NATURE'S CLEAR WELL

Another one of these prog bands that released one album, then disappeared. I hear conflicting stories that GALAXY was either a Swiss band or a German band. Regardless, these guys released "Nature's Clear Well" on the small German label called Venus. It received an American release on the Visa label. I actually saw a used cassette of this floating around for a couple of bucks, knowing that these guys were a little-known prog rock band, I snatched the tape. The cassette packaging looks and smells '70s: the cassette and the casing was blue, and the track listing on the back looked like something off an 8-track. Apparently the German version of this album has a totally different cover than the American. It's definately the American version that has the better cover (nice sci-fi artwork). And apparently the track listings are arranged differently from the German version.

Regardless, the music is pretty typical late '70s prog rock, with its share of string synths, Farfisa electric piano, Davoli synthesizer, and even some Mellotron. Comparisons to YES and GENESIS are often thrown at the band, for obvious reasons, as, like many other prog albums from this time, originality wasn't on their side. The title track, without a doubt, is the album's high point. It's also the longest. The lyrics seem to be about urban people who act like they don't know anything out of their urban environment, and how they "long for water, from nature's clear well". A couple of songs seem to have folk undertones, like "I Came From a World" and "Wish I Were Happy". For such a late release, I am really amazed that some of the material lack such maturity. The music on the whole album is quite accessible, but of course still progressive. Nothing original or grounbreaking here, but worth having if you're a diehard prog rock fan like me.

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