the 8-minute epic, Epitaph. The three part 13-minute suite, The Devil’s Triangle in which it pays tribute to Gustav Holst’s The Planets, is explosive and dangerous. Almost as if it’s a tribute to the mysterious island, The Bermuda Triangle in where Amelia Earhart might have disappeared to, it must have been recorded for a horror film as the mellotron gives it a dooming score for the composition. And even though this is the only track that Steven Wilson didn’t remix because the multi-tracks for the piece didn’t exist which is no hard feeling towards the Crimson fans, but it has the elements of Stravinsky to it at times there is a moment you can tell that Fripp is almost the great-great-great grandson of Igor as if he’s performing the suite in front of the ballet dancers to dance to it as audiences are scared shitless for the best.

The bonus track for the A-Side of Cat Food, Groon, the 2010 mix which has a Coltrane-sque fusion sound as if Fripp and the band go into Traditional Free Jazz sound with droning rhythm sound on the guitar, fast peddling bass and drums filling the scenery. You could tell that it could have been recorded for the sessions of Giant Steps as if it was recorded in 1970 and have your Jazz Records piling for more fun at the same time. Now we come to one of the most love or loathe albums for the follow up to Lizard, Islands.

Their fourth album, released in 1971, features six bonus tracks as if to make-up where the album left off abruptly on the last 11-minute title track. The album, in which I really got a kick out of for the first time as if they were back into the Jazz scene again with the Coltrane influences in there. Formentera Lady has the elements of disturbing string bass intro, the bossa-nova bass line that Boz Burrell would do, and a Fantasy atmospheric beat that would have the listeners thinking what the hell that was as Mel Collins brings an energetic power on the beat throughout his sax.

The 7-minute epic, Sailor’s Tale, is still a fusion turned into a freaked-out adventure. According to Crimson expert Sid Smith, the piece was finished at 2:00 in the morning for Robert Fripp to go batshit crazy for his guitar to come up with some magnificent experiments to solo on. He’s like Dr. Frankenstein as if he is creating the monster with a lot of extortion and just going at the piece for the last 3-minutes to give the futuristic view on the 22nd century as if the creature is alive and trying to take over the world by his cold dead hands. The Letters starts off as 15th century baroque classical ballad and then it turns into a fierce metallic thunderstorm thanks to Mel Collins homage to VDGG’s David Jackson and John Coltrane as he packs a punch while the erotic sexual raunchy score for Linda Lovelace’s theme for Deep Throat on Ladies of the Road still brings the blues funk element to the table.

The pastoral symphonic beauty of Prelude: Song of the Gulls is very beautiful with the string quartet setting this dreamland sound as if it’s a calm after the first four tracks to give the band a breather while the 12-minute epic, Islands closes the album with a laid-back groove and then ends at the 9-minute mark for a 1-minute silence as we hear chatter from Robert Fripp giving instructions to the quartet and the oboe on what to do next. This is where the bonus track comes into the ball park.

The studio run through of Islands with the oboe prominent is a wonderful mourning beauty and it shows why this piece never made it to the final cut of the 12-minute epic. There’s also the sneak peek of an earlier version of Larks Tongues in Aspic on the speeding composition of A Peacemaking Stint Unrolls as for the remixed version of Ladies on the Road still packs a real punch as if it was recorded this year with an extended ending, new background vocals and a mighty touch to the core that will blow your socks off.

On the DVD, there’s the alternate album, the Routes to Islands which features rehearsals and different mixes that would become almost a mixed opinion for Crimson fans to draw a line in the sand over. The performances at Plymouth and the Zoom-Club would have KC recording a spaghetti western and give the bullets going for them. It’s always a joy to hear these new stereo mixes and how we must give Steven Wilson a pat on the back along with Fripp as well. These albums are a true market in the progressive genre and will influence a new generation to see how real good music was back then. Let’s see what they have up their sleeve for Larks, Starless and the 30th anniversary of Discipline.

BunChakeze - Whose Dream?

