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Pulsar - The Strands Of The Future CD (album) cover

THE STRANDS OF THE FUTURE

Pulsar

 

Symphonic Prog

3.85 | 164 ratings

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apps79
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars The year between ''Pollen'' and the next album ''The Strands of the Future'' was quite intense for Pulsar.The band was really unhappy with the debut's poor promotion and distribution.However some great gigs, especially the ones with Van Der Graaf Generator and Patrick Moraz, earned them full publicity, but even so original bassist Philippe Roman also quit later, struggling to catch up with the hard life of touring.Reduced to a quartet and with Jacques Roman taking over also the bass duities, Pulsar started recording their sophomore effort, which was completed in early 76' at the Aquarius Studios in Geneva, Switzerland, eventually released again on Kingdom Records in September 1976.

''The Strands of the Future'' marks the first attempt by the band to produce a full-blown sidelong epic.So, the 22-min. long eponymous track has its moments, still played under a spacey/symphonic atmosphere, but also lacks coherence with a bit too many pointless interruptions.The GENESIS and PINK FLOYD influences are still apparent, as well as the inspirations from Electronic Music and this composition offers plenty of dramatic instrumental themes with great guitars and spacey synthesizers, while the flutes parts of Roland Richard are just excellent.It is also the only track to feature still some French lyrics, but the long and stretched hypnotic moods here and there hurt its consistency.

The flipside opens with the fantastic but too short symphonic instrumental ''Flight'', where the gears are up, consisting of some nice interplays and a beautiful atmosphere.''Windows'' is just classic PULSAR.Hypnotic Space/Symphonic Rock with strong PINK FLOYD hints, based on atmospheric organs, an extended slow-paced flute solo and decent guitar playing.The closing 10-min. ''Fool's Failure'' has strong resemblances with the eponymous track, except for the English lyrics.Dramatic French Prog with alternation between grandiose Mellotrons and cosmic synthesizers with an overall very dark approach, but still the interesting guitar solos of Gilbert Gandil and the ethereal flute of Roland Richard soften things a bit to create a number of changing instrumental climates.

All these negative facts during this hard year seemed to have an impact on Pulsar's inspiration.Maybe too much went on in just a short time.Even this way this is pretty good Space/Symphonic Rock with some great instrumental ideas here and there and warmly recommended.

apps79 | 3/5 |

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