POWER AND THE PASSION

At "Power & Passion" we have pure ELOY style, a totally own prog language with its transcendental mood using Hammond-church-"heavy German" organ, from "infinity" mellotron and "ghost" synth sound. At this album no Floyd influence, the mood is more to Gabriel Genesis or sympho prog, but what is more relevant is that I can´t make comparisions, only Eloy comes to my mind (side 1 of "inside"), humm maybe I can compare a bit with the 21 minutes track by hungarian OMEGA "suite" from German Bacillus label vinyl "200 years after last war" from 1974.

My knowledge with ELOY (and most prog bands) was made in "double blind" test. Yes, I mean, when I had 16 y.o. I was ELDO POP fan - a 70's prog air play radio in Rio de Janeiro - but the station didn't told what they were playing!! So most of my favorite songs I didn't had any idea which band was. This for one side is wonderful to get non biased taste. I just loved, for example, without knowing which band was that (!!) : ELOY "power & passion", CAMEL "snow goose", UTOPIA "s/t" (they played entirely); side 1 of NEKTAR "Recycled" MOSEO ROSEMBACH, SATIN WHALE "desert places"; 3 tracks by SYMPHONIC SLAM, DRUID "toward the sun", BANCO "s/t from 1975" ESPERANTO "last tango"; "Pentagruel Nativity" by GG; "aeternum" by FORMULA 3; "Night on bald mountain" by FIRE BALLET, "progression" by TRACE, "OM mani padme hum" by MANDALABAND. I discovered most of these lesser known names in 1978. At the ELDO POP time, I only knew by name and record, Triumvirat, Yes, ELP, PFM, Pink Floyd, Focus, Kansas, Genesis and other famous.

In "power & passion" (and others) case, an older friend presented me the album band after ELDO POP end in 1978. So I don't know if I'm biased to think in this ELOY output as a classic, it was the 16 y o boy taste who just loved the music without knowing it was Eloy. OK, "Dawn" (this album had no tracks chosen to play in ELDO POP) has better reputation in P A than "P&P", it uses orchestra and is not so keyboards oriented, Manfred Wyerzock created a sci fiction atmosphere, probably the reason why I like more "P&P", still nowadays after more than 30 years knowing both. On the other hand, this preference can demonstrate how an emotional old memory link can be stronger than nom biased sense..."P&P" was re-released as remastered CD in year 2000 in Brazil but the liner notes are only in German language, I'd like to know what's written there (?).

"Dawn" has different line up and mood, the music is more elaborated than in "P&P" but is more linear (variations on the same theme) and less captivating. I knew "Dawn" after ELDO POP end and I guess I like more its side 2 maybe I give it 4 stars."P&P" (and generally ELOY) is not complex prog, it's just polished produced and beautifully played, many times memorable and highly expressive music with transcedental (space) feel. The surreal dialog between Jeanne, the girl from year 1358, and the time traveler guy (Frank Bornemann as Jamie), the track "mutiny", indeed, I only heard fantastic ideas like that in "P&P" which keeps the merits by itself. To me a classic and essential album of pure prog rock. ELDO POP was not a perfect "hits" selection radio station, for example side one of ELOY "ocean" which is a must didn't play.

When I was 16 yo I wasn't yet a Gentle Giant fan, I began to discover GG later it became gradually my band number one. I'm still a great ELOY fan; curiously the better ELOY compositions are the ones that haven't any Floyd influence, the ones that sounds as pure ELOY.