During the Summer of this year, I checked out a band online from Reverbnation named Bun Chakeze (Odin of London) and hearing edits and demos of the pieces, I knew this was a band that could have been the next Pink Floyd of the 1980s and would have knocked Marillion off their feet. Whose Dream released digitally on CD and on iTunes, is one of the most magnificent lost albums that should have seen the light at the end of the tunnel, but due to getting the chance to perform in front of a live audience suddenly disappeared as the band broke up. Years later they dugged up the material for the album and instead of releasing the album through a record label, they released it themselves of this year and this is a must have for you to get.

You have a great rhythm section through Colin Tench’s guitar playing that is in the realms of Andy Latimer, Steve Hackett, and David Gilmour while Cliff Deighton plays the drums in the realm of Bill Bruford and Carl Palmer. Gary Derrick has more of a layered bass sound while Joey Lugassy’s vocalization sounds very much like the Peter Gabriel-era of Genesis and the singer from Druid at the same time as well, but it’s a quartet that really gets you going and you have to understand why this band could have been successful in the Prog scene of the ‘80s. This isn’t Neo-Prog, but more Spacey, Symphonic, and sometimes beautiful at the same time.

The short opening instrumental Bun Chakeze, offers a lot of time changes and sonic shredded guitar licks done by Tench and the bass lines almost has a Squire-esque taste to it. It’s very fast, but having a Classical Spanish guitar midsection and something that you could dance to is very powerful that would have been perfect on a Mahavishnu Orchestra album. The title track is a mellower composition with vocals by Lugassy and Tench as they bring a dramatic touch that’s very emotional, yet almost as if they could have written it for the video game Halo 3: ODST years later. Throughout 1-minute and 22-second mark, Colin does a spacey yet spooky atmospheric sound on the keyboards and makes it pitch perfect as if you could almost hear a pin drop throughout the destruction of hell in the story line of the nightmare in the song.

Then he does a Floydian sound at the very end of the piece as if he’s paying homage to the space cadets of prog, you could tell that Tench is not pulling any excuses, but paying tribute to the Floyd is a real tribute to them as if they were passing the torch to Odin of London. Walk In Paradise starts off with a droning yet swirling blues rock synth intro and then it goes into crescendo between synth, guitar, and drums as it becomes an adventurous song as the music feels like as if its soaring into the skies of a floating city to a new beginning of a new world as if the person believes that is not a dream, but a real flying horizon in the clouds through his point of view.

Tench goes into some heavy duty throughout the solos on the 6-minute composition. He is the centerpiece on the album along with drummer Delighton as he pays homage to Neil Peart as the two go head-to-head for a brief while as they calm down to give the singer and the bass player to come in the picture for the conclusion of the sci-fi piece. Handful of Rice pays homage to the Theatrical Rock sound of Peter Hammill, Kate Bush, and the early days of Genesis with a hard mythic upbeat turned mysterious crime mini rock opera. And then it turns into a Hispanic percussion jam session and then it goes back into the finale of the piece that gives it a heartfelt ending.

Paying homage to the 1965 action film starring Jimmy Stewart, Flight of the Phoenix is a mystical acoustic ballad. This is Tench’s moment to shine as he does an early reminiscent of Ottmar Liebert for the first two-minutes as the band comes in with an accomplished score that is could have been written for the Animals sessions with more of the darker moments. The modern sound of the 6-minute epic, Midnight Skies, is back to the concept story complex set in the 1850s of new people trying to find peace that features a layered production of a clean and calm rhythm guitar section as the tempo shows some skin.

Long Distance Runner builds up into the neo-progressive movement of the Fish-era of Marillion. Lugassy helps himself with the piece being most impressive as he is the conductor of the band to let them know when they can come in and out, he has the influences of Druid, Gabriel, Waters, and Starcastle at his best moments. As Tench helps him like as if they were brothers working together instead of fighting and bickering with one another, but on the 7-minute futuristic rocker on The Deal, it is almost as if it is a sequel to Welcome To The Machine as the chugging that he does, you can tell he’s doing an homage of Run Like Hell or written during the sessions of Pink Floyd’s rock opera, The Wall.

