DICE 1979-1993

While DICE formed in 1974 and cites progressive bands of the day as prime influences, this compilation mostly from their 1980s output is much more a product of its era, and sounds little like what DICE would become as the 1990s came to a close. This is basically 1980s rock with some pop sensibilities, conjuring up some of the more popular artists of the decade with a whiff of continental flavour.

I enjoy this up front style once in a while, and tracks like "Walking in the middle of the night" and "Try to Remember" are certainly pleasant enough upbeat tunes, while the excellent instrumental "Close Your Eyes" combines electronic ambience with programmed percussion quite nicely. The melody of the Buggles-like "Forgive me" later surfaces on the slowed down proggy "The Hope has Died Forever" on the first "Within/Without" recording. "God Bless you Mr Lennon" is an earnest tribute to the Beatle that sounds like something LINDISFARNE would do. Even the track "DICE" holds some interest as a jilted lover's tune. All that said, "Dice 1979-1993" is mostly dispensable except on historic terms, if you want to explore what some of the prog bands of today might have been doing during the between times.

Originating from Guetersloh, Germany, Dice were found in 1974 and led by multi-instrumentalist/singer Christian Nove, while their early line-up included some very important names such as bassist Frank Fischer of Puppenhaus and Release Music Orchestra, keyboardist George Kochbek of Skyline and ES fame and drummer Mickie Stickdorn, a member of Cyklus.A self-titled LP from 1979 and a live album from 1983, today both are collector's items, were the band's opening releases, after which a long hiatus followed.In early-90's Nove moved to Leipzig and reformed Dice as a live band.In 1993 a CD entitled ''Dice 1979-1993'' appeared as a private press, containing material from the band's early albums and recent years.

According to Nove, Dice were initially formed as a pure Progressive Rock group, but this not really obvious listening to this compilation.The first half of the album has nothing to do with the genre, being an incosistent mix of straight Melodic Rock, uninteresting Funk, cliche Blues Rock and pale Synth/Pop Rock with a few good melodies, if you like these styles, but a very flat and often amateur sound, characterized by poor inspiration and a mediocre recording quality.The only interesting cut seems to be the Garage/Psych-influenced ''Away'', which is at least decent.The second part of the album represents more or less moments from the band's first and very rare LP, things become here a bit better but very far from an even average level.Tracks like ''Sunday performance'', '' Every evening has an end'' or ''You caught me hard'' have slight but evident Psych/Kraut Rock influences with accented vocals but also some nice grooves and guitar solos along with the presence of Hammond organ, but the rest of the pieces range from boring to even dreadful, you can find everything in here, from Reggae and Funk to Pop and 80's Rock.Awful and absolutely commercial material of the worst inspiration.

To reinvent Dice was a clever move by Christian Nóvé, because the early years of the group were consumed towards accesible music with very few to zero true offerings to a demanding listener.This compilation holds some interest only for historical reasons and it is very far from even being questionably recommended...1.5 stars.