TARKUS

This album was recorded in 6 days in February 1971 (for more details about ELP`s history, see their official website).The most recent remastering of this album (re-issued again on C.D. in another label, Rhino Records) is so good that it shows some minor mistakes, and maybe the reason of these mistakes is that they recorded it in 6 days. But it is a very good album, with the musical piece "Tarkus" in the original Side One of the L.P. being the best song in this album. As I`m not a keyboard player, I don`t know how the Moog synthesizer sounds of the introduction were made, as the technology for this kind of keyboards was still "primitive" in the early seventies. But with keyboard players like Emerson, Wakeman, Moraz, Banks and others, who were experimenting and creating new sounds with this early synths, Progressive Rock developed a lot in creativity. Anyway, the main keyboards in this album are the Hammond organ and the piano. Emerson plays his Hammond organ with a lot of speed in his fingers. He really never needed a lead guitarist, but Lake plays some guitars in the "Battlefield" section of the song "Tarkus". Palmer is a very good drummer and percussionist. The song "Tarkus" has some instrumental parts and some parts with lyrics. "Jeremy Bender" is an humorous song, simply played with piano, drums and bass. Again, I don`t know how Emerson made his piano sound like a "Saloon Piano from the Old Western Pictures" (are there "special" pianos which sound like that?). "Bitches Crystal" has very good bass parts by Lake with a complicated time signature by Emerson and Palmer. In "The Only Way" Emerson plays a Church Organ, and he also shows his talent in this instrument. This song also has a "jazz section" after the Church organ part, played by the trio."Infinite Space" is the "conclusion" part of the previous song, an instrumental piece where the piano and the drums are the main instruments. "A Time and a place" has an "orchestral" synthesizer arrangement. "Are You Ready Eddy?" is a Rock and Roll piece dedicated to their producer (and also then YES`producer) Eddy Offord.This is one of their best albums.