The closing finale of Bun Chakeze (Reprise Instrumental) is almost an Entr’acte for the second set as the band go through each number to give it all their strength and see how their blood energy is pumping and they give their best. For me, this their achievement and the album could have knocked the neo-prog world by storm, and to me, this here is the album that could have been the highlight at their peek, we give them a toast to their lost masterpiece.

Cave of Clear Light: The Pye and Dawn Records Underground Trip 1967-1975 A Cornucopia of Psychedelic and Progressive Sounds

This 3-CD set pays tribute to the golden-era of the Pye and Dawn label from 1967 to 1975. The people at Esoteric Recordings have scored a huge compilation as they dig through the hidden gems on the bands and artists that some had achieved success while the others were unearthed that you are about to embark on. Mark Powell, the chief of the indie-prog label, is more like a music history teacher to give you a lecture on his sleeve notes about the history of the label and how the underground scene was as he says, “Much of the music is diverse, some of it truly outstanding and some perhaps naïve in its youthful innocence, but there is much to savour.” The compilation, Cave of Clear Light: The Pye and Dawn Records Underground Trip 1967-1975: A Cornucopia of Psychedelic and Progressive Sounds is one of the most amazing tribute to the scenery and the label as well as if it’s a magic carpet ride to hear what the music was like during that time period in the underground scene in England.

Disc One starts off with The Bystanders Egyptian-psych rock sound of the West Coast sound in the realm of the Monkees with the title track. This song has psychedelic pop flavor sound until they changed their sound and became the answer to the Grateful Dead simply known as Man. Now we have to admit, we have a love/hate relationship of English folk singer, Donovan who was known as England’s answer to Bob Dylan, but with the psych-folk rocker and the acid rock sound which featured session guitarist Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame on Season of the Witch and Hurdy Gurdy Man, he remains a part of the Pye scene and a huge influential part in the Beatles career.

Before the second mark of Deep Purple, there was Episode Six with their mind-blowing cover of Tim Rose’s Morning Dew. It’s very interesting to hear Ian Gillan and Roger Glover in this band that sounds very much in the realm of The Misunderstood meets a pop sound of The Attack. Status Quo, before they went hard rock, they were probably known for their psychedelic garage sound thanks to their hit, Pictures of Matchstick Men, but two of their tracks on Disc One and Three on the eerie single Paradise Flat, the quirky Mister Mind Detector, and the Acoustic Folk Middle-Eastern blues rocker Gerdundula shows that they were very different from their heavy metal sound in the 1970s. Neo Maya which was an alias for Episode Six had this bizarre yet percussion futuristic spoken-word sound of UFO that is disturbing yet twisted composition.

After the ashes of The Bystanders, the band became Man and the post-apocalyptic orchestral rocker, The Future Hides it’s Face off on their first album, Revelation in 1969 sees the band going for more of a Doors meets The Stones Satanic Majesties Request-era while Blonde on Blonde come in with their hard rocking sound on Ride With Captain Max and the folk-Indian tribe of All Day, All Night from the Contrasts album that sees the band having some potential before moving to sign with another indie label, Ember with release their follow up album with Contrasts to one of the most magnificent underrated masterpieces, Rebirth.

This took me by surprise about this unknown band, Velvett Fogg. The band featured Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi as he gives a psychedelic dooming guitar sound on this pounding yet disturbing piece on Yellow Cave Woman. The band sadly called it a day after the album tanked and the song itself remains ahead of its time and shows how the band could have been bigger than the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Woody Kern’s jazzy calmful flute sound of Tell You I’m Gone has the ingredients of Jethro Tull and carrying the Blues time change from soft to walking fast beat as for The Mooche goes early metal but with a psychedelic flavor with a pound-cake sound on the solos between guitar and bass and roaring vocals that is in the realm of Blossom Toes on their hit single, Hot Smoke & Sassafras.

