SILVERMOON

Christian Nove decided in the mid 1990s to take the space rock of DICE to the studio after years as a live-only act, and "Silvermoon" is the second harvest of that happy event. DICE music does not take multiple listens to appreciate, but it does take more than one, and it stands up to repeat processing remarkably well given its accessibility. "Silvermoon" provides the blueprint for the subsequent few albums into the new millenium.

The one track that is of instant appeal is the moving "Another Day" and its closely related band jam "Another Instrumental Day". It begins in ambient fashion with Nove reflecting on his neuroses in a disjointed and perhaps deliberately awkward manner, but at 1:35 becomes the DICE anthem, thanks to much soaring and heartfelt vocals, scintillating keyboard accompaniment, and, when required, Thomas Jager's finest guitar leads. All the while it is Nove's vulnerable lyrics and the boundless melody that propel the track into the listener's soul. The decision to reprise instrumentally at the end results in further concretization of the group vision and a focus on the simple joy in the music.

Another big surprise is the opener and title cut which has aspects of the folk song, albeit a spacey one, in that it presents as a sprawling narrative, but unlike many folk songs, provides plenty of engaging arrangements along the way, as well as amplified sections. While musically the song is in line with DICE, the storytelling aspect is somewhat unique in their oeuvre. "The Bird" is the other epic, and is almost entirely instrumental, with a somewhat ELOY styled atmospheric keyboard sound before becoming a further vehicle for Jager's guitars. The lush acoustic guitar backing for much of these leads is a pleasant touch, and the echoes of CAMEL are shimmering just below the surface. I enjoy the DICE model of relaxed extended near-improvisation showcased here, without regard to song structure conventions.

Even if the remaining tracks (excepting the freak-out "Croon", which does have its moments), while competent, are somewhat more conventional and less suffused with conviction and enthusiasm, this moon shines at least at waxing gibbous level, which is bright enough for 4 stars.

In 1998 Dice released the live album ''Space rock live'', which wasn't exactly what the band was producing at the time (talking about the Space Rock term), but it was definitely among their specialties after so many gigs.The following year Christian Nove gave up on bass and focused on the lead vocals of the upcoming album ''Silvermoon'', recruting Dirk Zorn to handle the bass lines.The album was launched via Dice's Scene Records.

''Silvermoon'' unfortunately seems to go nowhere, Dice have added an even more pronounced touch of Prog into their sound and the New Wave influences have more or less dissappeared, the tracks have become longer, but the direction of the album is a matter of discussion.For example the 12-min. title-track follows a Neo Prog vein, melody and lyricism are the basic characteristics of this composition, then suddenly they decided to offer a more German-linked sound with a bit of spaciness and some heavier riffing in the process to flirt with the late-70's ELOY sound, but the talent between the two bands stops in the accented vocal parts, because the music here is pretty simplistic with stretched keyboard abnormalities and slow guitar moves of a pale color.At least ''Another day'' and its instrumental version ''Another instrumental day '' are decent rockers with discreet organ and a memorable groove, despite the average vocals on the vocal edition.On the top of these changes you can even hear some ethnic and bluesy influences, that only hurt the consistency of the album, ''The bird'' is such an example, extremely long piece for what it has to offer.And then comes ''The croon'', Dice deperately need to proove where they come from and this one offers a cosmic, experimental atmosphere with odd guitar sounds, spacious electronics and annoying beats in a Kraut Rock tradition.At the end of the day this one sounds like a mess with so many stylistical changes and no particular direction.

With ''Silvermoon'' Dice appear to take a step closer to Prog Rock, they just didn't do it in a proper way.A couple of rhythmic pieces with an emphatic sound and striking riffs is the best this album has to offer, because otherwise this one sounds like a mediocre collage of different progressive influences.