KORAI ÖRÖM (1996)

From one of the most active country from the former Eastern Block, Hungary, comes this space rock band that made one stunning debut album, Korai Öröm. While the group is not overtly original in itself, strongly resembling Ozric Tentacles and others in that style, I must say that this debut album has remained one of my fave from the genre. One of the weird things is that this album has 8 tracks, but nowhere on the album is there a track listing. Not that it matters that much how they named those tracks or how long they are, as the album flows from beginning to end and can make one tremendous choice for dancing music at a party, should he one day get to that extreme.

Starting out from a typical OT album, the album diverges into a slightly different twist by the forth track: as we are just getting to it, we find a highly unusual instrument in prog music: the didgeridoo. And this is not just a fluke appearance as after that first fast-paced fourth track, the album suddenly dies over to pick up again on a tribal drums where the didgs make their comeback. The album picks up again a bit more conventionally hovering between Ozric and the more the smoother-gliding Gong of the You period. The didgeridoos do make the occasional/frequent comeback but their use always remain subtle and by no way are they in case abusively or over-used. The last part of the album explores many sides of world music especially Indian. A very successful album, indeed.

Although I have never seen them live, everything indicates that although quite numerous in the band, their concerts are quite a show from the picture I see in the booklet. Even outside the unusual didgeridoos, Korai Öröm's debut is highly recommended to all progheads into Ozric-like space-rock and this is the type of album that actually would make a perfect introduction for the whole genre. Be careful, though: I've only heard one other album from them and it sounds nothing like this one, not even reaching its knee height. But I will not judge of the rest of Korai Öröm's discography that lightly. Warmly recommended in that genre.