Pesky Gee! Before becoming the doom prog band, Black Widow, pays tribute to Family and Roger Chapman with their explosive cover of the daring Peace of Mind. South African folk singer-songwriter John Kongos brings politics and power on Confusions about a Goldfish while the psych fuzz-tone jam session for Man to go full throttle on the 8-minute punch in the stomach feel on It Is As It Must Be. Fire featuring Dave Lambert brings a children’s story-line to a glorious psych-nugget classic on Flies Like A Bird and Tell You A Story from the concept album, The Magic Shoemaker. Then we come to Judy Dyble’s emotional yet heartfelt vocals while the mourning piano follows her vocals with Trader Horne on Velvet To Atone.

Disc Two is where we get into the beginning of the long suites. Starting the second disc off is Titus Groan’s 11-minute jazz rock freak out exercise of Hall of Bright Carvings which is one of the best centerpieces on the compilation. It has a lot of the ingredients of Psych, Free Jazz sax solos, and swirling guitar solos with a lot of the features for a prominent attribution. Atlantic Bridge’s homage to the Bebop Jazz mixed in with Soul Fusion thanks to the electric keyboard solo done by Mike McNaught and Jim Phillips cool flute solo while Darryl Runswick’s bass line and Mike Travis tribute to Elvin Jones of John Coltrane fame bring thunder to the glorious instrumental beauty of Hillary Dixon which was the B-Side to I Can’t Lie To You.

The reformed Comus (named after a poem by John Milton) bring a swinging axe to create a disturbance with the rape-in-the-woods song that makes it a perfect horror story that would have the camp kids scare shitless with the 7-minute acid folk rumble, Song To Comus. Familiar with the one-hit wonder quirky number In The Summertime? Well Mungo Jerry is going hard rock on our asses with his reindition of the garage rock attitude on Muddy Waters I Just Wanna Make Love to You. Former member of Them, Jackie McAuley brings a dosage again of Jazz and 15th century classical music to an unbelievable unearthed gem. Even though the album failed to sell because of his refusal to perform it live, Cameramen: Wilson and Holmes is very interesting, you have again the 15th century harpischord intro and then transformed into a jazz-free-for-all section while headed back to the finale with the harpischord that makes it a great ending.

Pluto was in the realm of the hard rock energy sound as Road To Glory is raw and straight-forward while Quiet World which feature future virtuoso of tapping guitarist Steve Hackett of Genesis fame of the band’s concept album, The Road. Now Body to the Mind, doesn’t feature any of the tapping styles, but you can get the picture of him moving away from the psych-pop sound into where he was as he begin to embark with Genesis that would give him creative freedom. Trifle’s homage to Manfred Mann’s Chapter Three on One Way Glass has more of the psych-pop flavor rather than the Jazz Rock sound, but it’s very fun and exciting to hear their cover of MM’s version. Now we get to Mike Cooper. This guy you might have mixed opinions on. On the 7-minute Pharaoh’s March, the first 4-minutes is his homage to Edgard Varese with screeching sax solos as if he’s VDGG’s David Jackson and then the country-western slide guitar sound comes in for a few minutes and then back into the Avant-Garde Sax finale that well let’s say might want you to be in Christian Vander’s views of Kobaia with Magma.

Soul-Prog band, Demon Fuzz, who are best known for their only debut album Afreaka!, their cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins I Put A Spell On You, is very explosive while Status Quo comes back into the realm of heavy metal again with the 7-minute fox on the run track on Someone’s Learning. Atomic Rooster’s proto prog-metal sound thanks to Vincent Crane’s dooming organ sound, brings the roots of symphonic metal sound to close the second disc off with a bang on the suicidal Time Take My Life. The final and third disc begins with Paul Brett’s Sage Folk Rock sound with the psych-folk rock homage to a painting of 3D Mona Lisa and the roaring nugget of a drug dealer with Custom Angel Man. The shortest track is The Trio’s Billy The Kid. It’s a freaky avant-garde jazz tribute to Edgard Varese again with whoops, droning sound, and drums going haywire. Like Demon Fuzz, Noir was another progressive band featuring black musicians. Their touching yet emotional ballad of Hard Labour, is a tribute to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. This is another centerpiece that completely blew me away and hopefully will see the light at the end of the tunnel for a reissue next year in 2011.

