THOUGHTS

Zyma was a strange german '70s band. Strange, because their music has little in common with the rest of german prog/krautrock bands of that era. Zyma sound similar to Caterbury bands, their prog elements remind of classic british prog and their distinctive sound also includes jazz influences which are dominating their songs, especially the longerst ones.

Their debut, released in 1978, is a really impressive album. The songs are very good, and quite variant in style. From the first notes of the opening title track till the end of "Tango Enough" Zyma explore various musical styles and I think that they are quite successful. The combination of male and female vocals is nothing original, especially in (prog) folk bands, but it sounds like a Zyma thing, rather than a copy of anything else. The voices of Hirt and (especially) Pfau are nothing special (not bad at all though) and the lyrics refer mostly to social themes.

Technically, Zyma are really good and this allows them to change their style from prog-folk (:Thoughts"), to prog jazz-rock ("Businessman"), more experimental and complex ("One Way Street"), typical prog rock ("Wasting Time"), blues prog ("Law Like Love") and a soft (but always prog) ending ("Tango Enough"). Among these seven songs, my favorite are "Thoughts" and "Wasting Time". The latter is a surprise, sounding like a more jazzy Yes with violin.

Recommended to all fans of british progressive jazz-rock.