HUMAN RACE PARTY

Third work from this Japanese band and third times almost the same old story.

Very nice instrumental parts and awful and totally out of prog style Japanese vocals were the ingredients of their previous albums. On this one, they also forget about the great instrumental parts.

At this time of their career, I really don't understand any longer how is it possible to keep such weak a vocalist? She is absolutely dreadful. From start to finish. She wass ruining all the efforts of the band. And the most unbelievable is that she will stay during the whole career of the band. . How could you achieve this Mrs. Meguni Tokuhisa ? This is a complete mystery for me.

If you except this nightmare (but it is very difficult), the opening number ("Human Race Party") shows some great instrumental passages, somewhat pompous and fully in-line with ELP. Keys have the leading role (as during most of their songs). This will be the only bearable track. But I couldn't find anything worth to write about "The Clock". Same weak vocals but the whole song is sinking in the bottom of my rating scale. Almost nine boring minutes.

"Midnight Dreamer" is another joke for most of it. Part of the chorus is "sung" in English but I can't even tell if more than these two words are in English or in Japanese. The musical part falls totally apart. Directionless, pure improvisation at times. Useless.

This album is frankly their poorest one so far. Nothing to be remembered except an awful lot of boring moments. It is their most ELP- ish oriented album. Maybe that they were influenced by some of their Japanese colleagues in developing more into this style.

If ever you have the "chance" to get hold of this album, do me a favour. Just listen to "Twinkle Children" to understand how much I have suffered while doing this review. One rating possible : one star.

A very nice release by this Japanese band, some of you could say 'much too Neo to me', but for me, this records is far more symphonic than Neo Prog besides the sounds too 80's of the keyboards.

A nice piece of music by Teru's Symphonia. And for judging their other albuns Fable On The Seven Pillows from 1991 (I've just listened this two till now) it's a great band. It's a shame people know so well bands like IQ, Arena, Pendragon, Pallas and Marillion and didn't even notice about this guys (judging by the little reviews and notes here in progArchives).

Give Japan a chance, most of you will not regret it!!

When you have a secure contract and manage to set up a stable line-up, life becomes easier.And Teru's Symphonia became part of this rule.Three years between the debut and ''Egg the universe'', but just one between the second and third album , ''Human race party''.1989 was the year of release and Crime was again the supporting label.

This one belongs among the most uneven efforts by the Japanese veterans, containing both weak and masterful moments.For example, the title track is one of the best pieces ever recorded by the band, bombastic, pompous Symphonic Rock with beautiful Classical variations/interludes in the style of THE ENID and strong keyboard pyrotechnics of the E.L.P. school, while Megumi's voice is absolutely efficient.The relaxed ''The clock'' is too long for its own good, sounding like a hypnotic GERARD with orchestral synths/sampled strings and melodic guitars, but dynamics is an issue here.With ''Midnight dreamer'' both the energy of the band and Megumi's nice voice are back for a track with definite symphonic colors and a style close to the more familiar GERARD stylings, even the guitars are harder and some jazzy bits are thrown in, pretty fine cut despite some AOR leanings.''In the back of Welfare'' sounds actually more like a poem , the sensitive CAMEL-esque guitar melodies with the atmospheric keyboards will save the day, but again this one is pretty long to be appreciated.''After the party'' is one the most Neo Prog-gy tracks of the album with theatrical leanings and some cheesy, almost childish vocals in the process, the music is mostly good, swirling around fairytale passages and grandiose Symphonic Rock with pronounced synth parts.On the other hand ''Twinkle children'' sounds the most dramatic piece in here with a melancholic vocal performance and depressive/atmospheric piano themes towards a very pompous second part with full-blown orchestral atmospheres and cinematic melodies, great piece.

Had the band followed the style of the opening and closing tracks, we would be talking about a Japanese Prog masterpiece.At the form it was released, ''Human race party'' remains a pretty nice effort along the attempts on Symphonic Rock during the 80's.Anyway, ''Twinkle children'' and the eponymous opener are fantastic enough to make you track this down.Recommended.