Heron bring the British Folk sound to the English countryside. While they had a huge following in the underground circuit as if they could have been the answer to Seals and Crofts, Yellow Roses could have been a FM single on the radio from their self-titled debut album in 1970. Atomic Rooster is back again this time with vengeance with their re-work of Friday The 13th this time with a fast-mode with guitar solo and the bass line coming into the picture on Save Me. Then we get into Icarus as if Captain Beefheart had joined the Edgar Broughton Band. The band recorded a concept album of Marvel Comic Book super heroes in which they got approval from Stan “The Man” Lee to write lyrics about their childhood heroes. A perfect example is Fantastic Four is very bluesy and raunchy that you begin to wonder “How the hell did they do that?”

Then we get into the Blues shuffle rocker of Scotland’s Writing on the Wall who are known for their debut album, The Power of the Picts. They manage to release a party-like rock single with Man of Renown which was the A-side of Buffalo and this was the only single they released and tanked before the band decided to call it a day. It’s a shame it never saw the light on the charts, but it is one hell of a boogie-woogie kick-ass number. After leaving the swirling Vertigo Label for only two albums, Gravy Train went on to do one last final album for Dawn with the title track, Staircase to the Day, the 7-minute epic is in the realm of Fantasy and Tolkiensque-Rock. The album received well from the music press and a beautiful cover done by Yes’ Roger Dean, the music is strong, mellotron bliss, and classical prog folk as you can get while having Yes a run for their own money.

Jonesy, which could have been the next King Crimson with their dark, hidden passages come up with the funk and eerie passages by the help of the mellotron on the A-side for the criminal on the run of Ricochet while the closer of the 8-minute stop-and-go of the futuristic scenery of hell with No Alternative. The classical unearthed ballad Can’t Find a Reason by Vincent Crane & Chris Farlowe, which sounds like a concept piece that was left off the album for time restraints, it has this gentle orchestra and piano only. It sounds interesting that two members of Atomic Rooster to use, but it’s has a gospel feel that will blow you away.

Irish Symphonic Progster’s Fruupp come in with a bang with the 6-minute rumble turned a jazz orchestral dance rocker on Decision. Singer-Songwriter David McWilliams, who had a hit single in the Pirate Radio station charts of The Days of Pearly Spencer, brings a majestic 15th century yet explosive touch on Lord Offaly. It starts off with an Acid Folk arrangement at first, but then it becomes a dynamic rumble in the midsection and at the very end where it calms down for him to sing about the rise and fall of the knight and offaly himself. Another group from the South of Wales is Quicksand. The track, Flying, from the album, Home Is Where I Belong, carries in the realm of Man’s psychedelic power of the first two albums.

Even though it’s sounds strange, but it’s one amazing track with voices singing through a leslie speaker, wah-wah rhythm guitar, and a dynamic drum section that fills the eerie void with a mind-blowing psych freak out. Now, we’ve come to Stray, which I’m definitely getting into thanks to Iron Maiden’s homage one of their cover of their favorite track, All of Your Mind, well now we are getting into the lavish and rising beauty of the break through success with the release of the title-track, Stand Up and Be Continued. It has this almost sometimes Broadway meets Symphonic Rock sound, but dare I must say this was the only album they released through the Dawn label and it really gets your blood flowing.

Esoteric Recordings made one hell of a package and created a unique box set that pays a tribute to the Pye and Dawn label as picking the tracks that would fit the box set and see how the listener would appreciate this from start to finish. What is really interesting as I’ve mentioned before is that Esoteric is the Criterion Collection of Unearthed gems of ‘70s Progressive Music. And let me say this is one compilation that you need to get for Christmas. Let’s hope what the New Year will bring for Esoteric as they have more reissues coming out of the woodwork in 2011.

Klaatu - Hope

Of all the bands that came out of the new sound from the beginnings of Progressive Pop in the ‘70s among them were; Supertramp, 10cc, and The Alan Parsons Project to name a few. However, there was one band that deserves to be a part of the genre and that is Canadian trio, Klaatu. The band was a mystery at first since forming in their hometown in 1973. Originally, some people believed that The Beatles were back under an alias name and was recording their comeback album. The group kept this a low profile until the release of their fourth album, Endangered Species to reveal who Klaatu really was.

