INCREASE

Probably frustrated by their jazzier leanings, Peter Föller jumped ship after the excellent BACKDOOR POSSIBILITIES. Ex-Message bassist Horst Stachelhaus replaced him, bringing drummer Manfred von Bohr. This left Noske free to front the band, and to stretch out on his ever growing array of orchestral and Latin percussion instruments.

Unfortunately, this is also where the band started to lose their way musically. "We All Thought We Knew You" is fairly uninvolving funk-jazz, but even it doesn't prepare you for the all-out disco of "Get Up!" (which some have suggested was recorded as a joke. I only pray they're right!) There's also ho-hum balladry ("Fight For You", "Until The Night") and the fairly ludicrous "Skate-Board Sue" to contend with.

That's not to say the entire album's a bomb. The organ-based "Domino's Hammock" offers a smidgen of their early hard-rock intensity, and the lengthy "Seems My Bike's Riding Me" is the album's strongest prog-rock moment. But it's definitely less than we know the band are capable of.