LIVE 1975

Gentlemen, start your mellotrons! Hands down, SFF's Live 1975 is the most mellotron-drenched album on the planet. Really! Nothing even comes close! And the music's great, too! All complex instrumentals comfortably in the symphonic prog ballpark. Just a couple of the themes have showed up on SFF's studio albums, otherwise this album is quite unique to this German trio's already impressive mid '70s output.

Often, we get to experience the wonder of two 'trons duking it out at once which would certainly lead to pure mellotron manna for those whose tastes lean in that direction - I'm certainly one!

The fidelity of the disc, however, is a little shy of perfect - it's thankfully no "Earthbound" but also not quite "USA" either. However, the dazzling performance more than makes up for its few sonic imperfections. Reportedly, this album is a heavily edited version of the not-quite-official Live in Papenburg album - would certainly be nice to hear the unedited performance, but until then, Live 1975 more than fills the bill.