The band considered Dee Long, John Woloschuk, and Terry Draper. After releasing their debut album 3:47 EST, the band went back into the concept format of story-telling space rock opera that has been considered a fan-favorite among Klaatu fans, Hope. Released on the Daffodil (Canada) and Capitol (US) label in September 1977, it is one of the most underrated masterpieces to come out in the glory days of prog while Punk and Disco was about to emerge from the grave. Hope tells the story about Politzania which is sort of a Nazified version of America, believed that it was a country to be far more better than others and their plans to destroy the planet, Klaatu into a blaze of glory. The only sole survivors in the planet is the lighthouse keeper who keeps a usage of the laser beam to fight for freedom and gives the space travelers a warning about the cosmic void. Their message to all planets around the solar system is simple: Hope.

If you admire concept albums like; Tommy, The Wall, S.F. Sorrow, Quadrophenia, Dark Side of the Moon, and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, this is definitely going to be in your record collection or on your iPod and you need to buy this to admire this magnetic storyline. The album starts off with the quirky space journey in the realm of ELO’s Out of the Blue-era on We’re Off You Know. With its glorious opening and the Brian May guitar sound. The band’s tone is very a baroque symphonic rock sound featuring a Liverpool bass line for the beat and electric sitar that makes the theme sound perfect. Not to mention a reference to the Beatles Here Comes The Sun.

Madman is sort of a Jekyll and Hyde schizophrenic rocker that features a mournful organ/acoustic ballad and then it’s transformed into a hard rock upbeat tempo. It’s very weird, but it has a shattering groove that really takes you back by surprise while the ambient and atmospheric symph electronic touch of Around the Universe in Eighty Days sets the background for the survivor’s travel to the universe with his space machine. You could imagine Supertramp and Tangerine Dream writing this song and creating magic with this eerie explosive amazing journey that the survivors ever dreamed of.

Then we come to the glorious political raw in-your-face orchestral arena rock anthem of Long Live Politzania. In this song, the professor describes on the speakers to the people of Politzania as if it’s 1912 all over again with the gramophone to describe how bad the city is in and why it went to hell in a hand basket. You have the magnificent London Symphony Orchestra who did an amazing job on the album and the production of Terry Brown (Rush producer) creating almost like a Spaghetti Western Prog epic that is dramatic that would make you jump for joy. Disturbing? Weird and Hypnotic? Political Statement? Both of the answers are correct as you can tell the Professor has gone insane.

Then we get to the joyous yet gospel anthem of their city with the lyrics “Politzania, brave, strong and true/Politzania we all love you/We'll smite our foes for we are right, and God is on our side/Politzania, red, white and green/Politzania reigning supreme/Victors in war, champions of peace - onto eternity. We're the Masters of the World.” With the political anthem, you can tell that Klaatu were pushing the envelope and the boundaries in the prog genre as the synth gives that hypnotic yet bombastic finale of the city that is far as the eye can see. The Loneliest of Creatures comes in with the Symphonic Pop sound in the realm of the Night at the Opera-era of Queen with it’s angelic keyboard ballad, emotional vocals, and the background chorus telling the creatures that they are not outsiders and while they believe (the creatures) believe they are outsiders to the world as Politzania is winning and destroying their city once and for all.

Prelude is almost like an Intermission as the curtain comes down while the band gets straight down to business. It’s almost like an Underture between each of the songs that becomes a climatic symphonic dance waltz turned into an eerie yet explosive finale as we meet the lighthouse keeper himself. So Said the Lighthouse Keeper is almost like a requiem for the person who lives in isolation in his house, but what he is doing is to give a message for peace while using the laser beam on the planet Politzania as his message to give us our thoughts and prayers that will help us and not going through the wrong path that he went through.

The prayer is the mournful closing title track, which one of the most beautiful compositions here. In the realm of Supertramp meets Pink Floyd with its melodic ballad as we know how Hodgson could have teamed up with Roger Waters and David Gilmour to create this pray for hope and peace in the universe. You find yourself that you feel empathy for the planet and that’s what the message and the album is about. Peace.