ELEMENTS

Flame Dream´s second efford came in a time when prog was becoming increasily unfashionable. Still the music on this concept album (about the four elements, like the tile implies) is remarkly symphonic in essence, which I guess, it´s good enough credentials for this swiss band. Even more so if you consider that guitarrist Urs Waldispühl was gone, leaving the sound even more keyboard-oriented than the first, which is not bad at all for Roland Ruckstuht is a brilliant musician. Peter Wolf´s role as wind player was expanded too, and his were much of the parts supposed to be performed by the guitar player in a ´normal´ band.

I´ve always heard of them as a kind of Yes clone group, but I hear nothing like that here, nor in their debut. In fact, early Genesis and Gentle giant are much easily identified as their main influences, at least on Elements. Ok, some Jon Anderson-like vocals can be found here and there, but that´s about it. The extensive use of saxophones also takes them closer to jazz-rock/fusion than anything Yes has ever released. All the songs are quite good in general, even if none is really exceptional. My CD had a fifth track, a very short instrumental track that adds nothing to the original vinyl LP. Production is quite good. Vocals are only average, but they are not that intrusive overall.

While not an essential masterpiece of prog music in any way, it was still valiant and valid work of progressive music in a time so many other acts were giving in.

Final rating: 3.5 stars.